The easy availability of information on the Internet may lead to the commoditization of content. However, if content is free or low cost, it may be difficult for those who produce it (like journalists) to earn a living. Economists and other scholars examine this tension and suggest various solutions.
"If we wouldn’t trust the government to curate all of what we read, why would we ever think that Facebook or any one company should do it?" — Jonathan Zittrain, Professor of Law, Harvard University
"You could imagine the floodgates opening up with businesses trying to do exactly what Hassell [the lawyer wanting the reviews removed] did to get rid of unwanted reviews on any user-generated content site anywhere on the Web." — Eric Goldman, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University
"The most valuable innovation at the heart of Facebook was probably not the social network so much as the creation of a tool that convinced hundreds of millions of people to hand over so much personal data for so little in return." — Tim Wu, Professor of Law, Columbia University
"Google should not be sued every time it decides to ding an app. We want retailers to exercise discretion. That's why they're valuable to us." — Eric Goldman, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University
"School districts basically have to tell their teachers not to do anything stupid online. That's the gist of it." — Eric Goldman, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University
"When journalists are rewarded for viewership, there’s a perverse motivation to play into people’s attraction to freak shows and horror." — danah boyd, Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research
This article examines the use and effectiveness of “flags” as a way the users of social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, can mark content as objectionable. An article by Kate Crawford, a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, and her colleague Tarleton Gillespie is referenced.
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Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman shares an op-ed piece he recently wrote that discusses Section 230 and the legislative efforts to modify or repeal it.
January 21, 2021
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Traditional free speech doctrines protect speakers from state censorship. The rise of big data, algorithmic decision-making, and digital media companies alters the nature of free speech concerns.
September 20, 2017
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