Posted on 08/06/2018 9:09:48 PM PDT by vannrox
All your base are belong to us. A leaked memo circulating among Senate Democrats contains a host of bonkers authoritarian proposals for regulating digital platforms, purportedly as a way to get tough on Russian bots and fake news. To save American trust in "our institutions, democracy, free press, and markets," it suggests, we need unprecedented and undemocratic government intervention into online press and markets, including "comprehensive (GDPR-like) data protection legislation" of the sort enacted in the E.U.
Titled "Potential Policy Proposals for Regulation of Social Media and Technology Firms," the draft policy paperpenned by Sen. Mark Warner and leaked by an unknown source to Axiosthe paper starts out by noting that Russians have long spread disinformation, including when "the Soviets tried to spread 'fake news' denigrating Martin Luther King" (here he fails to mention that the Americans in charge at the time did the same). But NOW IT'S DIFFERENT, because technology.
"Today's tools seem almost built for Russian disinformation techniques," Warner opines. And the ones to come, he assures us, will be even worse.
Here's how Warner is suggesting we deal:
Mandatory location verification. The paper suggests forcing social media platforms to authenticate and disclose the geographic origin of all user accounts or posts.
Mandatory identity verification: The paper suggests forcing social media and tech platforms to authenticate user identities and only allow "authentic" accounts ("inauthentic accounts not only pose threats to our democratic process...but undermine the integrity of digital markets"), with "failure to appropriately address inauthentic account activity" punishable as "a violation of both SEC disclosure rules and/or Section 5 of the [Federal Trade Commission] Act."
Bot labeling: Warner's paper suggests forcing companies to somehow label bots or be penalized (no word from Warner on how this is remotely feasible)
Define popular tech as "essential facilities." These would be subject to all sorts of heightened rules and controls, says the paper, offering Google Maps as an example of the kinds of apps or platforms that might count. "The law would not mandate that a dominant provider offer the serve for free," writes Warner. "Rather, it would be required to offer it on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms" provided by the government.
Other proposals include more disclosure requirements for online political speech, more spending to counter supposed cybersecurity threats, more funding for the Federal Trade Commission, a requirement that companies' algorithms can be audited by the feds (and this data shared with universities and others), and a requirement of "interoperability between dominant platforms."
The paper also suggests making it a rule that tech platforms above a certain size must turn over internal data and processes to "independent public interest researchers" so they can identify potential "public health/addiction effects, anticompetitive behavior, radicalization," scams, "user propagated misinformation," and harassmentdata that could be used to "inform actions by regulators or Congress."
Andof course these include further revisions to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, recently amended by Congress to exclude protections for prostitution-related content. A revision to Section 230 could provide the ability for users to demand takedowns of certain sorts of content and hold platforms liable if they don't abide, it says, while admitting that "attempting to distinguish between true disinformation and legitimate satire could prove difficult."
"The proposals in the paper are wide ranging and in some cases even politically impossible, and raise almost as many questions as they try to answer," suggested Mathew Ingram, putting it very mildly at the Columbia Journalism Review.
Well, the “Real Russian Secret Service” appears to be the Democrat party
communism is a dem value.
I thought they already did take it over? Can’t steal what you already own. Best thing to do is bring down tech stocks. It’s going to hurt, but destruction of tyranny has a price.
The Founding Fathers would have been pleased with the creation of the Internet. They would be deeply saddened the direction it is headed in terms of what remains of our freedoms.
And Jeff Sessions’ DOJ & Congress Critters are doing nothing to stop this, since they are in on it.
I saw this coming.. this is all bull crap. Theresay is no substance to it. There was no hacking of the dnc by Russia. But the lie is that the bad old Russian post things on the net. Who cares!? You dont have to read anything!! Then they say that to stop them from posting they need to stop YOU!! Unconstitutional!! Must be crushed!!
For all those clamoring for the government to step in and do something about fb, apple, twitter, youtube, et al, censorship:
Hello, We’re from the government and we’re here to help you. And we have a plan for you.
Astounding. Back in the generals would destroy villages in order to save them. Now the Dems want to destroy our rights in order to save them. I’m just sayin’
...and since the GOP-e still uses Rove and his White Board for technical advice, by the time they realize its been taken over, most of us will be dead.
Well, if it is for our own good, then okay.(/S)
Ping.
First, Obama signed ICANN over to the world, so if we want a free social media platform we can simply register it in Tuvalu or Russia. Of course, the gov may want to limit access to international sites to us domestics ... how very Red Chinese of them.
Meanwhile none of the Democrat troll and bots attack RT news
Russian collusion my arse
It is all domestic news that they attack
Seems like someone is planning on taking over the internet. All that is needed is Net Neutrality and all Google, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube employees will be government employees or those organizations so over regulated so as to make little difference. I’m just sayin’
They continue to play the Russian tune for one purpose only.
This is so dangerous and un-American. The democrat party needs to go. Are Americans going to vote for this scum?
By then, hopefully Jim and John will have located a pirate satellite to use. And wed all be using code to communicate. It would be worth watching the lib fascists implode à la Atlas Shrugged.
Russia Russia Russia for months, then because of Russia, become like Russia. Seems to be an agenda here, no?
Wont demand ID for voting
Demand ID for writing on the internet
No ID to prove citizenship
Demand ID for flying
idiots
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