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Remember when social media platforms were described as “public squares,” where anybody could say just about anything, as long as it wasn’t unconstitutional or illegal? Well, those days are long over. Just look at what’s happening with the debate over climate change.
Social media cracks down on climate change denial
There are now growing calls to clamp down on the climate change deniers who like to hang out on social media. These are people who deny that climate change is even taking place. Often, they are also the people who spout outrageous conspiracy theories to explain large-scale climate disasters. Anytime a volcano explodes, a hurricane makes landfall, a wildfire blaze consumes an entire region, or weather is hotter (or colder) than normal, there’s sure to be some sort of conspiracy theory to explain why this is happening.
It’s easy to see why some activists now want more to be done to quiet these voices. The Advance Democracy public interest research group, for example, recently did a comprehensive study of the climate change debate on social media, and was appalled by what they found. There were falsehoods, hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and misinformation being spread all over social media. And the pace of all this seems to be intensifying, especially on X (the social platform formerly known as Twitter).
According to this way of thinking, social media platforms should be doing more to fact-check claims and assertions. They should be providing more links to official resources, especially those from trusted entities such as the United Nations. And, yes, they should be ramping up efforts to prohibit misinformation from appearing in the first place.
No, don’t clamp down on climate change naysayers
At some level, this social media crackdown makes a lot of sense. Sometimes perusing a social media feed seems like it’s just making you stupid. If you want to go down a deep rabbit hole, just start doing some social media research related to climate change conspiracy theories.
But do we really need to censor these people, and prevent their views from being heard in the first place? At the same time that these climate change deniers are being silenced, their opponents – the activists trying to stop climate change – are being given carte blanche on social media platforms to spread their views. It almost seems like a small group of people (the Big Tech overlords) have chosen the “right” narrative, and are now forcing everyone else to follow it. If you choose the “wrong” narrative, then you’re deplatformed or shadow banned.
What happens next?
At the end of the day, it all comes down to how you view the big social media platforms. If you view them as “publishers,” then, yes, they have every right to crack down on certain types of content, install more safeguards, and tweak their algorithms to emphasize certain narratives. After all, if they are “publishers,” then they are running a business, and they should be able to take steps to optimize their profits.
But if you view them as more akin to “public squares,” then all of this covert censorship should be a source of concern. Shouldn’t a modern democracy be a “marketplace of ideas,” in which the best ideas win? Surely, the wackiest, craziest, and most ill-formed ideas won’t win, if forced to compete with science, the facts, and rational thinking, right?
It’s a difficult issue, to be sure. But it does seem that we’re living at a time when certain ideas, concepts, and narratives are no longer tolerated. If this trend continues to intensify, it could be dangerous.