{"id":50181,"date":"2022-12-18T15:25:17","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T23:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=50181"},"modified":"2022-12-18T15:25:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T23:25:17","slug":"everyday-erinyes-349","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2022\/12\/18\/everyday-erinyes-349\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #349"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/strong><\/span>, and Tisiphone<\/span><\/strong>. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\n

Heaven knows we have a Second Amendment problem in the United States. But the magnitude of our Second Amendment problem partly stems from, and also distracts from, the huge First Amendment problem we also have – which we have had for a long time, but which has been made painfully obvious by the rise of the internet and social media.<\/p>\n

To put it bluntly, hate speech leads to violence, and wide availability of guns leads to that violence being gun violence. To paraphrase the reasoning attributed to Karl Popper, a society cannot be a tolerant society if it tolerates intolerance. It’s easy to say – but it’s extremely hard to legislate and regulate. That’s why I was immediately drawn to this article about what regulating social media need to look like.<\/p>\n

Because we cannot afford THIS.<\/a>
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What social media regulation could look like: Think of pipelines, not\u00a0utilities<\/h1>\n
Is the law coming for Twitter, Meta and other social media outlets?
\nnew look casting\/iStock via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Theodore J. Kury<\/a>, University of Florida<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Elon Musk\u2019s takeover of Twitter, and his controversial statements<\/a> and decisions<\/a> as its owner, have fueled a new wave of calls for regulating social media companies<\/a>. Elected officials and policy scholars have argued for years that companies like Twitter and Facebook \u2013 now Meta \u2013 have immense power<\/a> over public discussions and can use that power to elevate some views and suppress others<\/a>. Critics also accuse the companies of failing to protect users\u2019 personal data<\/a> and downplaying harmful impacts<\/a> of using social media.<\/p>\n

As an economist who studies the regulation of utilities<\/a> such as electricity, gas and water, I wonder what that regulation would look like. There are many regulatory models in use around the world, but few seem to fit the realities of social media. However, observing how these models work can provide valuable insights.<\/p>\n