TikTok Stops The TikToking In Russia As It Tries To Figure Out Its New ‘Fake News’ Law
from the can't-do-realtime-with-so-much-liability dept
An astounding number of people seem to think that having a “fake news” law would be a good idea, even as we’ve shown over and over and over again how those kinds of laws are always abused by authoritarian goons to silence criticism. As part of its ongoing offensive on both Ukraine and the truth, Russia has passed its own new fake news law that would offer criminal penalties up to 15 years in jail for statements that “discredit” the Russian military.
Because of this new law, TikTok has announced that it needs to suspend any new content in Russia to avoid running afoul of the law:
Now, there had been reports that TikTok was “not prepared” for how it would be used in the war, and that as hard as the company tried to stay out of such disputes, that was proving impossible. But, still, this latest move really demonstrates why the whole idea of a “fake news” law is so dangerous. For websites who act as intermediaries, hosting speech for users, there’s simply no way you can avoid running afoul of such a law, since users are coming up with their own speech in real time, and there’s no realistic way to monitor it all.
Now, I know some people still insist that somehow a fake news law in the US would somehow “be different,” but the fundamental reality is the same. Websites that carry millions to billions of pieces of real time communications content cannot accurately monitor all that speech, let alone adjudicate what content is real and which is fake — and that’s not even getting into the question of “according to whom” which is at issue in most “fake news” laws, where the answer is “according to the government which only wants its propaganda allowed.”
So rather than going down such a path, can we just realize that any such law would be (1) abused by the powerful, and (2) make it impossible for many websites to provide the kinds of services that people rely on to communicate today?
Filed Under: fake news, intermediary liability, russia
Companies: tiktok
Comments on “TikTok Stops The TikToking In Russia As It Tries To Figure Out Its New ‘Fake News’ Law”
Refreshing honesty from terrible people
Sounds like the russian government dropped the pretense that when a government says ‘fake news’ and waxes about how dangerous it is it means something other than ‘anything that contradicts the Official Narrative’.
“some people still insist that somehow a fake news law in the US would somehow “be different,””
Just because it didn’t work the 100 other times, this time it will work.
Humans… spending more time repeating mistakes than learning from them.
A bug? Naw...it's a feature.
“So rather than going down such a path, can we just realize that any such law would be (1) abused by the powerful, and (2) make it impossible for many websites to provide the kinds of services that people rely on to communicate today?”
I’m sure those that are pushing these bills would be more than happy with the results.
truth, facts and jobs
The truth of the matter tends to be, some person inside, knows something, but CANT say something, because of the job they have.
The Info might get spread around by rumor and Gossip but the fact is, if the info leads back to the 1 person, they Wont be working. And the odds say will probably not get a job of the same type again.
under this ideal in this country, the ones that Speak up, tend to not have all the info, and arnt the ones that know whats happening. The Cheap ways out for the company/group what ever is to offer money to SHUT UP. But they are still alive and spreading the info. So you add it into CONTRACTS that say you CANT tell people how things really ARE, inside the companies.
Yes it makes a wonderful movie, and there have been a few of them. Being Honest only means you DONT OPEN your mouth.
What is fake news, anything that goes against government policy or is critical of the communist party, or maybe its a vague law that can be simply used to silence any app or media outlet that might speak the truth or host independent voices or maybe protest against the war in the Ukraine
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Anna's Spa and Wellness AirDrie
thank you for knoweledge
Re: I stopped in and told Felcia bye...
Who ever you are paying to promote you is posting spam on other websites that have nothing to do with your industry.
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/03/07/tiktok-stops-the-tiktoking-in-russia-as-it-tries-to-figure-out-its-new-fake-news-law/
There are multiple posts being made in your name, to try and raise your google rating. It doesn’t work like that and it makes your business look sketchy.
Reconsider using a service that uses lies to promote your website.