Claremont Journal of Law and Public Policy /April 23, 2018

Regulating Social Media as a Public Utility

Full Article:https://5clpp.com/2018/04/23/regulating-social-media-as-a-public-utility/

Some excerpts:

"The ways that social media are negatively affecting American life are numerous, but there are two of them that can be sufficiently redressed through regulation. To begin with, there is a profound and growing lack of privacy online."

"The second way social media negatively affects American life is that it has degraded the news cycle."

"Given that social media has led to a wide variety of social ills, appropriate regulation of the platform would be a way to correct this and allow social media to be used for productive, life-enhancing purposes. Fortunately, accomplishing this can be a relatively simple task without the introduction of any new complex legislation. All that would be needed is a vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This is because it is possible that Congress could choose to classify social media companies as public utilities."

"In order for the FCC to expand its jurisdiction to a firm, it must meet two requirements, and most social media companies meet both. First, the company must operate in an industry that provides a necessary service to the public. Second, the firm must operate as a monopoly. To use Facebook as an example for the first criteria, its necessity for networking purposes in the workplace and its widespread use in recreation means that it easily meets the FCC’s first criteria. As for the second, social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter are monopolies because they exist in unique spheres and have no true competitors."

"Social Media has contributed to a large number of our current social ills, and it is actively making American lives worse. Mr. Zuckerberg and other social media CEOs have repeatedly failed to deliver any adequate forms of self-regulation to address these societal problems. They have only given vague lip service. Many social media companies have the makings of a public utility. The FCC should regulate them as such."

I hope President Trump is aware of this as it is the ONLY way to stop fb and twit from interfering with the 2020 election. Unfortunately nothing can be done about google/yt as they can prove they are not monopolies as they have competition, ineffective as may be some of their competitors.

fb and twit believe they are a necessity to "modern society" and that means they must be available. Make them Public Utilities; put in effective unbiased staff and keep the options to the globalist propaganda media misinformation networks available.