We are kind of wrestling with how to get social media right. Mr. Elon Musk has bought Twitter, and is trying to change the system so that it is fundamentally following some basic civilisation principles that further our world to a better place.
But the thing is; what are those principles really.
I have discussed this to some extent, but let me try and further the discussion, to help mr. Musk in his difficult work with free speech.
First of all, the internet is the brainchild of the Danish philosopher K.E. Løgstrup. Løgstrup was the friend of Niels Bohr, who went to the US during the Manhattan project that built the first nuclear bomb.
So they really shared ideas. Løgstrup had the idea, that there are three “livsytringer” or expressions of life; openness, trust and mercy. According to Løgstrup, these life expressions are psychological basic parts of our psychology. We are born with these traits of our mind or soul.
What happens as we grow older, is that we meet a lot of conflict and have problems with the ethics of other people. So these life expressions are diminished. They become less of our personality. We are less open, trustfull and show less mercy.
Therefor ethics is so important, to PROTECT openness, trust and mercy.
Niels Bohr only presented one of the life expressions that of openness, and that led to open source and the internet as such.
So, what do we do, when we lose trust and openness, we try to understand each other, in dialogue. According to Løgstrup, 80% of our conflicts are essentially misunderstandings.
So we need to PROTECT each person in social media, and therefor weed out immoral things as child pornography and so on.
BUT, this ideology counters the tradition of free speech. Free speech is essentially Socratism. Philosophers as Voltaire and Holberg (a danish philosopher) fought for the right to criticise the government and power as such. Often with their own life at stake. Remember Socrates was forced to take his own life.
Socrates had the idea, that truth should be spoken at all costs, to force us to see our own faults.
Journalism is based on this tradition, the first newspapers were published by the courageous gendarmes of the early Napoleonic Democratic forces.
So, if journalism works, it enlightens and pushes the truth.
So this is the succes of journalism, and when journalism looses this drive, it is criticised, rightfully.
So there is a balance to find here. We need to protect children, make people discuss in a civilised way and so on. But we ALSO need to make room for the truthseekers.
At least, this is the true conflict of interest, we need to find a balance between.
What it all comes down to, is by what rules do we censure.
If you ask Niels Borh and Løgstrup it is pretty obvious, we censure to protect trust, openness and mercy.
It is not about protecting minorities, what is a very important thing, it is about protecting peoples trust in each other.
At the same time, we need to make room for truthseekers as well.
At least, this is the theoretical basis we work upon.
G-d bless the will to be open in dialogue, and protect people with the right intentions and methods.