The internet was designed to be a kind of free-speech paradise, but a lot of the material on it turned out to incite violence, spread untruth, and promote hate. Over the years, three American behemoths—Facebook, YouTube and Twitter—became the way most of the world experiences the internet, and therefore the conveyors of much of its disturbing material. Should the giant social media platforms police the content themselves, as is the norm in the U.S., or should governments and international organizations regulate the internet, as many are demanding in Europe? How do we keep from helping authoritarian regimes to censor all criticisms of themselves? To answer all these questions we are in conversation with professor David Kaye.
Guest: David Kaye is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the global body’s principal monitor for freedom of expression issues worldwide. He is a professor of law at the University of California, Irvine and author of the book Speech Police: The Global Struggle to Govern the Internet.