The last three episodes of YDHTY have focused entirely on exploring the issue of tech regulation and tech censorship (you can find them here). These conversations revealed the following:
- Both conservatives and liberals are concerned about the role big tech plays in America's political dialogue, but for entirely different reasons. While conservatives claim tech companies are singling out and censoring conservative content on their platforms, liberals feel these platforms' policies around content moderation are too permissive and spread disinformation
- History shows us laws designed to regulate how tech companies moderate content on their platforms have failed to stand up to past court challenges, and any law that could make it to the court would only strengthen the position of the companies that could afford the most lawyers (i.e. - the primary targets of regulation).
- Big tech seems to be a convenient boogeyman in a conversation largely generated over angst around the power and ubiquity of America's largest tech companies, the populism that's arisen in response to shifts in the global economy, and the failure of government to adequately address the root causes of either issue.
To help better tap into public sentiment around this issue, I spoke with Arjun Moorthy of The Factual - a site and daily newsletter that scores news articles based on credibility and partisan bias so readers can focus on the most credible news stories. We discussed two polls The Factual ran on the subject on this episode of YDHTY and how the root of the issue may not be the presence or absence of certain content on the web, but a system where platforms are rewarded for promoting the most outrageous content, and where over a decade of loose monetary policy has made those rewards enormous.
You can listen via the player below, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else your bad self gets your podcasts.
You can learn more about The Factual here: https://www.thefactual.com/