In order to keep the internet free from censorship and remove governments and social media companies from the position to dictate what is appropriate content, here is a new warning that I propose be placed at the gateway of all social media platforms that should be required to click in agreement to before gaining access to the websites or apps. I call this the Self Responsibility requirement.
“WARNING: The data and messages contained in the posts, videos and links that you are accessing using our site may be offensive and can not be confirmed as true and factual and should only be considered as entertainment and not as a news outlet. In general we only remove content that we become aware of that involves or is related to the commission of a legal offense. By using and interacting with this platform you confirm that you will take responsibility for your own feelings and thinking by not engaging in negative behavior as a result of any thing that may seem offensive to you. By using this platform you understand and acknowledge that your interaction with this platform may have negative effects on your mental and physical health, including paranoia, nervousness, addiction, depression, obesity, blindness and other negative symptoms that have yet to be determined. Those who believe that they are being negatively effected by use of this site should seek help from a qualified medical or mental health care professional. For resources who can help you overcome addiction click here. Users of this website and the information contained within understand and agree to allow for the possibility that their interaction with this website may result in the collection, storage and sale of their personal information including, personal pictures, statements, contact lists, emails, messages and may also include random eavesdropping of their conversations and actions in video and audio recordings that may be analyzed and interpretation stored and sold. By Clicking Here you agree and may enter this website (or App).“
Today there is a great debate about what social media companies should do about offensive material and fake news on their platforms and we are dangerously close to allowing these very same businesses to become the new thought police and editors and arbiters of what is moral and not moral in our society. Do you really want big business, government or anyone to take on that role? What is considered offensive to one person may actually be a valid point based on fact. History shows even the most causal observer that relegating the authority of policing thoughts, content and freedom of expression to any group of people can lead to dangerous outcomes such as those experienced by the rise of the Soviet and Nazi empires.
Unfortunately, our efforts to enact laws to curtail our Facebook data from being used as a weapons against us will most likely result in governments and their intelligence agencies being the only ones who can use the tools for Psychological Operations (Psy-Ops). There is valid concerned that no matter what laws are passed in the US or in the EU there will always be governments and intelligence agencies, including those in the US and in the EU that will ultimately be the ONLY ones of have use of our online data to launch campaigns to manipulate our minds and behavior without anyone else being able to offer a counter campaign.
Not having anybody else with the capability of free expression (no matter how negatively it may be perceived) will prevent any chain of manipulation from being broken. Crazy as it sounds, I think it’s bad to have governments be the only arbiters who can decide what information campaigns should be launched against us and for that reason I am not apposed to people having the ability to launch “dis-information” campaigns themselves. To me this vital ability for people to have the right to resist manipulation by government or any other group is so fundamental to the human species that it has been recognized throughout history and encapsulated and memorialized in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which allows for people to say what they like no matter how offense it may appear.
Again, this right of free expression is particularly essential to prevent totalitarian governments from taking control by silencing peoples speech and censoring peoples books using force of law as did happen when the Soviets then the Nazi’s took power. The message of those who were against the Communists of the Soviet Union and against the Nazi’s was prevented from being expressed by force of law. In the the case of the Soviet Union speaking up for the wealthy became an unpopular position that lead to execution because the communist movement was about making people economically equal by force of law. In the case of the Nazi’s the majority of those living in Germany at the time found the arguments in favor of the Jewish population to be offensive to mainstream thought at the time. In retrospect we can easily see the propensity for a majority people to be wrong headed and believe right speaking is offensive. Sadly this scenario is being played out again in our modern society in regards to issues like Pro-Life and illegal immigration where large groups of people are offended and seek to physically harm and use force of law to squelch members of Pro-Life movements and movements to protect the USA from an invasion of illegal foreign migrants. Rather than simply acknowledge and allow both sides to speak their beliefs there are some who are actually calling for the government to step in and require someone to decide what is true and false and enforce “hate speech” rules online.
