When misinformation poses serious risks of harm, social media platforms have often prohibited and removed such content. In other cases, where the harm of the falsehood is more diffuse, platforms have pursued a milder, alternative remedy: they label the post [...]
In a recent case, a Facebook user in Iran posted “death to Khamenei”, which the platform removed as a violation of its policy against threats and incitement. Facebook ultimately overturned the decision on the grounds that the speech, while contravening [...]
This article defends platforms’ moral responsibility to moderate wrongful speech posted by users. Several duties together ground and shape this responsibility. First, platforms have duties to defend others from harm when they can do so at reasonable cost. Second, platforms [...]
When a state subjects its citizens to serious social injustice, and then those citizens engage in criminal activities as a result (e.g., as a means of economic survival), does the state retain the moral standing to punish those citizens for [...]
Social media are now central sites of democratic discourse among citizens. But are some contributions to social media too extreme to be permitted? This entry considers the permissibility of suppressing extreme speech on social media, such as terrorist propaganda and [...]
Misinformation about coronavirus is rampant on social media networks. In many instances, this misinformation -- whether about the virus's cause or its cure -- is dangerous, and in some cases has already led to death. What should be done to contain [...]
It is a familiar mantra of American politics that the best response to dangerous speech that incites violence and spreads hate is ‘more speech’. Yet the principle obscures at least three crucial questions. Who, in particular, is to undertake the [...]
Is it permissible for the state to suppress speech that incites murder and other serious rights violations? The orthodox view in free speech theory holds that the right to freedom of expression broadly protects such speech, except in cases of [...]
Why, exactly, should we punish children who commit crimes more leniently than adults who commit the same offenses? Gideon Yaffe thinks it is because they cannot vote, and so the strength of their reasons to obey the law is weaker [...]
Should hate speech be banned? This article sets out a framework through which to organize the current scholarly debate. It contends that the debate must be disaggregated into discrete analytical stages, lest its participants continue to talk past one [...]