But when “speech” becomes the enemy of free expression—when citizen speakers are reduced to online “users” whose scarce attention is manhandled for profit; when tsunamis of online garbage are weaponized to drown out voices and dilute truth (what Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, called “flood[ing] the zone with shit”8); when algorithms decide whose voices are heard or magnified; and when corporations frame their buying of elections and burying of climate change information as free speech—it may be time to rethink some cherished assumptions.
