Elon Musk makes $43 Billion offer for private buyout of Twitter
IMO, misinformation/disinformation in the media is being treated too lightly. We look at seemingly innocuous post or article in a paper or segment on a news broadcast and say to ourselves "well, it's a lie, but what can you do?". There needs to be REAL accountability for obvious and intentional stories that are untrue or, at the very least, misleading. Suing a multibillionaire for a few hundred million dollars ain't working. And I'm not just talking about Musk. There should be real consequences for putting out false info that leads to putting people in danger. Just the little lie about Haitians eating pets has endangered children and officials in Ohio.
I'm just spitting into the wind here because the justice system has been rigged for a long time and now it's starting to show the fruits of their labors. Friendly judges that are supposed to be bipartisan that aren't, established laws that are being struck down or manipulated, etc. I'm not sure how you fix it, but we better find a way or we'll spiral into pit that other authoritarian countries find themselves in. I don't want to live in Venezuela or Russia or Hungary.
I think part of the problem is that now, the cart is ahead of the horse.
X, FB, Instagram...have gotten so large and with really no controls over content (hiding behind free speech) and so many have gotten used to being able to say anything (even getting positive feedback thru "likes" for really inappropriate comments) and it starts to create this "feedback loop (not unlike in an ecosystem, which social media is kinda like).
when that feedback loop is operating in a detrimental way, it simply continues its decent. Folks will continually push the social norms/acceptability, get more likes and the next person will up the ante to get more likes.
And here we are.
20 years ago folks talked about some of this crap in private. And if there were 10 ppl in a room and 8 didn't agree with the premise, they either said nothing or spoken to the other 2 privately. And that's pretty much where it ended.
Today, if it's controversial enough, it doesn't get suppressed, it actually gets amplified.
And you aren't having to say this in person, to a bunch of people standing around you. It's pretty anonymous and if too far, delete it.
It's a mess. But installing guardrails NOW is going to a heck of an achievement because those same folks who feel liberated to post every dumb thought and get some satisfaction (likes or even getting into arguments) will claim it's free speech infringement.