Cambridge Analytica Promotes Hate Speech and Incites Violence. So Prosecute them.

Today, the Washington Post’s Christian Caryl documented the frightening weaponization of Facebook in wars, crimes against humanity and the incitement of violence around the world. The argument that Facebook’s lawyers would undoubtedly make is that Facebook is simply a neutral platform for the dissemination of information. In other words, don’t shoot the messenger.

I’m not an expert on Facebook, so I’ll leave the argument over whether or not Facebook should be held responsible for inciting violence or spreading hate speech to others. But Caryl titles his article “Forget Cambridge Analytica….” I disagree.

Cambridge Analytica deliberately created, tested and spread hate speech and incited violence online. They did this on purpose in order to swing elections in various countries. But many countries, like France, have hate speech laws. Germany’s new hate speech law for online speech took effect this January. If John Galliano must spend time in jail for hate speech, why not the executives of Cambridge Analytica?

Oh, but what about legal jurisdiction? The countries where the hate speech is occurring, such as in Sri Lanka, and the countries with hate speech laws, like Germany, are not the same. True…but Britain has a brand new online hate speech law, as a matter of fact. Isn’t Cambridge Analytica based in the UK?