🕷️ Crawler Inspector

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Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 25 (from laksa005)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa025.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-01-15/facebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-01-15/facebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/opinion\/story\/2021-01-15\/facebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence","crawl_time":1775853797,"first_indexed_time":1610710338,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,latimes!www,\/opinion\/story\/2021-01-15\/facebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence s443","src_root_hash":"7344800029135033825","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Contributor: Banning Trump from Twitter and Facebook isn't nearly enough - Los Angeles Times","meta_descriptions":["Use liability law to sue Facebook and Twitter for building platforms they knew would nurture and spread toxic extremism."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Social media finally\npulled the plug\non Donald Trump. Days after Trump incited a riot at the U.S. Capitol, Twitter permanently banned the president from its platform, and many other social media companies like Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat suspended Trump’s accounts as well.\nMark Zuckerberg and the other creators of the most powerful speech engines in the world have shown astonishingly little contrition in contributing to one of the darkest days for democracy in America. They all expressed shock. But Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and every other social media company have known for over a decade that their tools would be used in ways that lead to violence — they’ve seen it happen. And they did too little, for too long.\nThere’s\ngrowing\nevidence\nthat banning influential individuals from social media has a big impact on the spread of harmful misinformation. We’re about to have a great test case. Even as many applaud Twitter and Facebook for finally “deplatforming” this toxic president, others cower at the enormous power internet companies hold over public discourse — concerns wrapped up with deep American intuitions around enabling free speech.\nThe 1st Amendment restricts only the ability of governments to interfere with free expression. So Facebook and Twitter are not trammeling anyone’s constitutional rights when they delete posts and accounts for violating the company’s terms of use. In fact, it would be a 1st Amendment problem were governments to start forcing private companies to continue publishing speech they disagree with. But the free speech objections in this debate obscure an important point: These companies have built their systems to profit from the largely unchecked, viral spread of information. They are clearly aware of how their tools are being used.\nIn the coming months we will hear a lot about how social media fanned insurrection and whether we need better rules to hold them accountable. There are no easy answers here. The roots for violent extremism in America run deeper than the communication technologies available to them, with white supremacy at the top of the list. But social media is a significant piece of this puzzle.\nSocial media companies like Facebook and Twitter have built their systems to encourage and profit from misinformation and viral hatred. Their user interfaces encourage toxic sharing by removing barriers to exposing one’s thoughts and making it too easy to reflexively pass along posts that agree with your worldview. They provide instant gratification in the form of likes and hearts for the most pithy and indulgent takes. Their algorithms wind up recommending toxic communities and rewarding the most incendiary posts. Outsize amplifiers like Trump play a key role.\nUnder the law, if you\ncreated something dangerous\n, knowing the specific harm that would result, you can be held liable. Social media companies knew that their platforms were designed in ways that fostered misinformation and extremism. It’s time our laws held them accountable.\nAmerican law tends not to punish people or institutions for harms they could not anticipate. Crimes generally must be intended, and most harmful actions for which one can sue for civil damages must at least be foreseeable. These requirements come from a sense of fairness. Even the makers of asbestos — which went on to kill\nalmost 100,000 people\na year and become the subject of a cottage industry of lawsuits — were not initially held liable for lung disease because courts found the manufacturers did not know and could not predict the harm.\nBut that’s not where we are with social media and political violence.\nIt’s not just that Zuckerberg should have known political violence was likely. He did know. He knew because his own\nemployees\ntold him. He knew because it happened in\nMyanmar\n. He knew because every credible expert — especially women and people of color — publicly said it would happen\nover\nand\nover\n.\nIn recent years, Zuckerberg has invited several sets of prominent critics to his\nhome\nto talk about Facebook. These people must have told him that political violence was likely. And yet he released a\nstatement\nlast week\npretending\nthat “the current context is now fundamentally different” in barring Trump from using Facebook through the end of his term. Imagine if the chief executive of an asbestos company invited scientists over to dinner and they told him that his product causes lung disease. He would not be able to claim in court later that he couldn’t foresee the harm.\nOf course, information is different from asbestos. But not so different to justify a free pass. There are several ways lawmakers and the public might move to hold platforms more accountable for building and maintaining an environment they know to be dangerous.\nLawmakers and courts can and should distinguish between attributing user speech to platforms — which the law properly forbids — and failing to take reasonable measures to keep the community safe. A company with inadequate cybersecurity can face consequences when it fails to ward off an easily foreseeable hack, even though the company isn’t the hacker. The same should be true of harmful misinformation, especially when the platform’s own terms of service lay out the sort of community the user should expect.\nLawmakers could create new rules to regulate harmful algorithms and user-interface design choices that amplify dangerous rhetoric and predictably make online spaces such a powder keg. Or judges could adapt the law of negligence and product liability to respond to the foreseeable dangers in the way these services are built. Scholars and policymakers have been proposing these kinds of interventions for a while. Unfortunately, up to now they have been ignored.