DAVID HARSANYI: Mark Zuckerberg’s Plan For The Internet Would Be A Disaster For Free Expression. “Zuckerberg’s case for government-instituted speech codes is a cynical attempt to deflect criticism aimed at his company.”

More than anything it’s an attempt to foster a regulatory scheme advantageous to established players like Facebook, which Harsanyi gets to in the second half of his column:

What Zuckerberg’s plan does is undermine competition. If a private company like Facebook sets speech codes that are too stifling for users, another innovator will jump into the gap and create a platform that isn’t. While I assume free political expression isn’t the predominate concern of most social media users, it does exist. When government sets a “baseline” for what’s acceptable for all websites, there’s no longer competition for open debate.

Worse, deliberation over free expression would be moved to the political arena, where the influence of scaremongering officials, ideologues, and rent-seeking tech corporations like Twitter, Facebook, and Google would dominate decisions.

Indeed.