Social media posts inciting hate and division have “real world consequences” and there is a responsibility to regulate content, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, insisted on Friday, following Meta’s decision to end its fact-checking programme in the United States.
Agreed. In fact, the whole concept of inalienable rights, specifically the phase “all men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence, was used to justify the American Revolution. In essence, people are endowed with certain rights from their creator, one of which is deciding which powers to be subject to. If your government doesn’t represent your interests, you have the moral right to reject it and seek to replace it with one that does.
So yes, we absolutely need to fight to protect the rights we do have, and reestablish those we lost. Giving up even more rights in the process is counter-productive. We need more movements like the Civil Rights movement to demand change. We’ve given up too much power to the police, intelligence agencies, and more, and we should absolutely actively resist and demand restoration of our full rights.