> We need legislation that balances individual rights and collective rights.
We already have laws which provide penalties for 8+ categories of illegal speech: {Obscenity, Fighting words, Defamation, Child pornography, Perjury, Blackmail, Incitement to imminent lawless action, True threats, fraud, conspiracy to commit a felony, etc}.
My assessment is the tools of the law (police departments, prosecutors, courts, and tort litigation) don't move at the scale of internet posters/commenters.
How long did it take for Alex Jones to build a theory about the Newtown School Shooting kids' parents/families/investigators? He probably just remixed some 4Chan theory in a few minutes then went onto his show unscripted.
How long (and how many resources) did it take the plaintiffs and their lawyers to gather evidence, do discovery, fight AJones's legal motions to delay the case? Literally years. The first case was finally settled 10 years after the shooting.
The law doesn't move fast enough because of the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle[1]. New laws are unlikely to solve that problem. IMHO only very consistent prosecution of people that do violate the law would dissuade law breakers.
If Brandolini's law is true and if there is gonna be a ministry of truth, then that ministry probably needs to grow exponentially and suck up all other ministries until all BS is eliminated.
[The Ministry of Truth] was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
The law moves reasonably fast on criminal cases. The lawsuit against Alex Jones was a civil case, which are inherently less urgent. Many cases were also delayed due to the recent pandemic.
What's your point? 18 months to resolve a criminal case seems reasonable. There's no particular need to move faster. Delays in criminal cases usually happen with the consent of the defendant since they consider it advantageous to have more time, especially if they're not being held in jail. Defendants can usually accelerate the process if they insist on maximally exercising their 6th Amendment rights but most don't.
We already have laws which provide penalties for 8+ categories of illegal speech: {Obscenity, Fighting words, Defamation, Child pornography, Perjury, Blackmail, Incitement to imminent lawless action, True threats, fraud, conspiracy to commit a felony, etc}.
My assessment is the tools of the law (police departments, prosecutors, courts, and tort litigation) don't move at the scale of internet posters/commenters.
How long did it take for Alex Jones to build a theory about the Newtown School Shooting kids' parents/families/investigators? He probably just remixed some 4Chan theory in a few minutes then went onto his show unscripted.
How long (and how many resources) did it take the plaintiffs and their lawyers to gather evidence, do discovery, fight AJones's legal motions to delay the case? Literally years. The first case was finally settled 10 years after the shooting.
The law doesn't move fast enough because of the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle[1]. New laws are unlikely to solve that problem. IMHO only very consistent prosecution of people that do violate the law would dissuade law breakers.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandolini%27s_law