\nBanning Trump from social media platforms grabs public attention. Now we have to challenge the actions of these companies that made removing him necessary in the first place.\nRyan Calo is the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger professor at the University of Washington School of Law.\nWoodrow Hartzog is a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University.\nMore to Read","attrs_markdown":"- [News](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/)\n  \n  - [Home Page](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/)\n  - [California](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california)\n  - [Election 2024](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/election-2024)\n  - [Housing & Homelessness](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/homeless-housing)\n  - [Politics](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics)\n  - [Science & Medicine](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/science)\n  - [World & Nation](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/world-nation)\n- [Business](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business)\n  \n  - [Artificial Intelligence](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/artificial-intelligence)\n  - [Autos](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/autos)\n  - [Jobs, Labor & Workplace](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/jobs-labor)\n  - [Real Estate](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/real-estate)\n  - [Technology and the Internet](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/technology)\n- [California](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california)\n  \n  - [California Politics](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/california-law-politics)\n  - [Earthquakes](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/earthquakes)\n  - [Education](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/education)\n  - [Housing & Homelessness](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/homeless-housing)\n  - [L.A. 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Experts have warned for years that Facebook’s features help nurture extremist groups.\n\n(Justin Sullivan \/ Getty Images)\n\nBy Ryan Calo and Woodrow Hartzog\n\nJan. 15, 2021 3:30 AM PT\n\n- Share via\n  \n  Close extra sharing options\n  \n  - [Email](mailto:?body=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence%0A%0AUse%20liability%20law%20to%20sue%20Facebook%20and%20Twitter%20for%20building%20platforms%20they%20knew%20would%20nurture%20and%20spread%20toxic%20extremism.)\n  - [Facebook](https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence)\n  - [X](https:\/\/x.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence&text=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough)\n  - [LinkedIn](https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence&title=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough&summary=Use%20liability%20law%20to%20sue%20Facebook%20and%20Twitter%20for%20building%20platforms%20they%20knew%20would%20nurture%20and%20spread%20toxic%20extremism.&source=Los%20Angeles%20Times)\n  - [Threads](https:\/\/threads.net\/intent\/post?text=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence)\n  - [Reddit](https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence&title=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough)\n  - [WhatsApp](https:\/\/api.whatsapp.com\/send?text=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence)\n  - Copy Link URL Copied\\!\n  - Print\n\nSocial media finally [pulled the plug](https:\/\/www.axios.com\/platforms-social-media-ban-restrict-trump-d9e44f3c-8366-4ba9-a8a1-7f3114f920f1.html) on Donald Trump. Days after Trump incited a riot at the U.S. Capitol, Twitter permanently banned the president from its platform, and many other social media companies like Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat suspended Trump’s accounts as well.\n\nMark Zuckerberg and the other creators of the most powerful speech engines in the world have shown astonishingly little contrition in contributing to one of the darkest days for democracy in America. They all expressed shock. But Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and every other social media company have known for over a decade that their tools would be used in ways that lead to violence — they’ve seen it happen. And they did too little, for too long.\n\nThere’s [growing](https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2017\/09\/11\/study-finds-reddits-controversial-ban-of-its-most-toxic-subreddits-actually-worked\/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudmljZS5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADfbxyxQB_7gH0l1ircBa9RyYFprZ9rejJIHA2OQ32aBi5v-iz4LBsbQbbD_XQfPTgxgdX6zddSZM11Kgb0UZ8xs85Hu48unKkELUlRz7VlfezHRIoMyeEYHaXYxz3AyCngnl00looAZR2RaarNL5d_Z6rbP0Uf4JSQsbqXtQsp_) [evidence](https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/bjbp9d\/do-social-media-bans-work) that banning influential individuals from social media has a big impact on the spread of harmful misinformation. We’re about to have a great test case. Even as many applaud Twitter and Facebook for finally “deplatforming” this toxic president, others cower at the enormous power internet companies hold over public discourse — concerns wrapped up with deep American intuitions around enabling free speech.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nThe 1st Amendment restricts only the ability of governments to interfere with free expression. So Facebook and Twitter are not trammeling anyone’s constitutional rights when they delete posts and accounts for violating the company’s terms of use. In fact, it would be a 1st Amendment problem were governments to start forcing private companies to continue publishing speech they disagree with. But the free speech objections in this debate obscure an important point: These companies have built their systems to profit from the largely unchecked, viral spread of information. They are clearly aware of how their tools are being used.\n\nIn the coming months we will hear a lot about how social media fanned insurrection and whether we need better rules to hold them accountable. There are no easy answers here. The roots for violent extremism in America run deeper than the communication technologies available to them, with white supremacy at the top of the list. But social media is a significant piece of this puzzle.