Editor’s note: David Gardner is founder of Cofounders Capital in Cary and is a regular contributor to WRAL TechWire. He and other columnists are part of our regular Startup Monday package.
Note to readers: WRAL TechWire would like to hear from you about views expressed by our contributors. Please send email to: [email protected].
CARY – When I was a young man, things were simple. Communism was bad and capitalism was good. Censorship was bad and free speech was good. The battle lines were clear and it was obvious which side you should be on.
Today we live in a much more complicated world. Totally unregulated capitalism can, and often has, hurt the public interest and the liberties we so cherish. Nowhere is this more evident today than in the area of social media. We would all agree that freedom of speech is one of the inalienable rights guaranteed by the constitution but many interpret this as the right to say and post anything without moderation or consequences regardless of its truthfulness or the harm it may cause.
A number of legal battles have been in the news lately involving this question. Google is currently before the supreme court which will decide if the company is liable for enabling terrorist groups to openly communicate their propaganda and even coordinate attacks through social media.
On the one hand you have self-proclaimed “free speech” proponents like Elon Musk who seems to be transforming Twitter out of the...
The Dangote Group has dismissed as false and malicious claims of a rift between its President, Aliko Dangote, and the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, and also rejected allegations that h...