A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
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Most Americans don't want to think for themselves. They would rather someone else do that heavy lifting for them.
However, it's important that people have the freedom to reason for themselves and make choices accordingly without some governmental entity mandating a certain thought trajectory. People shouldn't surrender such fundamental human freedoms to their government.
“If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm
Big tech should be doing so, but they already get pressure from advertisers to moderate that away. For the smaller ones like the insane right winger sites, let them spew nonsense, since it sets a dangerous precedent for everyone else if they're not allowed to shit out misinformation and bigotry.
That's where the internet should very much be made free. There's too many cases of legitimate websites that can be shut down through these means. We need to correct misinformation with correct information.
This seems a rather naïve point of view unfortunately.
People are persuaded and misled by misinformation all the time, even relatively smart people. Correct information being available does not mean that people will be able to choose correctly between correct information and misinformation; or, if already misinformed, that they will suddenly realize they've been misled and abandon their false beliefs.
The way to combat it is not to present correct information and pray that people make an informed decision, it's to stem the spread of bad information before it can gain converts. We already do this for some information we deem simply too harmful for society (child porn, terrorism). Given, say, COVID misinformation cost thousands of lives and millions of dollars, I would say it certainly should be added to that list.