Million in the first year, which will go to schools. Country Email List Tech giants are threatening legal action against Maryland, while lawmakers in the states of Connecticut and Indiana have introduced similar measures. The Bigger Picture: Country Email List What's at Stake One of the most important and unsettled debates of the internet age is whether digital media platforms like Facebook, Google/YouTube and Twitter are the new "public square", that is, a kind of agora of global freedom of expression , or simply the most modern Country Email List technological version of the old publishing and radio and television broadcasting companies.
Or, perhaps, a hybrid between the two. Country Email List Even before the seminal events of this year—the attack on Capitol Hill and the decision by Facebook, Google, and Twitter to discontinue publishing from the president of the United States— Country Email List big tech companies acted as publishers by putting their algorithms in the hands of "participation" crucial decisions about what content is featured at the top of users' news streams and what is promoted and amplified. Their sophisticated " long tail " publishing machines use precise content targeting Country Email List systems to target user niches, to show different content to different people, including political advertising. This is not about passive online chat board.
Nor are the big tech platforms Country Email List mere administrators of a digital public square. They are “bot publishers” in which algorithms carry out the essential tasks of a publisher. From a legal or accountability point of view, it Country Email List should matter little whether what is behind the curtain is a supercomputer or a human being. In fact, these companies have more in common with the New York Times , Bild , and Rupert Murdoch than they do with an online or a free-expression corner in London's Hyde Park. However, Country Email List current law does not treat these companies as publishers or radio or television broadcasters, particularly in terms of responsibility or accountability.