Free Speech: The Firestorm Tech Can No Longer Afford to Ignore

First Contact with Laurie Segall

We are living through pretty surreal times... Most of the country is still shut down due to COVID-19. Over the last few days we’ve seen protests and riots across the country following the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man. All while Facebook faces a crisis of its own: internal and external revolt in response to the company’s inaction towards President Trump’s inflammatory posts.

Barry Schnitt was Facebook’s Director of Communications for four years and his recent blog post criticizing the company’s stance on free speech has gotten a lot of attention — especially since Facebook employees, even former ones, are normally so tight-lipped. He talks to Laurie about why both current and former employees are speaking out.

—————————————Show Notes

• Early Facebook employees’ open letter
• Barry’s blog post
• Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

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