CSM: Tech Companies Caught Between US, EU Ideals

A recent cluster of terrorist attacks has prompted French and British politicians to introduce regulation imposing financial penalties on internet firms that do not sufficiently curtail the flow of extremist propaganda. As a result, YouTube, its parent company Google, and Facebook announced their own plans to preempt these laws that could negatively affect their financial bottom line as well as their promise to be forums “for a free exchange of ideas,” reports Amanda Paulson for the Christian Science Monitor. Individuals across the world use these websites, so the increasing pressure from European governments “has the effect of making EU speech norms apply to everyone, even though in many cases their definitions of hate speech and extremist speech are very broad,” Paulson argues. The United States reaffirmed in June that the First Amendment of the Constitution protects hate speech. Indeed, the country is an outlier compared to Canada, Mexico and the European Union, all of which have passed legislation to combat hate speech. —YaleGlobal