Often Facebook has been proven to be bias because their arbiters in charge of removing content that may appear offensive to some are removing content that is part of the ideology of an equal number of people who do not find the content offensive. Thus, if any laws are passed I think they should be passed in order to stop FaceBook and YouTube from becoming the thought police themselves and the editors of what is moral and not moral. Instead I propose that laws be created to expressly forbid them from censoring any posts without declaring that they are publishers. The only posts that should be removed should be those that are posted by criminals, or that aid in the breaking of laws or depict actual crimes.
Rather than social media giants such as FaceBook continuing to risk making these kinds of mistakes or worse being appointed by law makers to be forced to make such moral determinations it would seem that it is necessary for the users of the platform to agree as a pre-requisit to using the service that understand and agree that they may be exposed to false and offensive stories and opinions that are not necessarily those of the management of the social media provider and that users must agree that they are capable of handling exposure to offensive material. Considering all of the other concessions that users agree to in order to use such sites, including literally giving up their personal rights to privacy, it should hardly be a stretch to impose some form of personal responsibility upon the users to also have them agree that they should not expect the removal of any content that they find offensive, other than material that is part of depicting a crime scene or otherwise used for criminal purposes.
Users of social media should be required to take responsibility for their own reactions to posts if for no other reason because it is literally impossible for social media platforms to know what may be considered offensive for each and every user. What ever happened to Personal Responsibility?
Rather than require Face Book, YouTube to continue to fail us as they already do by attempting to be the arbiters and editors of the data being posted, I think that simply educating people about the dangers of social media should be far better requirement and would introduce less bias and liability and prevent the need for the creation of any thought police or attempts to decide which posts are offensive or not.
I think that the only logical way to deal with the problem of offensive social media posts and fake news would be to place the responsibility for each persons own feelings and interpretations of social media back in the hands of users of social media websites themselves. In order to foster peace and freedom of expression and to eventually arrive at the truth sooner rather than later it is essential for people to be able to view messages that may sound offensive to themselves and others.
To solve the problem I suggest simply having a box for people to check before they proceed to access social media websites that requires them to acknowledge that they may view offensive material and to agree to a WARNING that plainly and simply makes sure that everyone who agrees to use social media is aware that the platforms are for entertainment only and should not be considered as factual or news worthy and that they may see offensive material.
Furthermore additional warnings should be provided in order to access social media pages because scientists, doctors and health advocacy groups and even social media companies themselves like FaceBook have all acknowledged that there are negative health risks associated with the use of their products. Everyone already publicly acknowledges that information presented social media platforms is not necessary factual and can not be determined to be factual in many cases (in other words they are opinion based or presented as possibilities). Everyone already publicly acknowledges that information on such sites may be intentionally manipulative. The law requires that cigarettes and other products and services that may have known potential health risks must be accompanied with a warning (such as the surgeon General’s warning on Cigarettes).
Instead of making social media and corporations responsible for discerning truth from false hood the best way would be to simply make laws that take social media giants and big corporations out of the drivers seat of editing or restricting content and instead simply require companies like FaceBook and other social media outlets like Google and Youtube put disclaimers and warnings on each and every post or at least at the gateway to accessing their websites that inform those who use the platforms of the potentially false and harmful nature of the material being posted.
“WARNING: The data and messages contained in the posts, videos and links that you are accessing using our site may be offensive and can not be confirmed as true and factual and should only be considered as entertainment and not as a news outlet. In general we only remove content that we become aware of that involves or is related to the commission of a legal offense. By using and interacting with this platform you confirm that you will take responsibility for your own feelings and thinking by not engaging in negative behavior as a result of any thing that may seem offensive to you. By using this platform you understand and acknowledge that your interaction with this platform may have negative effects on your mental and physical health, including paranoia, nervousness, addiction, depression, obesity, blindness and other negative symptoms that have yet to be determined. Those who believe that they are being negatively effected by use of this site should seek help from a qualified medical or mental health care professional. For resources who can help you overcome addiction click here. Users of this website and the information contained within understand and agree to allow for the possibility that their interaction with this website may result in the collection, storage and sale of their personal information including, personal pictures, statements, contact lists, emails, messages and may also include random eavesdropping of their conversations and actions in video and audio recordings that may be analyzed and interpretation stored and sold. By Clicking Here you agree and may enter this website (or App).“
