Responses to the article "Regulating online speech isn’t the state’s job"

The article regarding regulating online speech is very interesting and provides a glimpse of the challenges in trying to balance the basic rights of free speech with, as is stated in the article, the scourge of disinformation online.

That freedom of speech in the world is essentially limited to relatively well-developed democracies puts the issue of protecting democracy at the heart of supporting free speech. It strikes me that possibly many people do not understand that it is up to them individually to protect democracy (« Democracy can be messy.  But the state cannot lawfully seek to protect democracy against itself. ») and may need to be more clearly promoted publicly by all that care about democracy and therefore free speech. Better understanding who is responsible, in this case not government, may help focus the mind on how to deal with the scourge of disinformation on social media.

Douglas Lee 25 mars 2021