This afternoon there was a spirited discussion on the In Lieu of Fun show about Twitter, Facebook, content moderation on social media, suspensions, bans, etc. This discussion was a consequence of the Facebook pages of Ben Wittes, In Lieu of Fun, and Lauren Roberts being suspended yesterday because of the way Lauren and Ben advertised yesterday’s show about QAnon. Facebook’s AI interpreted the language used as promoting QAnon. If Ben and (especially) Kate Klonick had not been "connected" as they are, the ban on those pages might have lasted quite a long time (which they both acknowledged). Indeed, Lauren Roberts, not so well connected, found herself in the position of not even being able to get to the plate, much less first base, in trying to get her personal page back until Ben and Kate were able to effect a solution with Facebook.

So, the discussion, as these things usually go (and the conversation in the chat, as well), centered on fairly high matters of principle, as discussions in the legal community usually are. My concerns are quite different.

My view begins here: social media is sui generis with respect to the past. Consider: the John Birch Society might have taken over the GOP in the 50s if the internet and social media had been around then. The Birchers were not able to then because of the gatekeeping of William Buckley and others in conservative media to freeze out them out. Similar points could be made about the American Communist Party being frozen out by liberal media. But I want to emphasize here that the real threats to American democracy have always been from the right. My overarching point is that with the advent of social media, the old guardrails against radicalism of any stripe have disappeared, and that a new public regime has appeared where radicalism (especially on the right) is amplified daily. The consequences for public life are obvious: a majority of Republicans think the election was fraudulent and that Trump actually won.

Where are we now? We have a majority of the GOP thinking that the election was stolen and that Trump won. We have a yougov poll reporting that 45% of the GOP rank-and-file support the insurrection at the Capitol on Wednesday. In a chilling Twitter thread this morning, Jelani Cobb lays out the case that we should expect a continuing insurrectionist, revanchist movement in this country that will seek to "restore" Trump to the Presidency.

None of this could have happened without the corrosive effects of social media. So, yes, by all means, let’s talk about free speech and high principles. I like doing that, too; but don’t forget or ignore the very real consequences to the fabric of our nation that social media has wrought.