On this edition of Your Call, we’re discussing what it will take to hold Big Tech accountable for the spread of disinformation online. Experts say companies like Facebook and Twitter have enabled far-right extremism and dangerous lies on their platforms for years. It took an insurrection at the Capitol for platforms like them to suspend Donald Trump’s account. According to Zignal Labs, after he was banned, social media platforms saw a 73% drop in election misinformation. What regulations and standards are needed?
Guests:
Dipayan Ghosh, co-director of the Digital Platforms & Democracy Project at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and faculty at Harvard Law School and author of Terms of Disservice: How Silicon Valley Is Destructive by Design
Ramesh Srinivasan, professor at UCLA’s Department of Information Studies, founder of the UCLA Digital Cultures Lab, and author of Beyond the Valley: How Innovators around the World are Overcoming Inequality and Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow
Web Resources:
The Financial Times, Dipayan Ghosh: Taking Trump Down Has Exposed Social Media’s Inherent Contradictions
The Washington Post, Dipayan Ghosh: Blame Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for the mob at the Capitol
The Guardian, Ramesh Srinivasan: Americans need a 'digital bill of rights'. Here's why
AP: Timeline: After years of slow steps, Facebook muzzles Trump
The New York Times, Daisuke Wakabayashi, Karen Weise, Jack Nicas and Mike Isaac: Big Tech Continues Its Surge Ahead of the Rest of the Economy
