Several participants at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting suggested free speech should be limited in order to deal with hateful rhetoric and political polarization..“We need the people who understand our language and the case law in the country, because what qualifies as hate speech, illegal hate speech — which you will have soon also in the United States — we have a strong reason why we have this in the criminal law,” said Vera Jourova, vice-president for values and transparency at the European Commission.."We need the platforms to simply work with the language and identify such cases. The AI would be too dangerous.".Jourova was speaking during a panel titled, "The Clear and Present Danger of Disinformation” on Tuesday. The panel discussed how regulators, social media firms and governments could tackle the spread of disinformation, though they did not define exactly what constitutes disinformation..The panel was hosted by former CNN anchor Brian Stelter, who asked the speakers at the outset of the discussion, "how does this discussion of disinformation relate to everything else happening here today in Davos?".Jourova said the US should follow in the footsteps of the European Union, which has adopted regulations against hate speech..A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, claimed during the panel that disinformation, misinformation, conspiracy theories, clickbait and propaganda, "maps to every other major challenge that we are grappling with as a society, and particularly the most existential among them."."What it attacks is trust. And once you see trust decline, what you then see is societies start to fracture. You see people fracture along tribal lines. That immediately undermines pluralism, and the undermining of pluralism is probably the most dangerous thing that can happen to a democracy," he said..In order to deal with this issue, Sulzberger claimed socialmedia companies need to engage in more censorship of dangerous content.."At some point, given the central role of the platforms in disseminating bad information, I think they're going to have to do an unpopular and brave thing, which is to differentiate and elevate trustworthy sources of information consistently.".Sulzberger added those who invoke terms such as "fake news" and "enemy of the people," an obvious reference to former US President Donald Trump, were following in the footsteps of repressive regimes such as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. .Senator Joe Manchin said that free press and online discussions are issues that need to be dealt with. "The problem we have is the open press system and basically all the platforms,” Manchin said..Manchin said he has issues with social media platforms elevating the most extreme perspectives on both the right and the left, which is "basically driving everybody to make a decision of what side they are on.".Congressman Seth Moulton said the US has a "lot to learn" when it comes to data and internet regulation, adding that the European Union is "way ahead of us." But he also saw concern with internet regulation impacting the ability of Americans to express themselves.."I don't think lawmakers in America want to give up on the fundamental principle of free speech," he said.
