Podcast: How do we face censorship in the era of misinformation?

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Picture of Fourth Estate stage, where a discussion on censorship of the media took place

The big question facing journalists nowadays is: how do we approach censorship? Two senior members of the media discuss news censorship within the era of media misinformation.

Can journalists be too prone to protecting vested interests, their own and that of the status quo? Where do we draw the line between controlling what information gets shared and what doesn’t? Who decides where this line should be drawn?

Stephen Engelberg and Daniel Klaidman, editors-in-chief of ProPublica and Yahoo News respectively, weighed up both sides of the debate in their recent talk at Collision 2022.

“Getting our findings into the heads of people”

Stephen was referring to the challenge facing today’s news outlets in reaching readers at all. The advent of social media and digital news has stretched people’s focus in all directions. This has left less room for journalists to write reasoned, long-form articles, which limits the type and quality of information reaching people.

And this type of news, delivered by trustworthy sources, is key to battling misinformation that incites hate or furthers hidden personal, commercial or political agendas.

To censor or not to censor?

The question of whether or not to control the information we consume, how we would do it and who would do it was weighed evenly by the two journalists.

Stephen said, on the one hand, “I’m nervous about the notion that a corporation … can decide whether … tweets are seen or not. That seems a large amount of power to give to someone who has been elected by nobody and is only answerable to a board of directors out to maximise profit.” However, he also said “allowing anybody to spew whatever they want over social media also seems over the top.”

Daniel agreed that content censorship is contentious. However, he also noted that greater regulation of the algorithms tech companies use to get news in front of online readers can help restrict misinformation without impinging too greatly on freedom of expression.

“There are areas that I think would benefit from more regulation … such as algorithms. This is because I see a distinction between algorithmic and human, editorial judgement. This is because algorithms on social media are all about monetisation and engagement.”

Stephen Engelberg, editor-in-chief of ProPublica, and Daniel Klaidman, editor-in-chief of Yahoo News, spoke on the Fourth Estate stage at Collision 2022 in Toronto.

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Main image: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)

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