Fighting Neo-Nazis and the Future of Free Expression

❝❝We at EFF defend the right of anyone to choose what speech they provide online; platforms have a First Amendment right to decide what speech does and does not appear on their platforms. That’s what laws like CDA 230 in the United States enable and protect.

But we strongly believe that what GoDaddy, Google, and Cloudflare did here was dangerous. That’s because, even when the facts are the most vile, we must remain vigilant when platforms exercise these rights. Because Internet intermediaries, especially those with few competitors, control so much online speech, the consequences of their decisions have far-reaching impacts on speech around the world. And at EFF we see the consequences first hand: every time a company throws a vile neo-Nazi site off the Net, thousands of less visible decisions are made by companies with little oversight or transparency. Precedents being set now can shift the justice of those removals.❞❞
     — by Jeremy Malcolm, Cindy Dohn, and Danny O’Brien

Tags: Jeremy Malcolm ∙ Cindy Dohn ∙ Danny O’Brien ∙ Electonic Frontier Foundation ∙ speech wars ∙ First Amendment ∙ GoDaddy ∙ Google ∙ Cloudflare ∙ clipping