Intersectional Tech Policy: A Framework (V1) — temi lasade-anderson

"However, as private companies with their own Western ideological underpinnings, they are not neutral platforms. These websites moderate or curate the content that users see, overwhelmingly in opaque ways that rely on simplistic technical solutions."

"Moreover, while platforms do include hate speech and hateful conduct policies which specify protections towards protected classes such as race, gender and caste, regulatory proposals tend to focus on the removal of ‘illegal’ content. ‘Illegal content’ as a determining factor is a distinctly race-neutral approach. To determine what is illegal is both subjective and incredibly difficult to enforce, and asking platforms to remove illegal content without specific definitions (e.g., not ‘legal but harmful’) would require tech companies to increase surveillance of users and give them additional powers which could infringe on freedom of speech and expression. Thus, currently, platforms do not have the incentive to introduce additional content moderation measures which would directly impact their bottom line (Liu, 2019)."