TECH FIRMS STRUGGLE TO POLICE CONTENT WHILE AVOIDING BIAS

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 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 in which the suspect had posted a racist screed online.

For Facebook, Google, Twitter and others, it’s a no-win whipsaw, amplified by a drumbeat of accusations from President Donald Trump and his allies that their platforms are steeped in anti-conservative