# Modest proposal: Turn off Social Media altogether? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 17, 2020, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543 "2020-07-17T02:47:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Turki-lurki](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turki-lurki/32/7168_2.png) [@Turki-lurki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turki-lurki)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/1 "2020-07-17T02:47:33Z")
Not forever (though I sometimes think it would be a blessing). How about just the month before the election? Blocks October Surprises, Russian internet squirrels, and the donald’s bald faced lies. Make people rely on conversation, newspapers, and cable. Actually, shut down cable too. Could this protect our 2020 election? Doesn’t seem like anything else has been proposed by the gummint. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/2 "2020-07-17T08:48:27Z")
I don’t get it. You’re suggesting a government shutdown of all media? I’ve seen some bad ideas on here, this may be the worst. ---
**Author:** ![steepone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/3 "2020-07-17T09:57:48Z")
First you would need to eliminate the first amendment, enact new laws and create new procedures and agencies to enforce them Second, you need to define what you mean by social media, taken to extremes it could include any website that has a comment section, and needn’t be limited to the internet, it could include talk back radio, letters to the editor columns in newspapers etc Third, you would need to work out how to shut down sites over which the USA has no authority It’s hardly a modest proposal ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/4 "2020-07-17T10:07:57Z")
Worse legitimate ideas I’ve seen here -If Biden wins legitimately making mandatory “reeducation” camps for the redhats/Trump voters to prevent them from rising up against the new Biden government. - Cutting off all Federal government aid to Republican states that take in more federal money than they give back in in taxes. - Allow people to own whatever guns and ammo they want no restrictions but in order to take this perk they have to be shot once by the gun they wish to own. ---
**Author:** ![Turki-lurki](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turki-lurki/32/7168_2.png) [@Turki-lurki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turki-lurki)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/5 "2020-07-17T13:01:34Z")
Quite possibly the worst suggestion in a while- I’m overwrought. But I meant it a bit differently than you guys interpreted it. I was referring the notion is shutting down just social media on these newgfangled interwebs. Maybe just twitter, facebook, 4chan. The hotbeds of ungracious behavior. No one could even think of shutting down sdmb. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/6 "2020-07-17T13:58:37Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > people to own whatever guns and ammo they want n I assumed from the topic title that this was to be a Swiftian satire, and this has about as much a chance of happening as the Irish eating their young. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/7 "2020-07-17T14:54:58Z")
All those people incorrectly claim that their constitutional rights are being violated that their freedom of speech is being taken away every time their youtube channel or twitter page is taken down. Even recently where the CEO of Goya someone felt that people boycotting his product was ‘suppression of speech’. This…the government shutting down cable (and I assume network) TV and social media in order to restrict how people can communicate is just about the definition of a freedom of speech violation. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/8 "2020-07-17T15:23:03Z")
Somehow, Joseph Goebbels managed just fine without social media and cable. ---
**Author:** ![ThisIsTheEnd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisistheend/32/4713_2.png) [@ThisIsTheEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisIsTheEnd)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/9 "2020-07-17T15:30:02Z")
Best you can hope for is sporadic shutdowns via hack. Some billionaires should have gotten together a couple of years ago when Twitter’s market cap was only around $12b and bought it and pulled the plug on it. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/10 "2020-07-17T15:39:44Z")
Sure, as enforceable policy, the OP fails. But I can appreciate the pie-in-the-sky sentiment that the world would be a better place - overall - with SOME reduction of SOME aspects of social media. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/11 "2020-07-17T17:42:17Z")
> [@Turki-lurki](#): > > No one could even think of shutting down sdmb. Why not? How do you parse the differences unambiguously in law? Any ambiguity would normally be resolved by the executive branch in rulemaking process. Do you really want to give Trump, who has railed against the 1st Amendment, the power to make the rules that decide which online media are allowed and which are not? ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-proposal-turn-off-social-media-altogether/915543/12 "2020-07-17T19:39:41Z")
We can also never forget that topic where multiple people claimed they’d rather be Jews in Nazi Germany than a POC in Trump’s America.