Social media are aflame with accusations and counteraccusations: Liberals have a stranglehold on American news! Conservatives are driving a fascist insurrection! Silicon Valley elites silence the voice of people! Red-staters are book-burning simpletons! For good and for ill, ideas on social media spread like wildfire—especially emotionally charged, half-true ones. The power of online speech puts speech itself at the center of public debate, with rhetoric at a fever pitch.
Were the stakes not so very high, we might all stop for a moment and smile: Flag-burning, free-speech-loving Democrats of yesteryear condemn today’s charged online rhetoric as a danger to American democracy, while law-and-order Republicans charge into the breach to defend free-speech ramparts built by the sweat and blood of 1970s radicals. But this is no time to revel in the irony. The great online speech debate is upon us—flush with substance, compelling arguments all around, and real consequences for American democratic government.
Read Full Article »