\n\nSocial media companies like Facebook and Twitter have built their systems to encourage and profit from misinformation and viral hatred. Their user interfaces encourage toxic sharing by removing barriers to exposing one’s thoughts and making it too easy to reflexively pass along posts that agree with your worldview. They provide instant gratification in the form of likes and hearts for the most pithy and indulgent takes. Their algorithms wind up recommending toxic communities and rewarding the most incendiary posts. Outsize amplifiers like Trump play a key role.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nUnder the law, if you [created something dangerous](https:\/\/southerncalifornialawreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/80_241.pdf), knowing the specific harm that would result, you can be held liable. Social media companies knew that their platforms were designed in ways that fostered misinformation and extremism. It’s time our laws held them accountable.\n\nAmerican law tends not to punish people or institutions for harms they could not anticipate. Crimes generally must be intended, and most harmful actions for which one can sue for civil damages must at least be foreseeable. These requirements come from a sense of fairness. Even the makers of asbestos — which went on to kill [almost 100,000 people](https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2015\/6\/30\/8868963\/asbestos-killed-us-death-rates) a year and become the subject of a cottage industry of lawsuits — were not initially held liable for lung disease because courts found the manufacturers did not know and could not predict the harm.\n\nBut that’s not where we are with social media and political violence.\n\nIt’s not just that Zuckerberg should have known political violence was likely. He did know. He knew because his own [employees](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/06\/01\/technology\/facebook-employee-protest-trump.html) told him. He knew because it happened in [Myanmar](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/11\/06\/technology\/myanmar-facebook.html). He knew because every credible expert — especially women and people of color — publicly said it would happen [over](https:\/\/logicmag.io\/failure\/siva-vaidhyanathan-on-antisocial-media\/) and [over](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/08\/05\/technology\/facebook-online-hate.html).\n\nIn recent years, Zuckerberg has invited several sets of prominent critics to his [home](https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/12\/04\/tech\/facebook-zuckerberg-political-ads-civil-rights\/index.html) to talk about Facebook. These people must have told him that political violence was likely. And yet he released a [statement](https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zuck\/posts\/10112681480907401) last week [pretending](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/01\/07\/business\/facebook-trump-ban.html) that “the current context is now fundamentally different” in barring Trump from using Facebook through the end of his term. Imagine if the chief executive of an asbestos company invited scientists over to dinner and they told him that his product causes lung disease. He would not be able to claim in court later that he couldn’t foresee the harm.\n\nOf course, information is different from asbestos. But not so different to justify a free pass. There are several ways lawmakers and the public might move to hold platforms more accountable for building and maintaining an environment they know to be dangerous.\n\nLawmakers and courts can and should distinguish between attributing user speech to platforms — which the law properly forbids — and failing to take reasonable measures to keep the community safe. A company with inadequate cybersecurity can face consequences when it fails to ward off an easily foreseeable hack, even though the company isn’t the hacker. The same should be true of harmful misinformation, especially when the platform’s own terms of service lay out the sort of community the user should expect.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nLawmakers could create new rules to regulate harmful algorithms and user-interface design choices that amplify dangerous rhetoric and predictably make online spaces such a powder keg. Or judges could adapt the law of negligence and product liability to respond to the foreseeable dangers in the way these services are built. Scholars and policymakers have been proposing these kinds of interventions for a while. Unfortunately, up to now they have been ignored.\n\nBanning Trump from social media platforms grabs public attention. Now we have to challenge the actions of these companies that made removing him necessary in the first place.\n\n*Ryan Calo is the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger professor at the University of Washington School of Law.*  \n*Woodrow Hartzog is a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University.*\n\n### More to Read\n- [![Two teenagers concentrate on the phones in the City of London, the capital's financial district, on 6th August 2025, in London, England. (Photo by Richard Baker \/ In Pictures via Getty Images)](https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/5c938eb\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5298x3543+9+0\/resize\/320x214!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F7d%2Fd9%2F2a2114b445daae81532980363a17%2Fgettyimages-2228205368.jpg)](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/opinion\/story\/2026-02-25\/social-media-youth-addictive-regulation)\n  \n  Voices\n  \n  ### [Contributor: If social platforms are harmful, don’t just ban kids. 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At the popular Larchmont Pediatrics, Dr. Neville Anderson requires all infants to begin their routine vaccinations by the three month visit. Parents who refuse receive a letter in the mail stating that they have 30 days to find a new doctor. \"If a parent is truly anti-vax and does not want to vaccinate their child, our values and our goals and our beliefs are so antithetical to each other that we're not a good team,\" said Anderson. \"I'm not the right doctor for them, and they're not the right patient for me.