The term “Free Speech” has been tossed around a great deal in the past few years. While I am one hundred percent all in for freedom of speech, the amplification of ideas on social networks like X and Facebook is quite different.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, in relevant part, that: “Congress shall make no law…abridging freedom of speech.” Yes!
Early in my career, I worked for Knight-Ridder, at the time one of the largest newspaper companies in the world. Free speech and freedom of the press is something I’ve been focused on for more than thirty years.
However:
The right to free speech does not mean a right of Artificial Intelligence algorithm amplification on social networks like Facebook and X.
The right of free speech doesn’t guarantee the right of anonymous social accounts to pollute people’s feeds with lies and hate.
The right of free speech doesn’t mean that people should be constantly subjected to conspiracy theories.
The right of free speech doesn’t mean that social networking companies can freely manipulate our brains’ dopamine systems, pushing us into ever more addictive behaviors.
Legacy media and social networks
Legacy media including newspapers, magazines, television, and radio require consumers to actively choose to read, watch, or listen. You need to turn the page or change the channel. You’re an active participant.
However, social networks come to you in a fire hose of information and misinformation that you do not control. If you want to see what your friends or the organizations you follow are up to, you will also be subjected to whatever the AI deems you should see.
Simple example: I don’t follow Elon Musk on his social platform X, however most days a tweet from him is at the top of my feed.
AI amplification is the real threat
The Pew Research Center reports just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, up slightly compared with the last few years. That means over a hundred million people get AI amplified “news”.
Facebook, X, and other social media platforms take what people say and sort it via their artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms and then selectively show the content to people based on what they are susceptible to. That could be harmless like the ads I see for dancing shoes and backpacking gear. But it can also include all kinds of false or misleading information.
The social networks know the more polarizing the content, the more likely people will look at it. And the more they look the more advertising the social network can sell. So the AI is tuned accordingly because it drives profit.
Because the algorithms serve up more of what you’ve clicked on, AI amplification often leads people down rat holes of misinformation, into quagmires of lies, and deep into a quicksand of conspiracy theories.
Of course, we are all free to stop using social networks. But then you lose access to your friends and the organizations you do business with.
I do not believe that America is in a free speech crisis. Politicians, CEOs, and others can say what they want, when they want, in many different places, both online and off.
Yes, I support free speech!
However, I see a profound danger in unfettered social algorithms and therefore there should never be a “right” to amplification.
