“Reining in Tech Platforms“
Marcelo Thompson
HKU Bulletin
Printed in Might 2024
Faux information and misinformation are simply printed and circulated on platforms corresponding to Google, Fb and YouTube. There are strikes to make these media liable for the message they convey.
In 2022, US courts ordered American discuss present host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay greater than US$1 billion in damages to the mother and father of a number of of the 20 kids murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty by a gunman in 2012. Jones had been claiming on-line since 2014 that the deaths have been a ‘hoax’ and the mother and father ‘disaster actors’ and, till 2018, platforms corresponding to Fb and YouTube allowed his content material to be posted and shared. They eliminated him that yr for a variety of offensive content material, however the query lingered: what obligation did these platforms must hold such faux and dangerous data out of the general public area?
To Dr Marcelo Thompson, Adjunct Affiliate Professor within the School of Legislation, the reply is obvious – platforms should do extra to average their content material. Sadly, whereas many platforms are world and their content material circulates worldwide, the legal guidelines that govern them are set regionally, impeding convergence, he stated.
