The Russian "bot" hysteria and the big social media firms' crackdown on conservative voices are both obvious manipulations intended to build support on both the left and the right for the most significant internet regulatory push since the CDA.
reason.com
graphics.axios.com
The writing is on the wall. It's coming. My guess is, they'll pass this shit in the lame duck congressional session sometime in December, in the dead of night, regardless of what happens in the November elections.
Some highlights:
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 harassment—data that could be used to "inform actions by regulators or Congress."
And—of 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."
Fuck off you dirty Ruskie.
the glorious United States is finally tackling the botnet situation
>The freedoms of speech, religion, and association are "Russian"
>Water is dry
>Up is down
>2+2=5
>to defeat the fascism, we must become the fascism
Russia will be a more free country than us if things keep going this way.
Oy vey -- we wouldn't want the goyim to be "misled," now would we?
The 'Russia' hysteria is ridiculous, but far-right propaganda sites should be pruned.