Sydney Morning Herald: 'Threat to democracy is real': MPs call for social media code of conduct
Social media companies would have to sign up to an Australian code of conduct on the way they silence free speech and shut down accounts, under a federal push for greater oversight after Twitter and Facebook suspended posts by US President Donald Trump.
Liberal MPs called for the voluntary code as a practical first step to introduce transparency and accountability to public debate on the online platforms, while raising the prospect of passing new federal laws to mandate the code if necessary.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: These lawmakers know that they could be next.
The Australian government also does not like Twitter's double standard ....
.... Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack has slammed Twitter's move and questioned why the company took down Mr Trump's tweets when it would not remove a Chinese Foreign Ministry tweet last year that showed an Australian soldier holding a knife to a young child's throat.
The problem is what to do. Australian lawmakers are struggling to name a policy solution to a private company, in this case Twitter, and it's control of the content posted on its site.
I say look at what Poland is doing.
Their law outlines the legal consequences should Twitter or any other social media company bans content that is permitted under Polish law ....
.... According to the draft law, the administration of social media websites will not be allowed to delete posts or suspend users’ unless if the content presented as a basis for the decision violates the Polish law.
Should they do that, the user will be given a right to make a complaint to the administration. The social media website can even be sued if the answer is unsatisfactory or the website’s administrators fail to respond to the complaint within 48 hours. (Poland readies law blocking social media from banning users, Euractiv).
The Poles are onto something. Institute a social media code of conduct. If you are banned even though you comply to the country's "code of conduct", you should have the opportunity to go to a court and demand damages.
Poland and Australia are also discussing implementing legal consequences for Google and social media companies should they decide to shadow ban users for content that these tech companies do not favor. IMHO this is something that I pray that they will institute, and that other countries follow suit. This action alone will help to balance out the terrible ideological imbalance that now exists on social media.
2 comments:
This new popular practice of corporate cancellation needs to be stopped. It might be fun and all for the Bay Area nose-ring tech set, but the socialist infants who are doing this outrage are writing checks their bodies can't cash.
Blowback is a term liberals used to love to throw around.
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