\" Larchmont only dismisses 1-4 patients each year, she said, since most anti-vaccine families know their reputation and tend to go elsewhere. For some patients, the dismissal policy is a real draw. As yet another measles outbreak continues to spread in Texas and New Mexico, with the first two measles deaths in the U.S. in a decade, physicians are again facing a moral quandary: Should they refuse to see families who don't want to vaccinate their children, or keep them in their practices in the hopes of changing their minds? (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times) 3pm Dr. Anderson sees a 4 year old patient who is getting vaccines 4:15pm A baby is getting a vaccine, but Dr. Anderson will not be there. 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Times Careers](https:\/\/careers.latimes.com\/)\n  - [Manage Subscription](https:\/\/membership.latimes.com\/)\n  - [Reprints and Permissions](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/about\/how-to-obtain-rights-permissions)\n\nCopyright © 2026, Los Angeles Times \\| [Terms of Service](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/terms-of-service) \\| [Privacy Policy](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/privacy-policy) \\| [CA Notice of Collection](https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/privacy-policy#california-notice-of-collection) \\| [Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information](https:\/\/membership.latimes.com\/privacy-settings)","attrs_readable_markdown":"Social media finally [pulled the plug](https:\/\/www.axios.com\/platforms-social-media-ban-restrict-trump-d9e44f3c-8366-4ba9-a8a1-7f3114f920f1.html) on Donald Trump. Days after Trump incited a riot at the U.S. Capitol, Twitter permanently banned the president from its platform, and many other social media companies like Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat suspended Trump’s accounts as well.\n\nMark Zuckerberg and the other creators of the most powerful speech engines in the world have shown astonishingly little contrition in contributing to one of the darkest days for democracy in America. They all expressed shock. But Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and every other social media company have known for over a decade that their tools would be used in ways that lead to violence — they’ve seen it happen. And they did too little, for too long.\n\nThere’s [growing](https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2017\/09\/11\/study-finds-reddits-controversial-ban-of-its-most-toxic-subreddits-actually-worked\/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudmljZS5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADfbxyxQB_7gH0l1ircBa9RyYFprZ9rejJIHA2OQ32aBi5v-iz4LBsbQbbD_XQfPTgxgdX6zddSZM11Kgb0UZ8xs85Hu48unKkELUlRz7VlfezHRIoMyeEYHaXYxz3AyCngnl00looAZR2RaarNL5d_Z6rbP0Uf4JSQsbqXtQsp_) [evidence](https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/bjbp9d\/do-social-media-bans-work) that banning influential individuals from social media has a big impact on the spread of harmful misinformation. We’re about to have a great test case. Even as many applaud Twitter and Facebook for finally “deplatforming” this toxic president, others cower at the enormous power internet companies hold over public discourse — concerns wrapped up with deep American intuitions around enabling free speech.\n\nThe 1st Amendment restricts only the ability of governments to interfere with free expression. So Facebook and Twitter are not trammeling anyone’s constitutional rights when they delete posts and accounts for violating the company’s terms of use. In fact, it would be a 1st Amendment problem were governments to start forcing private companies to continue publishing speech they disagree with. But the free speech objections in this debate obscure an important point: These companies have built their systems to profit from the largely unchecked, viral spread of information. They are clearly aware of how their tools are being used.\n\nIn the coming months we will hear a lot about how social media fanned insurrection and whether we need better rules to hold them accountable. There are no easy answers here. The roots for violent extremism in America run deeper than the communication technologies available to them, with white supremacy at the top of the list. But social media is a significant piece of this puzzle.\n\nSocial media companies like Facebook and Twitter have built their systems to encourage and profit from misinformation and viral hatred. Their user interfaces encourage toxic sharing by removing barriers to exposing one’s thoughts and making it too easy to reflexively pass along posts that agree with your worldview. They provide instant gratification in the form of likes and hearts for the most pithy and indulgent takes. Their algorithms wind up recommending toxic communities and rewarding the most incendiary posts. Outsize amplifiers like Trump play a key role.\n\nUnder the law, if you [created something dangerous](https:\/\/southerncalifornialawreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/80_241.pdf), knowing the specific harm that would result, you can be held liable. Social media companies knew that their platforms were designed in ways that fostered misinformation and extremism. It’s time our laws held them accountable.\n\nAmerican law tends not to punish people or institutions for harms they could not anticipate. Crimes generally must be intended, and most harmful actions for which one can sue for civil damages must at least be foreseeable. These requirements come from a sense of fairness. Even the makers of asbestos — which went on to kill [almost 100,000 people](https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2015\/6\/30\/8868963\/asbestos-killed-us-death-rates) a year and become the subject of a cottage industry of lawsuits — were not initially held liable for lung disease because courts found the manufacturers did not know and could not predict the harm.\n\nBut that’s not where we are with social media and political violence.\n\nIt’s not just that Zuckerberg should have known political violence was likely. He did know. He knew because his own [employees](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/06\/01\/technology\/facebook-employee-protest-trump.html) told him. He knew because it happened in [Myanmar](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/11\/06\/technology\/myanmar-facebook.html). He knew because every credible expert — especially women and people of color — publicly said it would happen [over](https:\/\/logicmag.io\/failure\/siva-vaidhyanathan-on-antisocial-media\/) and [over](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/08\/05\/technology\/facebook-online-hate.html).