Who’s ready to regulate social media?

Tamás Orbán | Issue 5 | Comment, Lobbying, Magazine

From the Archive

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Social media is an obstacle to free speech

The UK’s Online Safety Bill is one the world’s foremost efforts to rein in so-called Big Tech and hold social media platforms accountable for their actions. Much of the discussion has centred on harmful content - and rightly so. But the issue of politicised platforming and no-platforming also needs urgent attention. More specifically – social media outfits are using their power to censor conservative voices in the UK and around the world. When testifying before the US Senate in 2018, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked by Senator Ted Cruz if he considered his site to be a neutral public forum. Many, Cruz said, are “concerned that Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship”. Zuckerberg’s response was nervous: “Our goal is not to engage in political speech.”   If true, then Facebook has failed spectacularly. As, to be fair, most other social media platforms have. Freedom of speech is highly restricted on social media, and the ...

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