Twitter as a City-State

The Argument for Democracy in Cyberspace

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Justin Jackson about 3 years ago

I like this exploration.

When I've reviewed the current state of Twitter, a lot of my criticism has been at Elon for stating that he will make Twitter "free speech in that it will match the law." But Twitter already conforms to existing free speech laws in the USA. Nothing Elon is proposing seems workable.

But it is interesting to think about making online platforms actual democracies, with judiciaries.

One thing we don't want is for someone like Elon to dictate those terms (to essentially be an autocratic leader who sets up democratic-like systems).

For a proper exploration of why Twitter is not a public square, the First Amendment was written to restrict governments, not private companies, we need to "imagine [better] spaces designed for democracy," I highly recommend Dr. Mary Anne Franks' paper in the Yale Law Journal: https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/beyond-the-public-square-imagining-digital-democracy