I grew up long before kids were hiding under desks to avoid shooters with assault weapons, and after people finally figured out that a school desk wasn't going to protect you from a nuclear weapon. Not that it is going to protect you from an AR-15. I was in the Army in 1983 when a couple of American films, "Testament" and "The Day After" offered realistic and therefore harrowing depictions of nuclear war.
We were convinced nuclear weapons were going to destroy life on the planet. Instead, another Defense Department product, then unknown and still called ARPANET, may prove our undoing. The internet, once hailed as the great democratizer, has instead become the vector for communicable and deadly mental disease.
It seems odd to want to suppress information. Access to scripture was a key reform in the Protestant movement. Freedom of the press and of speech were considered essential to an enlightened democracy. But information moved slowly, and information platforms were costly, so a sort of natural selection took place long before Darwin would observe this process in nature. Bad ideas could spread, of course, but they had to meet a need and have enough power to make it onto a printing press.
Today, thanks to corporate greed, the internet is a cesspool. Someone can post misinformation on Meta at noon and have millions of shares and likes by dinner, and it costs absolutely nothing. In fact, for "influencers," viral misinformation can be incredibly profitable as corporate algorithms monetize views. And there is no vaccine for today's novel virus post.
Many have tried to apply a new/old rubric in communication. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it helpful? If you can't immediately answer yes to all three, perhaps it is time to slow down... Do some research. Make some calls. Or maybe just let it pass. Zuckerberg has more than enough money. Go make a cup of tea.
+ Gary