Censoring Ourselves Into a Stone Age

The social media effect on energy and health policy

On Tuesday, the American Enterprise Institute hosted an event, Digital Platforms and American Life: A Conference on Technology and Government, organized by my colleague Adam White. Other panels focused on artificial intelligence, permissionless innovation, broadband deployment, and American tech leadership. I joined a discussion on “Content Moderation,” or digital censorship, if you prefer. Other speakers analyzed the legal and cultural angles. I zoomed out and argued that whatever one thinks of the Constitutional (First Amendment) and legal/policy (e.g. Sec. 230) questions, which are indeed tricky, the new censorship regime is leading to profound and destructive real-world consequences.

Two prime examples are the European energy crisis and the policy response to Covid-19. The energy shock is partly the result of a multi-decade blackout of rational views on climate science and energy policy, which assisted Europe in destroying its own energy infrastructure. During Covid-19, the censors deployed this climate playbook – capture the science journals, demonize and erase off-message experts, enforce one narrative in the legacy media – but in addition, they super-scaled the template with newer and more powerful information tools. Government minders also deployed in force. A little censorship can induce widespread self-censorship, I argued. The result is one of the biggest debacles in the history of science and public policy.

You can find my opening remarks, beginning around 32:30, and the back-and-forth in the video above.