Is it time for Internet regulation?

[Dave]

As one of the prime news disseminating media, and the age of "fake news" and "alternative facts", plus social media's ability to sway public opinion amongst those less capable of subjective or critical thinking - should the Internet be forced to apply some discipline to itself?

Should social media sites be held responsible for what its members post? Forums have rules that csrry penalties if broken, could a similar system be applied elsewhere? Bloggers can be held individually responsible, so long as there is someone willing to complain about them - and there is an authorative independant body to complain to.

It has already been said that algorithms are not sufficient to monitor the content, only humans can do so (at the moment) but the sheer volume would require huge numbers. This inplies a loss of profit for the social media companies, something they are bound to resist. The idea of a tax on social media, funded by the media companies themselves to psy for the regulating body, in the same way that the press is self-regulated in many places. However, this  could mean death for foruns if they are invkuded - perhaps it might be applied to profit making media only!

Is there a need for some sort of monitoring and closure process to be applied to forums, or other private sites, which promote actual violence or use "false facts" to push their ideas?

Who pays for regulation? Is it time for a, small, "self-imposed" licence or tax to pay for an independant regulator? The "independant" part being very important, it must be free from political or commercial influence in every way. $1 per Internet household per year (collected by ISPs) would bring in a lot, there are almost 3 billion users estimated globally, even a quarter of that, in dollars, is a lot of money. Even one cent would be bring in quite a lot.