E23: E23: Robby Soave and Nate Hochman CLASH on big tech and the role of government in the 21st century

It's a Republic if you can keep it. Not if Mark Zuckerberg can. On a new "Right Now with Stephen Kent," Stephen sits down with Robby Soave of Reason magazine and writer Nate Hochman for a conversation about how much of a threat Facebook, Twitter, and Google pose to our democracy; if and how we should amend Section 230; the murky area of who gets to censor what on social media; if Donald Trump lost his influence after he was de-platformed; and whether big tech's influence on our day-to-day lives will worsen in the future. Subscribe to Rightly and catch more details about the episode below. Make sure to sign up for Unfettered, our new newsletter, available now. Newsletter signup: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/rightlyaj/issues/right-now-unfettered-7-23-699749 ---- Content of This Episode ---- 00:00 Episode start 00:05 Terms of Service 01:48 Welcome Robby Soave 03:20 Nate Hochman joins the fray 04:25 Robby wrote the book on Tech Panic 06:30 Nate’s concerned, but not panicking 11:51 Are social media companies publishers? 14:15 Proposals for Section 230 reforms 17:37 So what is censorship exactly? 19:45 The decider of who gets to say what 22:40 Bring back the Fairness Doctrine? 30:00 The slippery slope of social media regulation 34:30 Drawing the line on unchecked power 41:50 What the future holds 44:45 Good news on books, moving to The Swamp, and getting out of the house ---- Reading List ---- Tech Panic: Why We Shouldn't Fear Facebook and the Future By Robby Soave https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tech-Panic/Robby-Soave/9781982159597 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/07/09/executive-order-on-promoting-competition-in-the-american-economy/Federal judge blocks Florida’s new social media law targeting ‘big tech’ companies (Miami Herald) https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article252492548.htmlGOP-sponsored bill to stop Big Tech companies from censoring users dies (Austin Business Journal) https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2021/06/03/tech-censorship-bill-in-texas-fails.htmlBiden’s Antitrust Team Signals a Big Swing at Corporate Titans (The New York TImes) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/business/biden-antitrust-amazon-google.htmlTrump's Class Action Lawsuit Against Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube Is an Absurd Farce (Reason) https://reason.com/2021/07/07/trump-class-action-lawsuit-facebook-twitter-youtube/The Government Should Stop Telling Facebook To Suppress COVID-19 'Misinformation' (Reason) https://reason.com/2021/07/15/covid-19-vaccines-misinformation-jen-psaki-white-house-biden/Conservative courts could rescue tech (Axios) https://www.axios.com/conservative-courts-tech-antitrust-c9eab980-7f7d-4d78-81f9-2e60f606ba83.htmlRight or Left, You Should Be Worried About Big Tech Censorship (Electronic Frontier Foundation) https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/right-or-left-you-should-be-worried-about-big-tech-censorshipTop House antitrust Republican forms 'Freedom from Big Tech Caucus' (The Hill) https://thehill.com/policy/technology/563344-top-house-antitrust-republican-forms-freedom-from-big-tech-caucusFacebook blocks woman’s ‘why are men so dumb’ comment as ‘hate speech’ (New York Post) https://nypost.com/2021/07/26/facebook-blocks-womans-men-are-dumb-comment-as-hate-speech/---- Plugs for our guests ---- Follow Robby Soave on Twitter: https://twitter.com/robbysoaveFollow Nate Hochman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/njhochmanWatch the latest episode of "Cancel This!", a new Right Now series: https://youtu.be/-IMhg1A_Wd4#Facebook #Twitter #Google