Current Events > Elizabeth Warren proposes criminal penalties for spreading disinformation online

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https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/01/29/warren-proposes-criminal-penalties-for-spreading-disinformation-online.html

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday released a plan to fight disinformation to hold tech companies accountable for their actions in light of the 2016 election.
"Disinformation and online foreign interference erode our democracy, and Donald Trump has invited both," Warren said in a Tweet Wednesday. "Anyone who seeks to challenge and defeat Donald Trump in the 2020 election must be fully prepared to take this on and I've got a plan to do it."

Warren proposed to combat disinformation by holding big tech companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google responsible for spreading misinformation designed to suppress voters from turning out.
"I will push for new laws that impose tough civil and criminal penalties for knowingly disseminating this kind of information, which has the explicit purpose of undermining the basic right to vote," Warren said in a press release.
Warren, who has been an advocate for breaking up big tech companies like Amazon and Facebook, has said that she wants to make "big structural changes to the tech sector to promote more competition." It's part of a broader policy to stop disinformation, requiring action on tech companies and the government to come together to solve the problem.
Other candidates such as Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders have also been skeptical of large technology companies. Sanders has repeatedly targeted Amazon, saying it should increase its wages and benefits for workers.
Warren has slipped in recent polls ahead of the Iowa caucuses next week. She's in third place in national polls and fourth place in Iowa.

Warren also criticized how the companies' emphasis on profit contributed to misinformation during the 2016 election, such as false ads that led to polarization and could have suppressed votes from groups like black voters.
As president, she said she would reinstate the position of cybersecurity coordinator at the National Security Council, a position crucial to protecting the U.S. She added she will also open up data for research so that academics and organizations can provide the public with knowledge on disinformation.
"The stakes of this election are too high -- we need to fight the spread of false information that disempowers voters and undermines democracy," Warren said. "I'll do my part -- and I'm calling on my fellow candidates and big tech companies to do their part too."

5 years in prison for each WaPo Pinnochio
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theyre attacking our shitposting!

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https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1222550231549726721

Too little too late there Liz!
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Well the good news is that Warren will never be President so we'll never have to worry about it.

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RIP politics.

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Does this mean she'll stop lying about Bernie now?

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closetkpopfan posted...

Does this mean she'll stop lying about Bernie now?

No, it means she's going to penalize social media for sharing it. Although I notice her plan doesn't include news media, so I guess MSNBC could still share it.

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closetkpopfan posted...

Does this mean she'll stop lying about Bernie now?

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Broadcast networks are not going to like this.
Bullshitty political ad revenue is like running Superbowl commercials for several months, on every channel.

closetkpopfan posted...

Does this mean she'll stop lying about Bernie now?

lol
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Somethingsomething Bernie sexist haha hypocrisy somethingsomething
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who will arbitrate what constitutes information and disinformation

will we need to establish, perchance, a ministry of truth?

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s0nicfan posted...

No, it means she's going to penalize social media for sharing it. Although I notice her plan doesn't include news media, so I guess MSNBC could still share it.

Lol.

Basically a way to assist media monopolies.

They been scared social media take their jobs for awhile now.

Duncanwii posted...

Well the good news is that Warren will never be President so we'll never have to worry about it.

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https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/pants-fire/

Oh boy, Trump going to be in prison for next 200 years.

TheMikh posted...

who will arbitrate what constitutes information and disinformation

will we need to establish, perchance, a ministry of truth?

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Yeah this is the worst idea ever.

Pandering old white woman

would be nice if they could do something like this for antivaxxers

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Let's see, 5 years multiplied by Trumps 14,000 lies... that's, um, 70,000 years.

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donald dipshit trash trump in jail for life...

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Warren needs to shut her ****ing mouth goddamn shes annoying. First she lies about Bernie and then says this ****.

such a hypocrite. Its like the kid in school that does the most to try to get noticed.

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Did we wake up in China?

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She'd never do it - she'd have to imprison literally every left-leaning journalist in America for the rest of their lives, just over RussiaGate.

And Adam Schiff.

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Sounds like some dystopian shit

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Good lord she needs to go away already

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Do Trump supporters all wake up at once?

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Can we throw criminal penalties at her for spreading the idea she was Native American?

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CyricZ posted...

Do Trump supporters all wake up at once?

Lol forreal
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No reason for places like Facebook not to be held to the same requirements as the FCC and the courts put on television.

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She should start with herself.

What will be her punishment for her lies about her Native American heritage and her slander of Bernie Sanders?

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IbanezFan462 posted...

Good lord she needs to go away already

shockthemonkey posted...

Yeah, right? When you put it that way I think a lot more people will agree with it.

Ignoring the fact that it's fundamentally impossible for sites like Facebook to catch everything, the bigger issue is that this excludes media organizations. If you're going to add criminal penalties for spreading disinformation, I don't know why that would apply to Facebook but not MSNBC.

But going back to my first point, what she's proposing shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the technology she's trying to demonize, and her attempt to make "big tech" into some sort of enemy shows she either has no idea what she's talking about, or she's deep in the pockets of media organizations that have a vested interest in seeing social media curbed.

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shockthemonkey posted...

Yeah Im not big on this plan specifically Im just talking conceptually Facebook ads should be subject to the same regulations as print and television ads in terms of what they can legally lie about.

She had stuff in other plans about requiring the funding agency's name to be on the ad, reporting by companies as to who is buying ads, etc. That stuff is great, but she also takes a "we need to break up these businesses!" approach to tech that I find pretty scary because she has no idea what she's actually proposing and the effect it would have.

There's also the interesting issue of where technology advances which aren't themselves bad clash with old school regulation. Things like targeted ads may technically violate rules about ensuring all candidates receive equal opportunities to advertise because the algorithm controls who sees the ad and that might not result in complete equality, but if the result of the targeted ads is more effective than blanket coverage, the solution isn't to kill targeted ads. It's to update the old rules.

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