Censorship why now?
The purge of conservative voices by tech giant Twitter was swift as President Donald Trump, selected Whitehouse staff and many other big accounts were banned yesterday while thousands saw the number of their followers drastically reduced with their bases shaved since then as part of an ongoing process.
Yes, even much smaller accounts were fingered, so size was not a factor despite brazen trolls’ mock-lecturing users about just being concerned about their number of followers and to; get a life.
It all began with a bizarre tweet by Microsoft on Friday night at 7.15 p.m.; “It’s now safe to turn off your computers”.
This garnered responses on Twitter such as ‘Oh my God, what is going on?’ with another commentator remarking; “this may be the last time it’s safe to turn on your computer with Big Tech purging free speech off every conceivable platform.”
Which leads to the question why the mass censorship now?
We know Tech Companies have a bias against those who do not toe the progressive line even though they vociferously deny it; even Free Speech supporters believed some form of censorship was always just a matter of time.
Following the mass ban by Twitter, Google blocked the app of the new conservative platform, Parler, Amazon kicked it off its cloud and Apple blocked the app on I-phone all citing lack of controls in monitoring ‘violent speech’ as the reason.
Their reasoning is ironic given the violent rhetoric on display on Twitter by those on the left, not forgetting Twitter was instrumental in galvanizing revolutions in foreign countries under the hashtags (#) Arab Spring and Maidan.
In allowing operatives to use their platform this way, the company was guilty of foreign interference so they should save their faux moral outrage for the gullible and leave everyone else alone.
Another question is; what gives these Tech companies the right to set the standards for platforms they don’t approve of, because they have proved themselves to be nothing but gatekeepers for the authorities and have little to no independence.
Twitter’s drastic course of action followed hot on the heels of Wednesday’s breaching of Capitol Hill in D.C. by Trump supporters who were there to protest wide scale fraud in the 2020 elections.
This event has proved to be the big trigger Tech companies were waiting for, the catalyst to implement their desired purge and they were determined not to let a good crisis go to waste.
Clearly, Twitter has long abandoned its 2015 pledge to; stand for freedom of expression, speak truth to power and empower dialogue; if these were ever its goals.
Aside from the Free Speech issue, another worrying tendency is people believe Twitter’s action was in line with the right of private companies to run their businesses how they see fit, i.e. they get to decide the rules for participation.
First of all a giant tech monopoly is hardly on par with a private company, secondly; if the service is free than participants are the product as one sage observer duly noted.
Finally, the economic principle of willing seller versus willing buyer has been replaced and skewed in favor of the buyer in non-discrimination laws, meaning governments the world over now dictate how private businesses run.
In addition to strangling small businesses with red tape before they even get off the ground, the message is money talks and if you do not have it just hold your peace.
Don’t forget these Tech monopolies are subsidized to the tune of $9.3 billion at state and local level in the US in exchange for creating jobs so their price tag to the taxpayer is not cheap.
Is Big Tech’s big purge a harbinger of things to come in the next ten days leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration?
A possible sign of something’s in the air comes from a story over at Radio World which reported the FCC has just issued an EAS Enforcement Advisory, reminding emergency alert system operators all across America of their obligations to broadcast emergency alerts.
