{"id":3600,"date":"2018-07-20T17:45:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T20:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/facebook-shouldnt-censor-offensive-speech\/"},"modified":"2023-02-27T17:16:21","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T22:16:21","slug":"facebook-shouldnt-censor-offensive-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/facebook-shouldnt-censor-offensive-speech","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Shouldn't Censor Offensive Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-3600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":{"header_layout":"standard","header_image":3601,"mobile_header_image":null,"description":"","authors":[1903],"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"

Mark Zuckerberg made several newsworthy choices this week. One \u2014 to invoke Holocaust denial<\/a> as an example of content that Facebook should keep up because \u201cthere are different things that different people get wrong\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s hard to impugn [their] intent\u201d \u2014 was ill-advised. <\/p>\n

But another \u2014 to keep Facebook from diving deeper into the business of censorship \u2014 was the right call. On Wednesday, Facebook announced a policy it put in place last month<\/a> to remove misinformation that contributes to violence, following criticism that content published on the platform has led to attacks against minorities overseas. When pushed to go further and censor all offensive speech, Facebook refused<\/a>. <\/p>\n

While many commentators are focusing legitimate criticism on Zuckerberg\u2019s poor choice of words<\/a> about Holocaust denial, others are calling for Facebook to adopt a more aggressive takedown policy. What's at stake here is the ability of one platform that serves as a forum for the speech of billions of people to use its enormous power to censor speech on the basis of its own determinations of what is true, what is hateful, and what is offensive. <\/p>\n

Given Facebook\u2019s nearly unparalleled status as a forum for political speech and debate, it should not take down anything but unlawful speech, like incitement to violence. Otherwise, in attempting to apply more amorphous concepts not already defined in law, Facebook will often get it wrong. Given the enormous amount of speech uploaded every day to Facebook\u2019s platform, attempting to filter out \u201cbad\u201d speech is a nearly impossible task. The use of algorithms and other artificial intelligence<\/a> to try to deal with the volume is only likely to exacerbate the problem. <\/p>\n

If Facebook gives itself broader censorship powers, it will inevitably take down important speech and silence already marginalized voices. We\u2019ve seen this before. Last year, when activists of color and white people posted the exact same content, Facebook moderators censored only the activists of color<\/a>. When Black women posted screenshots and descriptions of racist abuse, Facebook moderators suspended their accounts<\/a> or deleted their posts<\/a>. And when people used Facebook as a tool to document their experiences of police violence<\/a>, Facebook chose to shut down their livestreams. The ACLU\u2019s own Facebook post about censorship of a public statue was also inappropriately censored<\/a> by Facebook. <\/p>\n

Facebook has shown us that it does a bad job of moderating \u201chateful\u201d or \u201coffensive\u201d posts, even when its intentions are good. Facebook will do no better at serving as the arbiter of truth versus misinformation, and we should remain wary of its power to deprioritize certain posts or to moderate content in other ways that fall short of censorship. <\/p>\n

There is no question that giving the government<\/em> the power to separate truth from fiction and to censor speech on that basis would be dangerous. If you need confirmation, look no further than President Trump\u2019s preposterous co-optation<\/a> of the term \u201cfake news.\u201d A private company may not do much better, even if it\u2019s not technically bound by the First Amendment to refrain from censorship. <\/p>\n

As odious as certain viewpoints are, Facebook is right to resist calls for further outright censorship. When it comes to gatekeepers of the modern-day public square, we should hope for commitment to free speech principles. <\/p>\n"}}],"featured_cases_section":{"enable_featured_cases":false,"title":"Featured Cases","description":"","featured_cases":null},"action":148399,"issues":[46479,46551,46479],"related_content_cases":null,"related_content_documents":null,"related_content_publications":null,"related_affiliates":null,"content_layout":"","theme":"light","drupal_nid":"69147"},"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Facebook Shouldn't Censor Offensive Speech | ACLU\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/facebook-shouldnt-censor-offensive-speech\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-20T20:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-27T22:16:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/facebook-shouldnt-censor-offensive-speech\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/facebook-shouldnt-censor-offensive-speech\",\"name\":\"Facebook Shouldn't Censor Offensive Speech | ACLU\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-20T20:00:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-27T22:16:21+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/free-speech\/facebook-shouldnt-censor-offensive-speech\"]}],\"author\":{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/vera-eidelman\",\"name\":\"Vera Eidelman\",\"jobTitle\":\"Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/vera-eidelman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/photo\/vera-eidelman\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2020\/09\/web19-vera-eidelman-1000x970.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2020\/09\/web19-vera-eidelman-1000x970.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Vera Eidelman\"}}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. 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