Durov, Musk and other big tech overlords are about to discover the limits to free speech. My column www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/fre...
Elon Musk and his ilk have evaded regulation for far too long. But could the tide finally be turning on irresponsible social media barons?
I enjoyed that. I think the reckoning also might be cross-Atlantic. US free speech protections are very different. Do we really want our “town squares” in the UK and EU controlled from the US, Saudi Arabia or China, as they are currently?
I'm not saying this is wrong, but I wonder what our reaction would have been if the Russian or Chinese government had taken the same action against Telegram. At some point healthy regulation becomes unhealthy censorship or oppression. Where's the line?
I think you're giving Musk too much credit. His free speech philosophy is a sham, and he's perfectly willing to roll over for those governments with real leverage over him (e.g. China and India).
Incitement to violence and genocide is not protected free speech. And I’m not a huge fan of the free speech myth. How many genocides averted by free speech? How many caused by it. Mein Kampf comes to mind.
There is legal precedent when you extrapolate as they are using the same defense of providing a platform that the operators of Napster, Pirate Bay and Silk Road used. That didn't end well for them.