Thread by @Noahpinion

The controversy over social fact-checking of Trump, and the controversy over FB's abandoned program to prevent polarization, demonstrate that what I've been saying for a long time is true: FB/Twitter/YouTube are the new CBS/ABC/NBC, and will just have to learn to deal with that.

Concretely, what this means is:

1. Society will view these platforms not simply as private independent actors but as key public spaces with broad social responsibility.

2. Some kind of "fairness doctrine" is fairly likely to emerge, as with broadcast TV.

No one is going to like the new Fairness Doctrine, if it ever comes. It will, of necessity, censor and suppress their own viewpoints. But because it also censors and suppresses some of their enemies' viewpoints, they may tolerate it.

The only stable alternatives to a Fairness Doctrine for social media platforms would seem to be:

1. Separation of platforms into rabidly partisan blocs (Twitter = left, FB = right?)

or

2. Stringent government control of speech a la China

Both of those seem...undesirable.

But one problem with a Fairness Doctrine for social media platforms is that it'll be seen as a plot by whoever's out of power when it gets implemented. If it's implemented under Trump, liberals will think its main function is to silence liberal viewpoints. Etc.

The original Fairness Doctrine was implemented in 1949, during a period of unprecedented national unity. That would not be the case today.

Thus, we may need a Fairness Doctrine and not ever get it. Or we may get it, and it may in fact be subtly perverted towards partisan ends.

In any case, what seems incontrovertibly true is that Twitter/FB/YouTube are the new broadcast media oligopoly rather than simply neutral platforms running in the background.

And one way or another, they -- and the country -- are going to have to deal with that.

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