How to "fix" social media?

[DittoHead]

I don't think Trump's lawsuit is going to do it, and it's a job for the legislature anyway.

The conflict between free speech and the First Amendment arises when these private companies use the First Amendment as both a shield and a sword selectively to censor free speech. The conflict becomes most acute when a small number of private companies are powerful enough to essentially shut down the marketplace of ideas — which the First Amendment was designed to keep open — to certain views.

The argument for allowing some regulation of these companies is strengthened by the fact that they already are subject to regulations that benefit them, namely Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that exempts them from certain liabilities to which other media are subject. They welcome this positive governmental regulation while understandably opposing negative regulation. But being exempted from some government regulation does not, by itself, turn a private institution into a state actor. Major League Baseball has been granted a legislative exemption from antitrust laws, yet it continues to be treated as private for other purposes.

Congress can, of course, ameliorate the problem it caused when it granted tech platforms such broad, unconstitutional exemption from defamation and other liabilities.It could and should limit the exemptions only to media platforms that do not censor lawful speech that they deem offensive. But the Big Tech companies are lobbying hard against any such limitation, and it's unlikely to be enacted.
...
The hard question is whether the proposed remedy — giving the government power over private media companies — is more dangerous than the disease of too much censorship power in the hands of too few unaccountable media oligarchs.

It seems to me that any forum or social media site that censors only unlawful speech quickly devolves into a cespool of advertising, spam, abuse, trolling, porn, and off-topic nonsense. I think the moderation on this forum strikes an acceptable balance, but it obviously requires moderation (censorship!) to keep it from going south.

Are there any proposals out there that strike a good balance and effectively deal with these problems?

[RoadKingLarry]

How to "fix" social media?

Lift off and nuke the site from high orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

[Bogie]

Facebook wasn't all that bad, until around 2016, when they went full freakout woke...
 
I think that one problem is that they picked overall admins/mods from essentially a single demographic. And PAID them.
 
I didn't have a problem with the Bridgeport Mill User Group forum on that system. Maybe once every few weeks, someone would either spam or do something stupid. 7,000 users.

We suddenly had to worry about someone in the machinist-oriented group posting pictures of a cannon or something, because the people overseeing the entire apparatus were largely NOT from our "community."

[lee n. field]

quickly devolves into a cespool of advertising, spam, abuse, trolling, porn, and off-topic nonsense.

Semi-related Facebook question: is anyone else seeing a huge uptick in "sponsored" spam postings in the BookFace.  Stuff that's from local businesses far away from you, local businesses in east Asian countries, and random lazy key presses.

Stuff like these examples:

https://www.facebook.com/Jhl-107788564899146/

https://www.facebook.com/Fctctftftctct-106384991612526/

https://www.facebook.com/Rzatkstore-102750761800668/

https://www.facebook.com/chuck.bridgeland/posts/547287243303605:8

https://www.facebook.com/chuck.bridgeland/posts/547287243303605:4

=AZVlF4ME2WYHAFUO7i_lUiI_wY7lpl6144Ue6gC2GOCHLEDiDSxiaif6jEPLlimVg1QTymuopEoy2yF5o3E1gD0SZi6tn6lCqrO9HDWgtnlw6soAxvefOc5V6vCPWwj8nGE84d_pPsiP50F7ioAToiAr&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R]https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=174616498047031&id=100903905418291&__cft__[0]=AZVlF4ME2WYHAFUO7i_lUiI_wY7lpl6144Ue6gC2GOCHLEDiDSxiaif6jEPLlimVg1QTymuopEoy2yF5o3E1gD0SZi6tn6lCqrO9HDWgtnlw6soAxvefOc5V6vCPWwj8nGE84d_pPsiP50F7ioAToiAr&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

Of course, Bookface doesn't seem to respond to spam reports at all.

[cordex]

Banks get robbed because that's where the money is.  Part of what makes social networks valuable is their size, but that fact also makes them attractive for abuse.

If the goal is to have a popular website populated almost exclusively by user-generated content with no moderation ("Free speech wing of the free speech party" mindset) and also nothing that makes advertisers or users feel uncomfortable ... then I don't think that can possibly exist.  The goals are simply not congruent.

What is there to fix, though?  Social media is accomplishing its goal of making money hand over fist off of selling advertising and user information.  End user experience only matters if it starts impacting their bottom line.

[Pb]

Social media companies want to censor what they don't like, while having zero liability for the content that they don't censor.

If they practice censorship, strip them of liability protection for the material they let be published. 

If they don't censor, then let them keep liability protection.

[Fly320s]

Social media companies want to censor what they don't like, while having zero liability for the content that they don't censor.

If they practice censorship, strip them of liability protection for the material they let be published. 

If they don't censor, then let them keep liability protection.

This.

They can't have it both ways.

[WLJ]

If more people did this and got out and talked to their neighbors and friends it would go a long way in fixing social media. But I'm not holding my breath on it happening anytime soon.

[Bogie]

Ah, but I miss the neighborhood groups... "Be careful - rolling gunfight going north on Grand."

[dogmush]

Social media sells the ability to effect what you think and how you behave.

The censorship is literally the product they are selling.  There is no way to change that without a completely new business model.

[HeroHog]

Ah, but I miss the neighborhood groups... "Be careful - rolling gunfight going north on Grand."

Shreveport, LA has a few area groups. You have to give your legal name and pass a background check to keep any criminals out. Fed from police scanners and eye witness reports. There is a separate group to chat about the events as the main group is all business.

[Bogie]

Just a concept, but there were very few problems until they decided to try to manipulate things. And the more they try to manipulate, the more there is push back.
 
Remember the days of Mafia Wars being the big game on FB? That thing did more for overall community interaction than just about anything.
 
One thing that the left doesn't understand is that one group on the right has been organized electronically for decades. Even before TFL, etc., there was stuff like usenet - and one of the busiest forums there was guns... They cannot stuff that back under the box...

[DittoHead]

If they practice censorship, strip them of liability protection for the material they let be published. 

If they don't censor, then let them keep liability protection.

How would that play out for smaller forums such as this one?

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