\n\nIn recent years, Zuckerberg has invited several sets of prominent critics to his [home](https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/12\/04\/tech\/facebook-zuckerberg-political-ads-civil-rights\/index.html) to talk about Facebook. These people must have told him that political violence was likely. And yet he released a [statement](https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zuck\/posts\/10112681480907401) last week [pretending](https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/01\/07\/business\/facebook-trump-ban.html) that “the current context is now fundamentally different” in barring Trump from using Facebook through the end of his term. Imagine if the chief executive of an asbestos company invited scientists over to dinner and they told him that his product causes lung disease. He would not be able to claim in court later that he couldn’t foresee the harm.\n\nOf course, information is different from asbestos. But not so different to justify a free pass. There are several ways lawmakers and the public might move to hold platforms more accountable for building and maintaining an environment they know to be dangerous.\n\nLawmakers and courts can and should distinguish between attributing user speech to platforms — which the law properly forbids — and failing to take reasonable measures to keep the community safe. A company with inadequate cybersecurity can face consequences when it fails to ward off an easily foreseeable hack, even though the company isn’t the hacker. The same should be true of harmful misinformation, especially when the platform’s own terms of service lay out the sort of community the user should expect.\n\nLawmakers could create new rules to regulate harmful algorithms and user-interface design choices that amplify dangerous rhetoric and predictably make online spaces such a powder keg. Or judges could adapt the law of negligence and product liability to respond to the foreseeable dangers in the way these services are built. Scholars and policymakers have been proposing these kinds of interventions for a while. Unfortunately, up to now they have been ignored.\n\nBanning Trump from social media platforms grabs public attention. Now we have to challenge the actions of these companies that made removing him necessary in the first place.\n\n*Ryan Calo is the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger professor at the University of Washington School of Law.*  \n*Woodrow Hartzog is a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University.*\n\nMore to Read","meta_canonical":null}

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URL	https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-01-15/facebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence
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First Indexed	2021-01-15 11:32:18 (5 years ago)
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Meta Title	Contributor: Banning Trump from Twitter and Facebook isn't nearly enough - Los Angeles Times
Meta Description	Use liability law to sue Facebook and Twitter for building platforms they knew would nurture and spread toxic extremism.
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Boilerpipe Text	Social media finally pulled the plug on Donald Trump. Days after Trump incited a riot at the U.S. Capitol, Twitter permanently banned the president from its platform, and many other social media companies like Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat suspended Trump’s accounts as well. Mark Zuckerberg and the other creators of the most powerful speech engines in the world have shown astonishingly little contrition in contributing to one of the darkest days for democracy in America. They all expressed shock. But Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and every other social media company have known for over a decade that their tools would be used in ways that lead to violence — they’ve seen it happen. And they did too little, for too long. There’s growing evidence that banning influential individuals from social media has a big impact on the spread of harmful misinformation. We’re about to have a great test case. Even as many applaud Twitter and Facebook for finally “deplatforming” this toxic president, others cower at the enormous power internet companies hold over public discourse — concerns wrapped up with deep American intuitions around enabling free speech. The 1st Amendment restricts only the ability of governments to interfere with free expression. So Facebook and Twitter are not trammeling anyone’s constitutional rights when they delete posts and accounts for violating the company’s terms of use. In fact, it would be a 1st Amendment problem were governments to start forcing private companies to continue publishing speech they disagree with. But the free speech objections in this debate obscure an important point: These companies have built their systems to profit from the largely unchecked, viral spread of information. They are clearly aware of how their tools are being used. In the coming months we will hear a lot about how social media fanned insurrection and whether we need better rules to hold them accountable. There are no easy answers here. The roots for violent extremism in America run deeper than the communication technologies available to them, with white supremacy at the top of the list. But social media is a significant piece of this puzzle. Social media companies like Facebook and Twitter have built their systems to encourage and profit from misinformation and viral hatred. Their user interfaces encourage toxic sharing by removing barriers to exposing one’s thoughts and making it too easy to reflexively pass along posts that agree with your worldview. They provide instant gratification in the form of likes and hearts for the most pithy and indulgent takes. Their algorithms wind up recommending toxic communities and rewarding the most incendiary posts. Outsize amplifiers like Trump play a key role. Under the law, if you created something dangerous , knowing the specific harm that would result, you can be held liable. Social media companies knew that their platforms were designed in ways that fostered misinformation and extremism. It’s time our laws held them accountable. American law tends not to punish people or institutions for harms they could not anticipate. Crimes generally must be intended, and most harmful actions for which one can sue for civil damages must at least be foreseeable. These requirements come from a sense of fairness. Even the makers of asbestos — which went on to kill almost 100,000 people a year and become the subject of a cottage industry of lawsuits — were not initially held liable for lung disease because courts found the manufacturers did not know and could not predict the harm. But that’s not where we are with social media and