Tech firms struggle to police content while avoiding bias

Social media platforms are facing intense, often contradictory demands from Washington to oversee Internet content without infringing on US First Amendment rights. — AP

WASHINGTON: Take the post down. Put it back up. Stop policing speech. Start silencing extremists.

That's just a sampling of the intense, often contradictory demands facing US tech companies and their social media platforms as they try to oversee internet content without infringing on First Amendment rights. The pendulum has swung recently toward restricting hateful speech that could spawn violence, following a mass shooting in Texas where the suspect had posted a racist screed online.