I have been posting thoughts similar to your 3d paragraph too and totally agree. More generally : anyone posting unsubstantiated or demonstrably false disinformation presented as fact, with the intention of influencing policy, should be held accountable.

the only place i differ with is about the role of social media - maybe better for you because you feel you have more choices but it also has been weaponized by those who are most responsible for the issues in your first paragraph

anyway we agree more than we disagree

1 - “spectrum holders” = “media” in shorthand

2 - understood it never applied bla bla, but at the time FD was in effect bcast was massively the primary news source for mass audiences 3 - huh???

4 - nonsense? my turn to LOL, human politics run on stories and narratives, not fact. You can dig up enough words to justify anything including bullshit like “money = speech” so why not “Internet protocols belong to the people” and go from there. It’s a thought experiment: taxes paid for it, let’s have the discussion that regulation up and down the stack is reasonable

5 - so, you going to go for it? Remember “It’s free speech!!” yea fire in a theater. same as “stop the steal!” “vaccines are poison!” and the rest of the rightwing lies and propaganda. It needs to be stopped, and by any available means.

What makes you think I don’t know? Odd. Let me explain again: the spectrum is a public good, part of the Commons. The DEAL with the media outlets was this: “We the Gov’t will allow you to use part of the public Commons but there will be rules. If you don’t want rules, then you can’t use the airwaves.“ Then far-right radical media whined that it wasn’t “fair” and argued 1st amendment.

I suggest you try the following experiment: walk into the middle of a shopping mall. Scream at the top of your lungs that you set a massive fire and everyone must RUN! RUN! And that you have a gun and you’re going to blow everyone’s head off.

Tell your lawyer to use a 1st amendment defense and get back to us, let us know how it goes.

Media used to be regulated, in exchange for the networks’ permission to use the airwaves, a public resource.

since TCP/IP was developed using taxpayer dollars the foundational protocol should be considered part of the Commons and massive social networks should be subject to laws regulating disinformation, propaganda, and fraud.

The libertarians among you are aghast of course. But the quality of life has demonstrably degraded with the rise in unfettered social media, coupled with the gutting of the Fairness Doctrine.

The narrative of “the only good system is an unregulated system” is a lie that benefits a few at the expense of the many.