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Draft of Executive Order on Online Censorship [pdf]

kateklonick.com

171–180 of 220 posts

Re: Draft of Executive Order on Online Censorship [pdf]

#171
post #162

>The draft order would push the Federal Communications Commission to issue rules clarifying the issue, potentially allowing users to sue over takedowns if they were inconsistent with companies’ terms of service, did not provide enough notice or meet other suggested criteria. I find this interesting and I'm not sure where I stand here. On the one hand I'm not happy about an executive order that limits liability for on…

> Would it be akin to compelled speech on the part of the platform

Here's an obvious test: this would also make the operator of a personally hosted blog liable if they moderate/remove comments (or for that matter, spam), if it were construed as "the result of inadequate notice, the product of unreasoned explanation, or having been undertaking without a meaningful opportunity to be heard".

You have no obligation to provide notice, reasoned explanation, or "an opportunity to be heard" to spammers, trolls, or anyone else you feel like moderating on your private blog. You can just nuke their comments from orbit. Anything suggesting otherwise is broken, and would either mean sites can't afford the liability of user-generated content at all, or provide a perverse incentive to stop moderating at all, which was exactly what CDA section 230 was intended to avoid. (The whole point of CDA section 230 was to avoid discouraging sites from providing moderation, because otherwise "nobody would have any incentive to keep the internet civil". Quoting Wikipedia: 'Section 230 has frequently been referred as a key law that has allowed the Internet to flourish, often referred to as "The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet".')

That's leaving aside the "compelled speech" argument, which is an entirely separate reason to consider this unreasonable.

Re: Draft of Executive Order on Online Censorship [pdf]

#172
post #2

If I am to believe the poster, this is a draft of an Executive Order anonymously sent to her. As per: https://twitter.com/klonick/status/1265850206396076033?s=21 The implications are fairly dramatic if this is legitimate and were to be adopted / executed. Specifically it would declare that sites like Twitter and Facebook are subject to the Communications Decency Act by virtue of their editorializing the content vs ac…

[deleted]

Re: Draft of Executive Order on Online Censorship [pdf]

#173
post #2

If I am to believe the poster, this is a draft of an Executive Order anonymously sent to her. As per: https://twitter.com/klonick/status/1265850206396076033?s=21 The implications are fairly dramatic if this is legitimate and were to be adopted / executed. Specifically it would declare that sites like Twitter and Facebook are subject to the Communications Decency Act by virtue of their editorializing the content vs ac…

Akin to banning cigarette advertising, this will free up many millions in the war against misinformation. Would absolve Twitter from any future calls for debunking/censorship. Can't wait to see it enacted.

Re: Draft of Executive Order on Online Censorship [pdf]

#175
post #34

I particularly like the bit about how a provider is found in violation of "good faith" if they act in violation of their own terms of service, OR, if they restrict access to material after insufficient notice, unreasoned explanation, or acting against a user who has not had a "meaningful opportunity to be heard." Not being facetious, I really like it. Everyone should start by mass-complaining to the White House's rep…

Why would you report the ability to hide replies? If someone replies to my tweet with something I don’t like, what’s wrong with me hiding the reply? It’s a lesser end result than blocking someone. I’m not obligated to platform your opinion on my post.

Re: Draft of Executive Order on Online Censorship [pdf]

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t this be a great outcome for twitter? I don’t think they particularly want to be in the role of playing fact checker / censor, but have been forced to do so due to pressure. This seems like it would, practically, tie their hands from continuing, due to the negative consequences, at which point they can legitimately say their hands are tied.

probably not, wouldn't that just alienate the other half of their users that would view that as backing down? it's a good question i hadn't considered though.

Backing down to who? It becomes US law.

Re: Draft of Executive Order on Online Censorship [pdf]

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It would make them legally liable for the content posted on their sites. Exactly as it should be. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and others, now that they're getting into the business of editorializing and dictating the truth as they see it via heavy-handed moderation, should be fully liable for all things posted to their platforms. It should apply to any large platform that makes that shift. It's perfectly fine if the…

Hacker News has active moderation and would be effectively illegal to operate if you made websites that practice moderation legally responsible for any illegal content posted by their users. If you really believe this is the right path to go down you should stop being a hypocrite and delete your HN account since you clearly believe HN has no right to exist in its current form.

HN does not editorialise and haphazardly censor.

Re: Draft of Executive Order on Online Censorship [pdf]

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's not "telling" the courts anything Yes, he is. He is telling the FCC, etc., to issue regulations “clarifying” section 230; regulations clarifying law exist specifically to guide the courts in application, and courts grant such regulations (where properly authorized under statute) great deference, which Trump clearly hopes to benefit from.

The FCC is an executive branch department. So telling the FCC is not telling the courts. The FCC and FTC can make certain moves and it's up to Twitter to sue the Federal Government to contend with them. And then, the courts get to decide on the matter. But until then, let's not pretend 230c is the most well-defined precedent in legal history.

> So telling the FCC is not telling the courts.

“Clarifying” regulation specifically is a message to the courts on interpretation; directing executive agencies to craft clarifying regulation is directing subordinate executive officers to tell the courts.

Re: Draft of Executive Order on Online Censorship [pdf]

#179
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate you trying to explain because I'm genuinely trying to get to the bottom of this. Would you not agree that "deceptive or pretextual actions restricting online content" is broad and would be difficult to prove in court?

Yes - but the order directs the Secretary of Commerce, the NTIA, and the FCC to make some regulations to clarify what exactly that means. I don't think the text in this order, by itself, purports to change how any court is interpreting Section 230, yet - just how executive-branch departments interpret it.

Currently they can amount to the same thing. Courts defer to agency interpretation when the law is ambiguous or open ended.

However there is a scotus case now which might change that.

Re: Draft of Executive Order on Online Censorship [pdf]

#180

I seem to recall we had a court ruling (non-SC) earlier that said officials that use social media can't block other users on there... something about it being a public forum or such. But if we treat it that way, then does that have implications on what people can expect in terms of limits on speech?

Exactly. Since twitter is de facto a public forum where anyone can say what they think, it’s important for free speech they also follow the 1st amendment and have a legal like process to restrict what people can say.
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