Trump’s lasting legacy may be changes to the way we value free speech and regulate social media
Depending on your political and social leanings, the Trump era will have excited, inflamed, disgusted, inspired and created conflict and challenges where stability and balance was once the norm. What, if anything has been learnt from the time the Trump show came to town, particularly in terms of the apparent conflict between free speech and the need to regulate / manage alternative truths, hate speech and language the insights people to violent acts?
Some argue that free speech is a cornerstone of a democracy and once eroded, the very democracy it underpins is at threat. Others will argue that free speech cannot exist without boundaries that work within acceptable boundaries that preclude the ability to insight violence or to direct hate speech to groups based on their gender, race or religion.
In the final days of the Trump Presidency we are seeing the generally unregulated internet imposing limits on what can and cant be said with ‘fact checking’ and bans on content being applied by the service providers. These actions are being applauded in some quarters and attacked by others as the beginning of the end for free speech.
Free speech is a privilege that healthy democracies require to thrive. Ideas should be able to be shared and tested without fear or favour. Only time will tell whether we have embarked on a journey that will see more and more constraints applied to the level of discourse allowed on social media. Is this the beginning of the end for free speech or the end of the beginning as social media reforms?