ZenMode
Inconceivable Member
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I don't think the fact that some people decide to get their news from Facebook, YouTube, TikTok etc makes them a news outlet, nor their users journalists.Facebook isn't a news outlet? Man, you better look at the statistics about where people get their news now. That sort of thinking is about 15 years outdated. Elon Musk posts about every 20 seconds on Twitter "you are the media now." Zuck likely feels the same way. The distinction between citizen and journalist is blurred now, and acting like social media posts have to be treated differently from news stories is part of what has gotten us into our current social media nightmare. We can't simply allow misinformation - some ignorant, some malicious - spread unchecked if we want any hope of having a rational public discourse. The idea that the "marketplace of ideas" can sort truth from fiction is pretty much a fantasy at this point, given that most of us will believe what we want to believe rather than accept inconvenient truths.
I agree that there are downsides to social media. That doesn't make them anything more than what they are, which is a platform for personal interactions and expression.
If somebody was holding a sign in Times Square that read: "The 2020 election was stolen by the Democratic Party" would you be okay with the federal government sending FBI agents to ask him to take down his sign?