political violence. It’s not just that Zuckerberg should have known political violence was likely. He did know. He knew because his own employees told him. He knew because it happened in Myanmar . He knew because every credible expert — especially women and people of color — publicly said it would happen over and over . In recent years, Zuckerberg has invited several sets of prominent critics to his home to talk about Facebook. These people must have told him that political violence was likely. And yet he released a statement last week pretending that “the current context is now fundamentally different” in barring Trump from using Facebook through the end of his term. Imagine if the chief executive of an asbestos company invited scientists over to dinner and they told him that his product causes lung disease. He would not be able to claim in court later that he couldn’t foresee the harm. Of course, information is different from asbestos. But not so different to justify a free pass. There are several ways lawmakers and the public might move to hold platforms more accountable for building and maintaining an environment they know to be dangerous. Lawmakers and courts can and should distinguish between attributing user speech to platforms — which the law properly forbids — and failing to take reasonable measures to keep the community safe. A company with inadequate cybersecurity can face consequences when it fails to ward off an easily foreseeable hack, even though the company isn’t the hacker. The same should be true of harmful misinformation, especially when the platform’s own terms of service lay out the sort of community the user should expect. Lawmakers could create new rules to regulate harmful algorithms and user-interface design choices that amplify dangerous rhetoric and predictably make online spaces such a powder keg. Or judges could adapt the law of negligence and product liability to respond to the foreseeable dangers in the way these services are built. Scholars and policymakers have been proposing these kinds of interventions for a while. Unfortunately, up to now they have been ignored. Banning Trump from social media platforms grabs public attention. Now we have to challenge the actions of these companies that made removing him necessary in the first place. Ryan Calo is the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger professor at the University of Washington School of Law. Woodrow Hartzog is a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University. More to Read
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Focus mode Show Search Advertisement Voices Ryan Calo and Woodrow Hartzog # Banning Trump from Twitter and Facebook isn’t nearly enough ![Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at a Facebook developers conference in May 2018. ](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/31681a3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2048x1432+0+0/resize/1200x839!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F0e%2F4d%2Fe597bf22cc56c426c1a249d3909a%2Fla-1554321757-3ppdp21cae-snap-image) Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he was shocked by the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Experts have warned for years that Facebook’s features help nurture extremist groups. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) By Ryan Calo and Woodrow Hartzog Jan. 15, 2021 3:30 AM PT - Share via Close extra sharing options - [Email](mailto:?body=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence%0A%0AUse%20liability%20law%20to%20sue%20Facebook%20and%20Twitter%20for%20building%20platforms%20they%20knew%20would%20nurture%20and%20spread%20toxic%20extremism.) - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence) - [X](https://x.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence&text=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough) - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence&title=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough&summary=Use%20liability%20law%20to%20sue%20Facebook%20and%20Twitter%20for%20building%20platforms%20they%20knew%20would%20nurture%20and%20spread%20toxic%20extremism.&source=Los%20Angeles%20Times) - [Threads](https://threads.net/intent/post?text=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence) - [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence&title=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough) - [WhatsApp](https://api.whatsapp.com/send?text=Contributor%3A%20Banning%20Trump%20from%20Twitter%20and%20Facebook%20isn%27t%20nearly%20enough%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fopinion%2Fstory%2F2021-01-15%2Ffacebook-twitter-extremism-donald-trump-violence) - Copy Link URL Copied\! - Print Social media finally [pulled the plug](https://www.axios.com/platforms-social-media-ban-restrict-trump-d9e44f3c-8366-4ba9-a8a1-7f3114f920f1.html) on Donald Trump. Days after Trump incited a riot at the U.S. Capitol, Twitter permanently banned the president from its platform, and many other social media companies like Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat suspended Trump’s accounts as well. Mark Zuckerberg and the other creators of the most powerful speech engines in the world have shown astonishingly little contrition in contributing to one of the darkest days for democracy in America. They all expressed shock. But Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and every other social media company have known for over a decade that their tools would be used in ways that lead to violence — they’ve seen it happen. And they did too little, for too long. There’s [growing](https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/11/study-finds-reddits-controversial-ban-of-its-most-toxic-subreddits-actually-worked/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudmljZS5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADfbxyxQB_7gH0l1ircBa9RyYFprZ9rejJIHA2OQ32aBi5v-iz4LBsbQbbD_XQfPTgxgdX6zddSZM11Kgb0UZ8xs85Hu48unKkELUlRz7VlfezHRIoMyeEYHaXYxz3AyCngnl00looAZR2RaarNL5d_Z6rbP0Uf4JSQsbqXtQsp_) [evidence](https://www.vice.com/en/article/bjbp9d/do-social-media-bans-work) that banning influential individuals from social media has a big impact on the spread of harmful misinformation. We’re about to have a great test case. Even as many applaud Twitter and Facebook for finally “deplatforming” this toxic president, others cower at the enormous power internet companies hold over public discourse — concerns wrapped up with deep American intuitions around enabling free speech. Advertisement The 1st Amendment restricts only the ability of governments to interfere with free expression. So