Regulate social media?It's not as easy as it seems!

四川雙流中學 蔣建平（特級教師）

體裁 議論文 文章詞數 374 建議用時 7 min

難詞探意

1.consensus/k?n?sens?s/ n.一致的意見；共識

2.unilaterally/?ju?n??l?tr?li/ adv.單方面地；單邊地

3.regime/re???i?m/ n.政權；政體

4.legislation/?led??s?le??n/ n.法律；立法

5.sanction/?s??k?n/ n.制裁；處罰

Social media companies should no longer be left to monitor and remove harmful content themselves,but should be regulated by an independent body,recommends a new paper following the Christchurch terror attack.

A report from the Helen Clark Foundation is calling on an independent regulatory body to be created to oversee the regulation of social media companies.

The report's co-author Katherine Errington told Newsroom that the consensus about regulating tech companies had shifted from not wanting to regulate at all to making sure that the regulation was done well.She said some countries like Singapore had created an environment where governments were in the position of deciding“what is true”.Singapore's fake news laws allow the government to unilaterally remove content which it deems to be untrue.Critics argue this allows the government to get rid of free speech.

Errington said that,by contrast,she wanted to propose “a democratic model”.Her paper proposes an independent regulatory body along the lines of the New Zealand Media Council and Broadcasting Standards Authority.This would replace the current regime in which social media companies are largely left to selfregulate how they monitor and remove harmful content.She said the regulator needs to be comprised of a range of voices including those of government and public interest groups.Errington is calling for the Law Commission to review regulation of social media to close some of the holes in the legislation.

Another issue is how to appropriately punish social media companies who break the rules.Errington said sanctions tend to fit into three broad categories:financial punishment,individual liability of executives,and the disruption of media companies'business.

In all cases,the trend overseas has been for increasingly severe sanctions on social media companies.However，they have also highlighted the need for social media companies to act quickly to take harmful content off their platforms,recognising that content left online for longer becomes exponentially more difficult to remove.

In any case Errington sees the fact that the debate has moved from whether action should be taken to what form that action should be taken as a positive thing.New Zealanders will get their first look at the government's response this week when the“Christchurch Call”is unveiled in Paris.

Reading Check

1.What does the new paper following the Christchurch terror attack argue?

2.How did people's consensus about regulating tech companies change according to Katherine Errington?

3.Why can we say that Singapore is strict in regulating social media?

4.Who plays a leading role in controlling harmful content according to paragraph 4?

5.How many categories of sanctions are applied to punish illegal social media companies?

Language Study

Difficult sentence

However,they have also highlighted the need for social media companies to act quickly to take harmful content off their platforms,recognising that content left online for longer becomes exponentially more difficult to remove.

【翻譯】

【點石成金】句中的have highlighted 為謂語部分，the need 為賓語，for social media companies to act quickly to take harmful content off their platforms 為動詞不定式的復合結構作后置定語。recognising that...to remove 在句中作伴隨狀語，that 引導的句子作及物動詞recognise 的賓語從句；content left online...to remove 是一個“主語+系動詞+adj.+to do”句型，在此句型中，當主語與不定式構成動賓關系時，動詞不定式常用主動形式表達被動含義。