Instruction
A recent survey by the PEW Foundation found that made-up information is viewed by Americans to be a more critical issue in American politics than terrorism, illegal immigration, racism, or sexism. (Mitchell, et.al. “Many Americans Say Made-Up Views is a Critical Problem that Needs to be Fixed,” Pew Research Center, June 5, 2019, pp.1-7). One major cause of this disinformation is social media—most notably, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tick-Tok. Both major political parties spent hundreds of millions of dollars advertising on social media during the 2020 presidential election. While some social media platforms have taken small steps to regulate offensive or inaccurate behavior, it is generally viewed by many critics as less than sufficient in a country that has a highly polarized electorate and where political opponents are not viewed as the loyal opposition, but rather as political enemies.
In contrast to advertising in newspapers, television, and radio, there is limited government regulation of social media. This problem is compounded by the fact that most social media platforms have shown an unwillingness to regulate themselves. For example, Facebook refused to take down a video of Speaker Pelosi that had clearly been “doctored” to slow down her speech and make it appear that she was drunk. In short, the “Pelosi video” illustrates the photo editing, combined with the saturation of online rumors, and “doctoring data” can create an environment of disinformation that undermines the presentation of opposing political viewpoints, a central component of a democratic society. (Mervosh, “Distorted Videos of Nancy Pelosi, spread on Facebook and Twitter, Helped by Trump,” November 24, 2019).
One of the primary justifications of the growth of the modern administrative state is based upon a theory of market failure. Under this theory, market regulation is needed in order to protect the public from actual or potential abuses of powers by business organizations. Regulation is justified on the grounds that without accurate product information, consumers cannot make a reasoned choice about whether to purchase a product and thus these businesses need to obtain a license before selling their product to the public.
Government regulation is also justified based on the need to ensure that competitive conditions exist in the marketplace. Government has traditionally accomplished this goal in two ways. The first is by passing antitrust laws is by preventing a firm or a few firms from gaining monopolistic power in the marketplace. The second is based on the precept that if a free market is to work well, consumers need adequate and accurate information to evaluate competing products. These issues are magnified when the information being provided by companies is both inaccurate and mislead. Government has long justified the regulation of commercial advertising to protect the public from private firms engaging in such activities.
Finally, it should be noted that under section 230 of Communications Decency Act of 1966 that social media platforms are largely immune from lawsuits related to the posts by third party users as long as the hosts actively police the content posted on their sites. () While this law has encouraged the development of social media platforms, it has raised questions about whether social media companies can self-regulate. (Barrett, Regulating Social Media: The Fight Over Section 230—and Beyond. Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, September 2020.
Questions to be Addressed.
With this information as background, do you think that disinformation on social media platforms is a serious threat to American democracy? From your perspective how should deal with this matte? Should Congress change Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act thereby allowing private companies more authority in regulating the content of social media? Or should the federal government create a new agency designed specifically to regulate disinformation on social media platforms? What concerns, if any, are raised by government efforts to regulate in social media organizations? If Congress does pass such regulation what effect will this have on an individual’s First Amendment rights of free speech?
Instructions:
Your response to the questions raised in the position paper exercise should be written in an essay format and submitted to me via Saki, as a Word attachment.
All papers must be each student’s individual work product. The papers must be run through Turnitin. Please cite when relying on or paraphrasing another person’s work. Use an appropriate citation style (APA preferred). If needed, put the bibliography at the back of the paper.
Papers are to be typed, double-spaced, and utilize an easy-to-read font-size (Times Roman 12 point preferred). Papers should be approximately four (4) pages in length. Under no circumstance may the paper be longer than five (5) pages. Pages that exceed the five-page limit will not be graded.
In writing your policy position paper, please review the following materials which can be found in the Files Directory Section of Saki.
Swain, J.W. & K.D. Swain. "Essential Preliminary Steps to Effective Writing." Chapter 1 of Effective Writing in the Public Sector. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2014. Pages 3-16. (e-Reserves)
Swain, J.W. & K.D. Swain. "The Mechanics of Writing A Refresher Course on the Basic Rules of English" Chapter 2 in the Effective Writing in the Public Sector (e-Reserves)