If Democrats win in Georgia, big tech will have to change

As an ex-president, Trump won’t have as much freedom to lie on social media — but that will still be too much

By now, we know the Georgia run-off elections are essential for the Democrats to win if future economic relief vital to America's recovery from the pandemic is to be legislated.

It also may determine the survival of the Republic — a victory for the party seeking to restore democratic normalcy against Trump’s authoritarian mob conspiring to overthrow a free and fair election.

This can’t just be a symbolic win for Democrats, however. They must embark on the meaningful work to undo the Trump era. If Warnock and Ossoff prevail, a Democratic majority should once and for all enforce digital accountability and ensure that Twitter is no longer where politicians go to proliferate their disinformation and start a coup.

The irony of Trump’s attacks on Section 230 is that he needs what it provides — immunity for lies made on social media platforms — far more than the Democrats. What do the election-tampering and false claims to overturn election results by Trump, Hawley, Cruz, Sidney Powell and Lin Wood all have in common? Social media gave them a verified platform to articulate earnestly their fabrications and make accusations without any evidence.

Take the tweeted video posted yesterday by Trump loyalist Elise Stefanik claiming that overturning the election results is actually supporting the Constitution. Social media is where you say up is down, with zero consequences, and then some sections of the mainstream media will amplify your false arguments.

Modernizing the FCC and reforming Section 230 to streamline communications standards and penalize digital platforms that knowingly perpetuate lies — and are increasingly complicit in the de-democratization of America — should be on the agenda for a Democratic majority. The social monopolies have become an autocrat's poison eroding the norms and democratic sanctity of a three centuries-old republic.

The current incitement of sedition on Twitter via the same unsubstantiated online postings that helped elect Trump makes tame by comparison 2016’s Digital Watergate, anti-Clinton bots, and trolls. Moreover, the tragedy of these past four years is that we have still not learned the real-life ramifications of unchecked online attacks on civil society.

Politicians have refused to learn and confront the basic fact: The health of our cyber discourse matters. Now these platforms are not only advancing disinformation but disinformation whose explicit intention is to overturn a free and fair election.

During the post-election period, the ineffectiveness of Twitter’s “disputed” labels next to false tweets is clear. It has done nothing to deter the president and his allies from posting fabrications. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that as an ex-president, Trump may not be allowed the same conduct on Twitter. That’s a welcome development, but the equivalent of trashing the last few packs of cigarettes after your lungs have failed.  

After the past four years and two presidential campaigns of disinformation infiltrating the social media ecosystem, have we yet learned that cyber-lies are malicious and should be held to account? If they win today, Democrats mustn’t sit idly as social platforms erode the truth with impunity and make impossible the aspiration of an informed electorate.