In a speech at Stanford University on April 21st, former President Barack Obama assailed social media companies for permitting disinformation on their platforms. Obama insisted democracy itself is at stake should the trend continue.

The speech, covered with expected laudatory unquestioning worship by the Washington Post and others, outlined a vision of increased governmental supervision of social media companies.

Now, some companies have been taking the next step in managing toxic content, experimenting with new product designs that, to use just one example, add friction to slow the spread of potentially harmful content. And that kind of innovation is a step in the right direction. It should be applauded, but I also think decisions like this shouldn’t be left solely to private interests. These decisions affect all of us, and just like every other industry that has a big impact in our society, that means these big platforms need to be subject to some level of public oversight and regulation.