The Future of Our Digital Public Square
When it comes to online speech, how should society weigh the harms associated with disinformation and other hurtful content with the risks and potential chilling effects of government intervention? In a recent study, Gallup and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation examined a segment of the electorate whose attitudes are less heard in today’s partisan debates, but that may offer a glimpse into our digital future: young Americans.
A generation of Americans have now grown up with the internet and social media as natural extensions of their social and political lives. They have come of age in an era of declining institutions, shifting norms, and political uncertainty. And when it comes to tech regulation, their views are also less likely to hew to conventional partisan boundaries.
What cues could policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders take from the attitudes of younger generations of Americans? What do their attitudes portend for the coming decades of tech regulation?
A forward-looking conversation about the future of our digital public square.