My Distaste For Your Solution Does Not Mean Disregard For The Problem

This keeps coming up in different contexts, so I thought I might write a short (ha, as if I can write short things!) blog post that I can point to on various occasions. I spend a lot of time here on Techdirt highlighting why your favorite solution to (*waves hands*) some big societal problem won't work, and will probably make things worse.

We can go down the list. Getting rid of anonymity to fix social media. Creating a new fairness doctrine" for cable news or social media. Age verification for social media. Removing Section 230 to stop bullies. Creating a duty of care" for social media companies. Requiring social media companies to get a special license from a Digital Platform Commission. Creating laws for blocking entire websites because of some copyright infringement.

And on and on and on.

In some debates I've had over the past few weeks, whenever I highlight the problems of various proposed solutions, rather than responding to them, I'm told that my statement shows I don't care" about the underlying problem (though usually in angrier language about how I want people to die, don't care about the children who are dying, don't care about starving artists, don't care about the end of democracy, etc.).

That's wrong.

I do care about all of those things. That's why I think it's important to point out why your preferred (or proposed) solution doesn't help and will often make the problem significantly worse.

Too often, these comments from supporters of these solutions are really a form of we must do something, this is something, we will do this."

I understand that there are real (and justified) concerns about the problems you're trying to address. But it does no one any good to put in place solutions that don't actually solve the problems. In fact, it can do significant harm on multiple levels.

Now, the retort that some will have is that I can't criticize a proposed solution unless I have something better." Well, in many cases not doing anything is a better" solution than making things worse. Sometimes I do have suggestions on better ways forward, and I'll write about them. Sometimes, the issues are complicated and intractable enough that I don't have a good solution, and know enough not to suggest something in a space where I don't see any good options. But that doesn't mean that your solution is any good.

So, please, can we stop assuming that my concerns about your solution mean I don't care about the underlying problems? There may be cases where I think your interpretation of the problem is incorrect, or overblown, or out of context. There may be times when I think you're underplaying the problem. Neither of those matter.

If the discussion is about the solution, we can focus simply on whether or not that solution will make things better or not (or worse or not!) without making it a referendum on whether or not I take the problem itself seriously.