Friday, 15 January 2021
No platform
Mercatornet has a piece on big tech censorship prompted by Facebook blocking former presidential candidate Ron Paul.
On Monday, Facebook blocked former presidential candidate Ron Paul from his own page. The move came hours after the longtime congressman and libertarian hero shared an article he wrote criticizing Twitter and Facebook for banning President Donald Trump from their platforms.
“Last week’s massive social media purges — starting with President Trump’s permanent ban from Twitter and other outlets — was shocking and chilling, particularly to those of us who value free expression and the free exchange of ideas,” Paul wrote. “The justifications given for the silencing of wide swaths of public opinion made no sense and the process was anything but transparent. Nowhere in President Trump’s two ‘offending’ Tweets, for example, was a call for violence expressed explicitly or implicitly. It was a classic example of sentence first, verdict later.”
It isn't easy to know what to say about the trend towards tighter and tighter censorship. Other than deploring it and perhaps ridiculing the often infantile nature of it, what do we say? There is a burst of optimism at the end of the piece so maybe we should cling to that and promote alternatives. Yet the core problem remains - power is becoming too concentrated.
“So what is to be done? Even pro-free speech alternative social media outlets are under attack from the Big Tech/government Leviathan. There are no easy solutions. But we must think back to the dissidents in the era of Soviet tyranny,” Paul wrote. He continued:
They had no Internet. They had no social media. They had no ability to communicate with thousands and millions of like-minded, freedom lovers. Yet they used incredible creativity in the face of incredible adversity to continue pushing their ideas. Because no army — not even Big Tech partnered with Big Government — can stop an idea whose time has come. And Liberty is that idea. We must move forward with creativity and confidence!
Liberty is indeed the idea. And if we’re patient, I suspect the market will soon offer a genuine alternative that may soon make Facebook and Twitter regret their authoritarian impulses.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I think it is very worrying. The speed and thoroughness seemed to point to some kind of collusion. It's interesting that there are so many laws constraining businesses regarding human and diversity rights, but nothing about safeguarding free speech. They are judge and jury, except when blacks and trannies are concerned they meekly do as instructed.
Once tech companies start to censor then the pressure will come on to treat them as publishers, subject to the free speech laws. It would be good if the lawmakers would take it upon themselves to make the ruling. But they will chicken out, so it will have to wind its tedious way up to the Supreme Court maybe in 20 years or so
When places like Twatter and Bookface are consigned to the past, we'll all get our news via flyers in the papers and comics - even the mags which have a loose page showing a bird in a swimsuit, having a shower!
The only propaganda will eventually come with the poll tax demand, which I do read, as I want to know which knob in Kent County Council is getting paid so much for so little, so I can warm myself up with indignation, and save us a fortune on electricity!
Tim Bernards Lee has been developing his Pod concept for a while now. It's still a bit too "undevelpped" for me but the concept of a reimagined internet where you comtrol all your data is interesting.
Old article here: https://www.indiatimes.com/technology/news/tim-berners-lee-wants-to-turn-the-internet-on-its-head-and-decentralize-it-once-more-353998.html
Sam - yes it is very worrying and as you say does seem to point to some kind of collusion. They don't seem concerned about the bad publicity and presumably know why they don't need to be.
Graeme - it would be good if they were treated as publishers but it may be too late now because they are too powerful.
Scrobs - it's odd, because if Facebook were to disappear tomorrow, would it make any real difference? Some upheaval of course, but nothing fundamental like all the sewers disappearing overnight.
Nessimmersion - thanks for the link and yes it is interesting. I've bookmarked it as a way to keep an eye on developments.
I'm surpised Parler etc are not moving their organisations out of the US. Mexico, even Russia, might be safer for them?
Woodsy - I'm not sure if anywhere is safe. Even a private island would have communication links which could be "accidentally" cut.
Post a Comment