Originally Posted by
Geoff Parkstone
It seems to me that the only way is to throw the baby out with the bathwater and have a total clampdown on social media. The companies making billions out of hosting these platforms have to be forced, globally, to act with responsibility in shutting down offending mouths, stopping the return of banned accounts and having some stringent control in allowing profiles onto the platforms in the first place eg perhaps photo id / passports / driving licenses etc. Its far too easy to set up temporary, disappearing overnight, accounts and the platforms of course want to grab as many accounts as they can to maximise monetization.
Clearly the human element will not stop and so a concerted effort to blacklist (can I say that?) offenders is the only way. No 3 strikes rule either - one offensive post and goodbye, no parole, no return. No matter that you posted some drunken rant, tough: learn self control. The tech is surely there to achieve this, but the willingness does not appear to be.
You're right that racism has been around for time immemorial, but there has never been a better time than now for those racists to spread their word. I'd wager that there are substantially less racists now than in the 60's, but those that there are, are way more vocal, having been given a free platform to spout from to all the world and, worse yet, directly target individual accounts as well.
The solution is clear to see - sever the throat and the voice will go unheard, but the tech giants are more powerful than the governments it seems - governments of whatever hue before you make it a conservatives issue. You may never change the mindset, but you might ensure it goes largely unheard