Government Takeover of the Internet

-Source-Reason- All your base are belong to us. A leaked memo circulating among Senate Democrats contains a host of bonkers authoritarian proposals for regulating digital platforms purportedly as a way to get tough on Russian bots and fake news. To save American trust in our institutions democracy free press and markets it suggests we need unprecedented and undemocratic government intervention into online press and markets including comprehensive (GDPR-like) data protection legislation of the sort enacted in the E.U. Titled Potential Policy Proposals for Regulation of Social Media and Technology Firms the draft policy paperpenned by Sen. Mark Warner and leaked by an unknown source to Axiosthe paper starts out by noting that Russians have long spread disinformation including when the Soviets tried to spread fake news denigrating Martin Luther King (here he fails to mention that the Americans in charge at the time did the same). But NOW ITS DIFFERENT because technology. Todays tools seem almost built for Russian disinformation techniques Warner opines. And the ones to come he assures us will be even worse. Heres how Warner is suggesting we deal: Mandatory location verification. The paper suggests forcing social media platforms to authenticate and disclose the geographic origin of all user accounts or posts. Mandatory identity verification: The paper suggests forcing social media and tech platforms to authenticate user identities and only allow authentic accounts (inauthentic accounts not only pose threats to our democratic process...but undermine the integrity of digital markets) with failure to appropriately address inauthentic account activity punishable as a violation of both SEC disclosure rules and/or Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.