In January 2018 Germany passed the NetzDG law which required platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to take down perceived illegal content within 24 hours or seven days, depending on the charge, or risk a fine of €50 million ($60 million) fines. In July 2018 representatives from Facebook, Google and Twitter denied to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary committee that they censor content for political reasons. During the hearing Republican members of Congress criticized the social media companies for politically motivated practices in removing some content, a charge the companies rejected. In April 2018 the European Union issued a series of proposals that would crack down on “online misinformation and fake news.” In June 2018 President Emmanuel Macron of France proposed a law which would give French authorities the power to immediately halt “the publication of information deemed to be false ahead of elections.”
Social media companies tend to be profit driven which greatly hinders their ability to run their business without bias. Advert sales are not monitored strictly enough and this results in certain individuals/companies/sovereign states taking advantage of the system in place to push their own political/social agenda with the use of fake statistics and facts to control the mind set of the populous.
@7WSHGGWRepublican12mos
The governments role should ensure that antitrust laws are not broken and that there is not a monopoly regarding information. I think that the site providing their information should be required to include enough personal information so one can determine if it is biased.
The government should ensure that people who intentionally mislead others are flagged and responded to with factual, non-bias evidence from all sides of the actual story.
The government should only be able to enforce the constitution. Social media companies should not be able to prevent one’s free speech
No, social media platforms should be nationalized to remove the profit motive behind fake news and misinformation.
No, social media does need to be regulated but not by the government, government (when they go against science, numbers, and other data) is the very source of fake news and misinformation anyways.
Social media should be nationalised as a public service
No it embridges on the freedom of press.
Yes because in order to ensure we are getting the correct information the government itself needs to release that information. So some monitoring of what is being said by big political companies would be a little helpful.
No, social media companies are privat and should not be regulated by the government; to an extent.
Yes, but only to the point of the companies being transparent, not regulating actual content
Should be regulated by the company not the government.
They should only be able to regulate government topics.
tough question as have to protect the integrity of private companies; however, certain companies such as Google, Twitter, YT and others have clearly chosen sides in terms of dissemination of news and opinions. Cannot allow such to prevail.
Yes by a bipartisan group
It's very difficult for the government to regulate misinformation and fake news.
Yes, but the government shouldn't be the one to determine what is fake vs real 'news'.
They should be regulated by organizations to be unbiased
No, people can believe what they want to believe in , even if it creates rifts. Government would have too much control on what citizens see.
Unless a social media site is allowing information that is factually incorrect, contains hate speech, or discrimination, the government should stay out of social media sites.
Yes, but this should be conducted by the sites themselves and not the government.
politically yes, other than that no
Yes, if it is causing extreme trouble/misinformation.
Yes, but only in the case of extreme misinformation
No, but the government should be able to file lawsuits against false information as they would for newspapers.
Only if the content may be dangerous
No, its a waste to time
No, social media companies censorship should be regulated to prevent political suppression.
They shouldn’t be strictly regulated but charged for potential damages
No, social media is a form of free speech.
Yes, they should be treated as utilities to a certain extent but the government should have checks and balances with this so they cannot completely control information
No, and the government should end all subsidies and protections on these companies
No, I don't trust the government to regulate news and information of any kind.
Social sites absolutely need to be regulated but it shouldn't be by the government. Complete reform needs to happen with the businesses themselves and a stronger study/look on the implications of continuing to operate as is on our future as individuals and as a country. Current operations is not a tomorrow problem or even a 2024 problem. Its a 2040 problem, 2060 problem.
They should be regulated by an independent, non-partisan group or agency.
Private companies should be doing more to ensure misinformation isn’t being spread
With certain sites. Such as Snapchat, there is a lot of fake news and just people spreading misinformation but the preventing might get out of hand after awhle.
Fact checkers should exist but not regulated by the government. That would give the risk of biases. Fact checkers need to be nonpartisan, independent parties.
As much as I would like for false accusations and fake news/ information to stop spreading, I don't think it's a good idea for the government to do this because they could abuse that power and use it for their own benefit in politics.
No, but they should have a non political fact checking system
230 was meant to keep them from being regulated. Social Media companies aren’t working in good faith as required. They should be held accountable for this. Reform 230
No, but the government should not contribute to fake news and misinformation.
I don't trust the government to regulate it
No, but they should be subjected to law suits.
No. People should do their own research. Social media should not try to influence elections.
No, but social media should not control it either.
No, but they should be regulated to fact check, and remove bots
Social Media is a cancer on society and should be abolished
I think instead they should increase funding into education and social awareness to help the individual gain and verify information.
But, Social Media sites should be held accountable to negligence completely, especially if the user has used the site to promote violence, hate crimes, and acts of terrorism.
The government should work with social media sites by helping develop resources to better prevent the spread of fake and violent extremist content. They should not regulate sites themselves.
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