Robby Soave is making a name for himself among the younger generation of libertarian journalists. His Tech Panic addresses many of the overblown concerns and bad recommendations about social media. The attacks come from both the right and the left, and they’re disturbingly similar even though the two sides hate each other. They’re often attacks on free speech as such.

I should mention that I don’t like the big social media platforms very much. Rather than go off on a major rant, I’ll just leave it at that. I make minimal use of Facebook and have given up on Twitter, and I’m not biased in their favor.

Politicians often demand the repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The bulk of the CDA was declared unconstitutional, but Section 230 remains as protection for hosting companies and their users. It says, basically, that websites aren’t responsible for user-posted content. There are some exceptions; for instance, hosts have to take down child porn as fast as they can. But if a user violates a copyright or libels a person, the liability falls on the user, not the host.

Without Section 230 protection, social media sites would have to be more proactive in taking down user content. For their own protection, they’d need to remove content in borderline cases and perhaps even review everything before it becomes visible. This would make it harder to post controversial material. Trump wants 230 repealed because he thinks that it would mean fewer takedowns. We don’t expect Trump to make sense, but Biden also wants its repeal: “The idea that it’s a tech company is that Section 230 should be revoked, immediately should be revoked, number one.” That’s the usual Biden incoherence, but at least we know what he wants.

Soave suggests, “Perhaps Bien and Warren want to live in a world where social media is required to vet content for accuracy and liability before it is published because they are politically savvy, and realize that this would harm conservative speech.”

Another big concern is Internet addiction. We’re told that people spend all day staring into their phones, not having any real-life interactions with people. (This concern started even before COVID made it a frequent necessity.) Soave argues convincingly that this fear is mostly overblown, noting similar dire warnings throughout history. Pocket radios, television, and perhaps even the invention of writing provoked similar reactions.

He argues against the claim that the Internet promotes echo chambers, saying “study after study casts doubt on it.” Here I’m skeptical, based on my personal experience. People who spend a lot of time on Facebook or Twitter become nasty. But I haven’t done studies, and maybe I’m wrong.

While a lot in the book is good, I get the impression that Soave’s knowledge of Internet technology doesn’t run deep. He keeps ascribing intentions to algorithms, as if computational procedures had desires and wishes. He says very little about encryption, even when talking about terrorists’ use of Telegraph to communicate. There isn’t much about security issues. For whatever reason, the book stays clear of topics that would require more than an average user’s understanding of the tech. That’s a better choice than getting in over his head and saying things that don’t make sense, so I’ll give him credit for restraint.

Tech Panic shows that many fears of the Internet are excessive while warning that politicians may make things worse by exploiting those fears. Soave doesn’t deny there are problems, but he puts them in perspective. I recommend the book for both the perspective and the warning.