In the meantime, the problem seems to grow only more urgent. There’s a ton of ugly vitriol being poured into social media. We need to keep the Internet free and open, but we also need it to be a civilized, hospitable place where all people can be comfortable and safe. Creative solutions are vital.
Jenna Wortham. The rest of the article makes it abundantly clear that neither Wortham nor anyone else has any idea how these competing imperatives can be reconciled. That’s because they can’t. The problem is that the reflexive libertarianism of our tech world confuses “a free and open internet” with a situation in which anyone can say anything, no matter how abusive, to anyone anywhere.