J.D. TUCCILLE: Don’t Look to the State to Keep Social Media Companies From Imposing Ideological Conformity.

Last week, former Google manager William Echikson wrote that his old employer has shifted from efforts in favor of free speech to trying “to convince authorities in Europe and elsewhere that the internet giant is serious about cracking down on illegal content. The more takedowns it can show, the better.” He added that out of eagerness to comply with increasingly draconian directives to suppress unpleasant and inconvenient messages, “legal content is being censored.”

Germany introduced a new Internet censorship law last year which requires cooperation from social media companies, and France and the UK are also tightening their online efforts against “hate speech.”

Picking up on our own President Trump’s insistence that hostile media outlets should be punished for spreading “fake news,” Malaysia plans prison terms for spreading “fake news” as defined by government officials.

And online publishers across the United States are busy shutting down sexually related online forums and even personals out of fear of the legal penalties against “sex trafficking” in the FOSTA bill.

That’s a big reason why we shouldn’t look to governments for solutions to the problem of social media companies imposing ideological conformity. It’s annoying when a social media site sidelines your politically incorrect post or boots you for an off-color joke. But when government agencies exercise muzzling power, they impose fines and jail time.

Governments may not target speech for the same reasons as tech-industry smugsters, but they do so vigorously, and with nastier tools.

“Celebrate diversity” always seems to devolve into “enforce conformity.”