Facebook and Twitter are not trammeling anyone’s constitutional rights when they delete posts and accounts for violating the company’s terms of use. In fact, it would be a 1st Amendment problem were governments to start forcing private companies to continue publishing speech they disagree with. But the free speech objections in this debate obscure an important point: These companies have built their systems to profit from the largely unchecked, viral spread of information. They are clearly aware of how their tools are being used. In the coming months we will hear a lot about how social media fanned insurrection and whether we need better rules to hold them accountable. There are no easy answers here. The roots for violent extremism in America run deeper than the communication technologies available to them, with white supremacy at the top of the list. But social media is a significant piece of this puzzle. Social media companies like Facebook and Twitter have built their systems to encourage and profit from misinformation and viral hatred. Their user interfaces encourage toxic sharing by removing barriers to exposing one’s thoughts and making it too easy to reflexively pass along posts that agree with your worldview. They provide instant gratification in the form of likes and hearts for the most pithy and indulgent takes. Their algorithms wind up recommending toxic communities and rewarding the most incendiary posts. Outsize amplifiers like Trump play a key role. Advertisement Under the law, if you [created something dangerous](https://southerncalifornialawreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/80_241.pdf), knowing the specific harm that would result, you can be held liable. Social media companies knew that their platforms were designed in ways that fostered misinformation and extremism. It’s time our laws held them accountable. American law tends not to punish people or institutions for harms they could not anticipate. Crimes generally must be intended, and most harmful actions for which one can sue for civil damages must at least be foreseeable. These requirements come from a sense of fairness. Even the makers of asbestos — which went on to kill [almost 100,000 people](https://www.vox.com/2015/6/30/8868963/asbestos-killed-us-death-rates) a year and become the subject of a cottage industry of lawsuits — were not initially held liable for lung disease because courts found the manufacturers did not know and could not predict the harm. But that’s not where we are with social media and political violence. It’s not just that Zuckerberg should have known political violence was likely. He did know. He knew because his own [employees](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/technology/facebook-employee-protest-trump.html) told him. He knew because it happened in [Myanmar](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/technology/myanmar-facebook.html). He knew because every credible expert — especially women and people of color — publicly said it would happen [over](https://logicmag.io/failure/siva-vaidhyanathan-on-antisocial-media/) and [over](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/technology/facebook-online-hate.html). In recent years, Zuckerberg has invited several sets of prominent critics to his [home](https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/04/tech/facebook-zuckerberg-political-ads-civil-rights/index.html) to talk about Facebook. These people must have told him that political violence was likely. And yet he released a [statement](https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10112681480907401) last week [pretending](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/business/facebook-trump-ban.html) that “the current context is now fundamentally different” in barring Trump from using Facebook through the end of his term. Imagine if the chief executive of an asbestos company invited scientists over to dinner and they told him that his product causes lung disease. He would not be able to claim in court later that he couldn’t foresee the harm. Of course, information is different from asbestos. But not so different to justify a free pass. There are several ways lawmakers and the public might move to hold platforms more accountable for building and maintaining an environment they know to be dangerous. Lawmakers and courts can and should distinguish between attributing user speech to platforms — which the law properly forbids — and failing to take reasonable measures to keep the community safe. A company with inadequate cybersecurity can face consequences when it fails to ward off an easily foreseeable hack, even though the company isn’t the hacker. The same should be true of harmful misinformation, especially when the platform’s own terms of service lay out the sort of community the user should expect. Advertisement Lawmakers could create new rules to regulate harmful algorithms and user-interface design choices that amplify dangerous rhetoric and predictably make online spaces such a powder keg. Or judges could adapt the law of negligence and product liability to respond to the foreseeable dangers in the way these services are built. Scholars and policymakers have been proposing these kinds of interventions for a while. Unfortunately, up to now they have been ignored. Banning Trump from social media platforms grabs public attention. Now we have to challenge the actions of these companies that made removing him necessary in the first place. Ryan Calo is the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger professor at the University of Washington School of Law. 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Readable Markdown	Social media finally [pulled the plug](https://www.axios.com/platforms-social-media-ban-restrict-trump-d9e44f3c-8366-4ba9-a8a1-7f3114f920f1.html) on Donald Trump. Days after Trump incited a riot at the U.S. Capitol, Twitter permanently banned the president from its platform, and many other social media companies like Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat suspended Trump’s accounts as well. Mark Zuckerberg and the other creators of the most powerful speech engines in the world have shown astonishingly little contrition in contributing to one of the darkest days for democracy in America. They all expressed shock. But Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and every other social media company have known for over a decade that their tools would be used in ways that lead to violence — they’ve seen it happen. And they did too little, for too long. There’s [growing](https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/11/study-finds-reddits-controversial-ban-of-its-most-toxic-subreddits-actually-worked/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudmljZS5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADfbxyxQB_7gH0l1ircBa9RyYFprZ9rejJIHA2OQ32aBi5v-iz4LBsbQbbD_XQfPTgxgdX6zddSZM11Kgb0UZ8xs85Hu48unKkELUlRz7VlfezHRIoMyeEYHaXYxz3AyCngnl00looAZR2RaarNL5d_Z6rbP0Uf4JSQsbqXtQsp_) [evidence](https://www.vice.com/en/article/bjbp9d/do-social-media-bans-work) that banning influential individuals from social media has a big impact on the spread of harmful misinformation. We’re about to have a great test case. Even as many applaud Twitter and Facebook for finally “deplatforming” this toxic president, others cower at the enormous power internet companies hold over public discourse — concerns wrapped up with deep American intuitions around enabling free speech. The 1st Amendment restricts only the ability of governments to interfere with free expression. So Facebook and Twitter are not trammeling anyone’s constitutional rights when they delete posts and accounts for violating the company’s terms of use. In fact, it would be a 1st Amendment problem were governments to start forcing private companies to continue publishing speech they disagree with. But the free speech objections in this debate obscure an important point: These companies have built their systems to profit from the largely unchecked, viral spread of information. They are clearly aware of how their tools are being used. In the coming months we will hear a lot about how social media fanned insurrection and whether we need better rules to hold them accountable. There are no easy answers here. The roots for violent extremism in America run deeper than the communication technologies available to them, with white supremacy at the top of the list. But social media is a significant piece of this puzzle. Social media companies like Facebook and Twitter have built their systems to encourage and profit from misinformation and viral hatred. Their user interfaces encourage toxic sharing by removing barriers to exposing one’s thoughts and making it too easy to reflexively pass along posts that agree with your worldview. They provide instant gratification in the form of likes and hearts for the most pithy and indulgent takes. Their algorithms wind up recommending toxic communities and rewarding the most incendiary posts. Outsize amplifiers like Trump play a key role. Under the law, if you [created something dangerous](https://southerncalifornialawreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/80_241.pdf), knowing the specific harm that would result, you can be held liable. Social media companies knew that their platforms were designed in ways that fostered misinformation and extremism. It’s time our laws held them accountable. American law tends not to punish people or institutions for harms they could not anticipate. Crimes generally must be intended, and most harmful actions for which one can sue for civil damages must at least be foreseeable. These requirements come from a sense of fairness. Even the makers of asbestos — which went on to kill [almost 100,000 people](https://www.vox.com/2015/6/30/8868963/asbestos-killed-us-death-rates) a year and become the subject of a cottage industry of lawsuits — were not initially held liable for lung disease because courts found the manufacturers did not know and could not predict the harm. But that’s not where we are with social media and political violence. It’s not just that Zuckerberg should have known political violence was likely. He did know. He knew because his own [employees](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/technology/facebook-employee-protest-trump.html) told him. He knew because it happened in [Myanmar](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/technology/myanmar-facebook.html). He knew because every credible expert — especially women and people of color — publicly said it would happen [over](https://logicmag.io/failure/siva-vaidhyanathan-on-antisocial-media/) and [over](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/technology/facebook-online-hate.html). In recent years, Zuckerberg has invited several sets of prominent critics to his [home](https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/04/tech/facebook-zuckerberg-political-ads-civil-rights/index.html) to talk about Facebook. These people must have told him that political violence was likely. And yet he released a [statement](https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10112681480907401) last week [pretending](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/business/facebook-trump-ban.html) that “the current context is now fundamentally different” in barring Trump from using Facebook through the end of his term. Imagine if the chief executive of an asbestos company invited scientists over to dinner and they told him that his product causes lung disease. He would not be able to claim in court later that he couldn’t foresee the harm. Of course, information is different from asbestos. But not so different to justify a free pass. There are several ways lawmakers and the public might move to hold platforms more accountable for building and maintaining an environment they know to be dangerous. Lawmakers and courts can and should distinguish between attributing user speech to platforms — which the law properly forbids — and failing to take reasonable measures to keep the community safe. A company with inadequate cybersecurity can face consequences when it fails to ward off an easily foreseeable hack, even though the company isn’t the hacker. The same should be true of harmful misinformation, especially when the platform’s own terms of service lay out the sort of community the user should expect. Lawmakers could create new rules to regulate harmful algorithms and user-interface design choices that amplify dangerous rhetoric and predictably make online spaces such a powder keg. Or judges could adapt the law of negligence and product liability to respond to the foreseeable dangers in the way these services are built. Scholars and policymakers have been proposing these kinds of interventions for a while. Unfortunately, up to now they have been ignored. Banning Trump from social media platforms grabs public attention. Now we have to challenge the actions of these companies that made removing him necessary in the first place. Ryan Calo is the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger professor at the University of Washington School of Law. Woodrow Hartzog is a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University. More to Read
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