If we were rewriting the rules of the internet today, it’s not at all clear to me that we’d want private companies to make those decisions by themselves.
Show Notes
After Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election, the social media giant Facebook came under deep scrutiny. Rightly so — much of the interference happened on its platform. Mark Zuckerberg, president, CEO, and founder of Facebook, says the company has spent billions and hired ten’s of thousands of people to deal with security. Still, he doesn’t want Facebook to deal with the problem alone. He told Cass Sunstein, law professor at Harvard, Facebook needs the government’s help when it comes to making decisions about the balance of free expression, safety, privacy, human dignity, and decency online. Sunstein wrote the book #Republic, which examines the link between social media and threats to democracy. (Facebook is an Aspen Ideas Festival underwriter). The views and opinions of the podcast guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Aspen Institute.
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