CYBER What Happened to Progressive Tech Policy? | Washington Spectator

What Happened to Progressive Tech Policy? | Washington Spectator: "Progressives gave up on democratic institutions and the rule of law. Progressives are not afraid to use the power of government to make our society fairer and more just. But when it came to the Internet firms, a new mantra of “multistakeholder engagement” took hold. Internet firms received special dispensation from legal compliance, such as disclosing political advertising sources. Companies that should have been the subject of government scrutiny instead created their own self-regulatory processes for resolving real problems like governance, privacy, and consumer protection. The fox didn’t just guard the henhouse—it designed it and wired it to the Internet with 24-7 surveillance. The chickens never had a chance. #The First Amendment was repurposed to block regulation. An odd policy inversion took hold in the progressive world. At the same time that progressive leaders were rethinking fundamental principles of free expression on college campuses, they were doubling down on First Amendment rights for large corporations. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act enacted by Congress in 1996, long before the rise of massive platform monopolies, was elevated from an early attempt to clarify case law to an armor-plated get-out-of-jail-free card for corporate behavior that should have triggered oversight and liability, such as facilitating online sex trafficking." 'via Blog this'