Election Year or Fear!

[swaledale]

The Americans can take whatever measures they chose when considering who they let in the country in my view.

In many ways I think this is a positive step forward if it regulates the ****show that is social media and makes people take responsibility for the defamatory *******s they write. If moves like this cause social media sites to shut down or moderate the content that people are permitted to write from behind the curtains of anonymity then great - a step in the right direction. Of course the danger is in politically biased interpretation of what can and cant be said, and there is a question of a "right of free speech" - but what I see out there at the moment is about 50% hate speak. Social media is a wild west with no frontiers - certain parts of it are as if the KKK have been revived - most people wouldnt stand for that in real life but behind the screen the keyboard warriors have adopted the same standards

Indeed they can and they are already feeling the impact through a sharp reduction in tourist numbers.

As for your second point, but that's clearly not what the Trump administrations agenda is. Given the emphasis by Trump and his cohorts against the EU regulating social media and the tech companies and the claim made that this in some way "cancels" free speech.

Indeed as is well known, Trump and Musk have removed the restrictions and bans from people who spout hateful and falsehoods on X, Fakebook and Meta have disbanded the teams that used to moderate topics and remove posts that had discriminatory, false, misleading or downright dangerous content. So the Trump administration and its allies have encouraged the wild west mentality with no boundaries that you describe.

Its absolutely clear that Trump and his government, as with all politicians of an autocratic nature, dislike criticism and for all their statements about free speech, it clearly only applies if that speech is not directed at them. Funny how dictators and would be dictators are so thin skinned.

The proof of this extends to Trump's attacks on any media deemed unsympathetic to his views, where he wields threats about restricting their access, initiates law suits and applies pressure to the owners.

Nice try, but your proposition fails even the most cursory examination of the facts.