Milton Friedman on net censorship Archived Message Posted by martinj on March 28, 2021, 1:23 pm well, almost.... An internet that puts truth before freedom will end up with neither. An internet that puts freedom before truth will end up with a great measure of both. At first glance, defending the freedom to propagate falsehoods on the internet might seem juvenile, or reckless. With a little thought, however, it becomes clear that this odd-sounding liberty will be central to protecting democracy in the coming decades. As long as falsehood is freely permitted, the accusation of falsehood cannot be used as a means of supressing truth. As with the aphorism it’s based on, placing freedom before truth might seem to clash with traditional progressive aims. Like equality, truth is a noble goal. However, in both cases, history warns that attempts to enforce these ideals can be deeply counterproductive. Enforced economic levelling has a track record of leaving everyone worse off – not the sort of equality we had in mind. Worse still, programs of supposed equalisation are often little more than revised structures of inequality. Like the pigs on Animal Farm, and their equivalents in the politburo, those framing the meaning of equality have a wearisome tendency to position themselves as more equal than the rest of us. This takes us to the core problem of enforcing truth on the internet: Who decides what is true or not? Until recently this was a non-issue. For three hopeful decades censorship of any form was seen as heresy, an affront to founding principles. The pioneers of the internet recognised a unique and precious opportunity. For the first time since Gutenberg, common folk had a means of sharing ideas and expressing opinions without the sanction of commercial or state publishers, without the permission of the powerful. In the blink of an eye, editorial control has been normalised in the most politically significant arena – social media. As with mass media, this terrible power now lies in the hands of corporate capital. The right to define, identify and suppress ‘falsehood’ has been granted to the faceless mandarins of silicon valley. No surprise, like pigs in other spheres, corporate tech has been quick to assemble a version of truth that favours its own interests. continues at blog Message Thread: Milton Friedman on net censorship - martinj March 28, 2021, 1:23 pm Keynesian Economic Theory as Applied to Private Sector Independent Contracting - Raskolnikov March 28, 2021, 3:43 pm Re: Milton Friedman on net censorship - brooks March 28, 2021, 11:26 pm Re: Milton Friedman on net censorship - martinj March 29, 2021, 9:07 am   Searching