I don’t want censorship by govt or tech companies. But I also don’t think it’s censorship to outlaw shouting “FIRE!” in a crowded theatre when there is no evidence of a fire.

So how do I feel about endless and baseless assertions that the “election was rigged”, or fraudulent, or riddled with inaccuracies, without a whiff of evidence to support them? Not the threat to life and limb of my first example, but certainly a threat.

In a real world theatre, person next to me might well say “we’re fine, I don’t smell smoke.” On the internet, that person would be in a different theatre, and I’d be stuck with a bunch of hysterical people not stopping long enough to consider the lack of any smoke.

That’s the problem with the internet generally. There have always been limits on speech, mostly more subtle than my example. I can be pursued for libel; I can be held criminally liable for making false accusations to the police. Truth or at least supportable assertions matter. TV ads can’t make subliminal suggestions to me, or irresponsibly target kids.

The virtual world lacks even these most basic safeguards. In an ideal world, we’d figure out a way to apply our real world definition of protected free speech to the virtual world.