I think that Alphabet Inc should be held to a higher standard than a publisher of a newspaper in a small town because Alphabet Inc’s reach to more people in the public is much wider. The small town publisher is only able to give out information to those in the small town while the Alphabet Inc can spread information and online content to anyone who has the internet. The internet facilitates the exchange of views and communications regarding everything, especially politics. The US highly values individual speech and other speeches protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has recognized many types of unprotected speech, which typically is with serious harms and few benefits for society. The book says “content shared through social media sticks around because technologies are designed to enable persistence.” This is why I feel that there needs to be a higher standard set to impose liability with online conduct. Alphabet Inc would be responsible for the information that has a huge visibility ratio and the permanence of it being on the internet. Things that are harmful need to be regulated for public safety. The internet is not to be taken lightly and there needs to be a fine line between protected free speech and speech that can harm many due to the open access to the public.
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