Thread by @digiphile

“social media companies have to be responsible for verifying what are real news sources and what are not —and tagging things as disinformation. And being transparent around ‘Who are these pages, who’s funding them, what’s their budget’?”-@MichaelDTubbs cjr.org/special_report…

https://twitter.com/MichaelDTubbs/status/1348315997778821122

As @ybenkler reminded me, lying about politicians is protected by the First Amendment, &, unlike a Facebook or Twitter moderating an account or Page, governments removing a site of literal fake news would raise speech issues:
defusingdis.info/2019/01/17/how…
Defamation law is an option.

When a Senator asked me how to deal with a fake news website in his state, I didn’t suggest taking it down, & suggested he do many of things that Tubbs did:
sunlightfoundation.com/2017/12/19/win…
Politicians have limited options.

Search & social media companies need to ID “pink slime” sites.

We are in a civics crisis. As local news struggles & papers close, these “pink slime” are further polluting discourse: digiphile.medium.com/as-local-news-…
Time to tax tech companies & create entities like @CPBmedia that fund nonpartisan, independent outlets like @TexasTribune @ProPublicaIL

US government, states, & cities need to treat the death of local news & rise of “pink slime” sites & partisan pages that are filling the civic information voids left behind like the emergency it is.

A misinformed nation is not a healthy one, but a disinformed democracy will die.

There *is* a key role for government: legislatures should empower @FEC & state election regulators to ensure candidate disclose Page/media entity ownership & any payments from politicians: gen.medium.com/the-plot-to-ta… “Dark money,” “dark social,” & dark slime (?) all poison democracy.