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Perspectives: Should social media platforms be regulated to stop hate speech?

Social media restricted speech and cancel culture censorship concept or thought control and canceling or restricting opinions that are offensive or controversial to the public in a 3D illustration style. cancel culture tile / Getty Images
Social media restricted speech and cancel culture censorship concept or thought control and canceling or restricting opinions that are offensive or controversial to the public in a 3D illustration style. cancel culture tile / Getty Images Social media restricted speech and cancel culture censorship concept or thought control and canceling or restricting opinions that are offensive or controversial to the public in a 3D illustration style. cancel culture tile / Getty Images

By Yosef Getachew, Jillian C. York and Karen Gullo / Tribune Content Agency 8 min read

YES: Lawmakers and regulators should implement policies to mitigate harmful, false content

By Yosef Getachew

On Jan. 6, a mob of insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn our country’s 2020 presidential election. The attack, which resulted in the death of five people, was fueled by a stream of disinformation and hate speech that flooded across social media platforms before, during and after the election. Despite their civic integrity and content moderation policies, platforms have been slow or unwilling to take action to limit the spread of content designed to disrupt our democracy.

This failure is inherently tied to platforms’ business models and practices that incentivize the proliferation of harmful speech. Content that generates the most engagement on social media tends to be disinformation, hate speech and conspiracy theories. Platforms have implemented business models designed to maximize user engagement and prioritize their profit shares over combating harmful content.

While the First Amendment limits our government from regulating speech, there are legislative and regulatory tools at its disposal that can rein in social media business practices bad actors exploit to spread and amplify speech that interferes with our democracy.