The human race is shifting towards a Utopian and Dystopian society at an equal pace. We are seeing less murder and violent crimes, wars and racial attacks because we now have the internet as a platform to release our aggression onto others!
So it stands to reason that if violent words and hate crimes are committed through language in the online ether, we should employ the same methodology of punishment as we experience in society. Right?
Let's have a look at the current status of punishment for online 'crimes'.
They can ban you from a platform, much like a child is suspended or expelled from school. Much like a convict is removed from society, you can be removed from Facebook, except without fair trial.
They can remove your post, much like an embarrassed parent tried to hide the shame of their kid for acting out.
You can even experience a public execution on Twitter!
The issue with these non-democratic responses is that they provide no opportunity for reconciliation or rehabilitation. No opportunity to understand why someone is being punished. It is an authoritarian regime that hand out speeding fines without there being a speed limit, who remove you from society for passing notes in class and these are the same institutions which are designed to rob you of your time.
Response in Kind
Perhaps, for those committing online 'crimes', some educational videos may help educate them on where they went wrong, just like we have 'Speed awareness' courses in the UK for drivers with a minor contravention. An opportunity to learn why their ideas are not in keeping with the ethos of the platforms. I remain cynical that something like this would ever be employed, because while the platforms spokespeople say one thing, their actions of how they remove content and content creators is almost entirely from a leftist standpoint.
There are so many moving parts to these platforms, which is currently the wild west, exposed to a society which must now learn to navigate this new challenge having just completed a number of previous, albeit more deadly challenges.
Perhaps government intervention is the only way to penetrate the infrastructure of these social media platforms. What started out as platforms of free expression are slowly morphing into soul sucking corporations and should be policed much the like the rest of the corporate world - poorly.
