This interesting speech ‘The First Amendment in the Second Gilded Age – The 2018 Mitchell Lecture‘ addresses the evolution of the theory of Free Speech and the contradiction between the fact that the Collaborative Age technology increases considerably our capabilities of Free Speech at the same time as it empowers much more powerful surveillance.
Most of the infrastructure we rely on for internet is privately held, and regulations need to exist to ensure that free speech and access is preserved, while privacy is guaranteed.
The statutes around Free Speech were developed in a time where most of the media was just broadcasting media. It was difficult to publish and most communication channels were subject to editing. The objective of former Free Speech statutes was to ensure proper information of the public against the media monopoly. Those statutes are thus probably obsolete today and need to be upgraded.
Today, the issue is to guarantee free speech for everyone while managing fake news content and protecting privacy. We have not matured yet the legal statutes to provide those guarantees. It is a great challenge toward the Collaborative Age.
