It’s time to hold anti-social social media to account

Aday of reckoning has arrived for social-media behemoths, which in recent years have had an inordinate degree of influence on our nation’s commerce, culture and politics.

The turmoil in the socalled “Twitterverse” has been thoroughly publicized. After some starts and stops, it was acquired by Elon Musk, reputedly the world’s richest man. He promised to end its practice of silencing the voices of conservatives.

Upon taking over, Musk fired half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees. Hundreds of others quit rather than work for him. Then, after promising to uphold freedom of speech, he barred a Twitter user who was tracking movements of his private jet — then suspended the accounts of reporters who pointed out the hypocrisy.

Now Musk has pledged to give up his role as CEO, allegedly in response to a poll showing that a majority of Twitter users wanted him out. There is speculation, however, that his pending departure as CEO was done at the behest of a Saudi prince who holds a major stake in Twitter.

There is one benefit emerging from Musk’s brief reign: the disclosure of Twitter’s internal communications showing that some of the silencing of conservatives prior to the 2020 election — whether on issues related to COVID or Hunter Biden’s laptop — was prompted by officials within the FBI.

The House of Representatives, soon to be under Republican control, will investigate. Unfortunately, that kind of collusion, if documented, will fuel other “deep state” narratives spread by conspiracy theorists.

There’s nothing illegal about Twitter’s banning certain points of view. As a private business, it’s free to do so, a right underscored in 1974 by the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in the case of Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo.

In ruling that The Herald could not be forced to publish a response from then-teacher union leader Pat Tornillo, Justice Warren Burger’s opinion noted that the U.S. Constitution guarantees a free press, not necessarily a fair press.

Meanwhile, in the “Metaverse,” which includes Facebook and Instagram, there was more bad news. These socialmedia outlets are the targets of lawsuits by attorneys representing 1,200 families whose children suffered from bullying, pure meanness, and a variety of other harm that led to problems ranging from eating disorders to suicide.

On Dec. 11, CBS’s “60 Minutes” did an extensive segment on the lawsuit.

Internal documents have shown that the barriers intended to prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content were as porous as our nation’s Southern border. The consistent aim was to retain all users and induce them to buy things.

These social-media giants also are coming under increased scrutiny abroad, primarily over privacy concerns. The European Union is considering regulations to curtail the practice whereby each user’s clicks on links can generate algorithms that lead to unwelcome ads, spam and scams.

All of this suggests that local and state governments need to review the extent to which they’ve made social media — especially Twitter and Facebook — their preferred channels of communication between their constituents on the one hand and their public servants on the other.

Announcements of broad public interest are tweeted out. Citizens with a complaint or other concerns are encouraged to use Facebook to contact the appropriate agency within the bureaucracy.

Joining social media ought to be a choice, and nobody should have to sign up in order to communicate with city hall or a school district or the state. Indeed, governments at all levels ought to be required to provide — and adequately staff — other channels of communication, including simple phone calls and emails.

When it comes to Facebook and the rest, I share the view of the late Betty White, the beloved comic actress who died on New Year’s Eve a year ago.

In the era when the broadcast networks were dominant, she was one of the main characters on two high-rated sitcoms, CBS’ “Mary Tyler Moore” and NBC’s “Golden

Girls,” set in Miami but shot elsewhere.

But her most memorable lines may have been the ones she uttered when a campaign by Facebook users in 2010 made her the oldest person ever to host “Saturday Night Live.” Expressing puzzlement in her opening monologue, she quipped “When I first heard about Facebook, I didn’t know what it was. And now that I do know what it is, I have to say that it sounds like a huge waste of time.”

I second that emotion.

Robert F. Sanchez, of Tallahassee, is a former member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. He writes for the Herald’s conservative opinion newsletter, Right to the Point. It’s weekly and free: miamiherald.com/rightto thepoint.