I enjoyed my discussion about the United Kingdom’s pressure on American platforms to remove content. I’ve experienced firsthand calls from government agents asking companies I’ve led to “take a look at” certain material. There is no direct demand to censor, but there is an implied threat: take it down, or risk future punishment. I always listened to the requests, but insisted on my team and I making our own evaluations based on our terms of service and community standards.
Today, we have just a handful of massive platforms with very few alternatives, creating central points of control. I’d like to see many more options so that applied pressure to one or two platforms could not result in broad censorship. More social media competition is important for decentralizing the distribution of opinion and promoting diversity of thought, but it also protects our rights against government overreach and abuse.
Check out my favorite clip:
