In a few short years, social media platforms have gone from being shiny new paragons of the internet’s virtue to globally despised scourges. Once credited with fostering a global civil society and bringing down tyrannical governments, they are now blamed for an incredible assortment of social ills. In a new study, Milton Mueller suggests that the moral panic and proposals for regulation threaten freedom and democracy far more than the social media platforms themselves.
Closing the Chinese mind would be tragic at any time. But especially now, since the end of Maoism had offered hope of a new and better future. The Chinese people deserve the opportunity to think for themselves.
