>This problem is solved by better education, not censorship.
Education is censorship. If it's unacceptable for Youtube to derank lies and extremism, it must also be unacceptable to teach children that lies and extremism are incorrect. If we can't trust one one arbiter of truth, then surely we can't trust any.
The free speech solution would be to treat all ideas equally, regardless of their merit, and allow the marketplace of ideas to educate people and let everyone decide for themselves what truth is. But that just leads us to where we are now, with social media being overrun by cancer, and ever more people believing QAnon and Alex Jones and anti-vaxxers and flat earth.
The inconvenient truth is that education sometimes works, but often doesn't. Censorship sometimes works, but often doesn't. Context matters (not all speech is equally valid, not all attempts at censorship inevitably lead to Orwellian dystopia) and the problem is more complex and nuanced than heated internet debates will allow.
Education is censorship. If it's unacceptable for Youtube to derank lies and extremism, it must also be unacceptable to teach children that lies and extremism are incorrect. If we can't trust one one arbiter of truth, then surely we can't trust any.
The free speech solution would be to treat all ideas equally, regardless of their merit, and allow the marketplace of ideas to educate people and let everyone decide for themselves what truth is. But that just leads us to where we are now, with social media being overrun by cancer, and ever more people believing QAnon and Alex Jones and anti-vaxxers and flat earth.
The inconvenient truth is that education sometimes works, but often doesn't. Censorship sometimes works, but often doesn't. Context matters (not all speech is equally valid, not all attempts at censorship inevitably lead to Orwellian dystopia) and the problem is more complex and nuanced than heated internet debates will allow.