"You cannot understand the role that technology will play in a society if you don't understand the society in question". Me, many times. In the context of German politics and society this is absolutely consistent. https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1348689567004585988

Germany, unlike the US, has a government that has proactively taken on tech companies. Many of the stringent global regulations on content, privacy and data protection begin in Germany, so she's coming from a context where the government doesn't wait for things to spiral to act.

So the argument that tech companies should have the power to arbitrarily kick people off platforms makes little sense. Why would they need to when the state proactively intervenes to curb excesses of speech on and offline? Why entrust a private corporation with a public freedom?

Remember that if you tweet out a picture of a swatstika in New York a person in Germany can't see it on your account. That's how granular regulations on social media in Germany are. There is no need to wait for the companies to act because the policy makers already do.

If you're in media find room in your roster for people from outside the US thinking about this stuff because many of them have been doing so for a long time and may have interesting and different perspective on what can happen and what impact it may have.

Germany esp. but the EU more broadly, for countries that drew a line line the sand. You may not agree with the final form of what the regulations look like but corporations listened. And also places like Myanmar where the state basically coopted social networks to spread hate.