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By ROBIN SMITH February 25, 2022 in BigTech
Despite the collusion of social media giants with Democrats, there are things that can be done.
On most social media platforms these days, free speech is tightly regulated to words with which certain authorities within government and Big Tech agree. Every reader engaging in political discourse has most likely experienced the throttling of their social media accounts, a warning about a post on their timeline, or a cancellation by the loudest voices who marginalize them as dangerous, reckless, or stupid. Can’t violate “community standards,” after all.
Because it is federally regulated, the issues surrounding Big Tech’s overreach through censorship are almost exclusively at the federal level. Bias within the media and the death of impartial journalism have eroded the First Amendment rights of worship, speech, and peaceful assembly, but Big Tech is right behind. This “woke” bias is chiefly imposed on Americans through institutions like the U.S. government, education, healthcare, entertainment, media, and commerce because of the desire of those in power to re-engineer society to abandon individual freedom.
In 2016, the simplicity of the conservative message won over the Democratic Party’s anti-God, anti-family, anti-American, big-government platform, proving that a political amateur with mean tweets could lift a nation’s economy and empower its citizens with higher wages, better jobs, global respect, and economic freedoms. Last fall, veteran journalist Mollie Hemingway released a book, Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections. The details she recounts of Big Tech’s response to the stunning upset of the 2016 presidential election provide more proof that Americans are seeing their government allow corporations to destroy this nation and their freedoms from within.
In response to the interruption of the coronation of Hillary Clinton, the folks at Google began forming working groups and hiring technological tools developed to fight Islamic propaganda. “Jigsaw,” a Google project, was repurposed and employed to control the narrative, shape opinion, and undermine the policies and actions of the Trump administration until the next presidential campaign.
Jigsaw, from its own website, states that it “explores threats to open societies, and builds technology that inspires scalable solutions.” It also “makes the internet and society stronger and safer” and addresses disinformation campaigns as well as emerging threats. With thickly dripping irony, its website speaks of the “tactics of totalitarian governments” that Google works to counter to “secure a free and open internet.”
Hogwash! This self-appointed group, operating with Section 230 federal protections that even a Republican majority in the House and Senate failed to address during the Trump years, has a very fluid and ever-changing definition of disinformation and emerging threats.
When a powerful entity changes the rules to fit its own purposes and power, it is the definition of totalitarian. Big Tech is the most effective and all-encompassing tool used by ideologues to control Americans.
What can be done? At the federal level, antitrust laws must be enforced despite claims from the players, like Facebook/Meta and Alphabet/Google, that “free” access to social media platforms hides these giants from customer welfare protections. Though they claim an open platform, these companies steer the public toward favorable and preferred products and information, to the exclusion of anything with which the leftists in charge don’t agree.
Consumer protections around private data are needed, especially protections on biometric data and health information. Establishing the ability to opt in on data sharing coupled with a private right of action should keep these billion-dollar companies from profiting from violating privacy protections.
Public reports must assess transparency related to the algorithms for rejecting “inappropriate content,” establishing either parity of application or censorship. These companies must let the public see and compare whether a rating of “inappropriate” is authentic or just a tool to silence. Another option is to federally require that access to a media platform be reported as an in-kind campaign contribution when the opposing candidate is denied the same access. Economic incentives and tax breaks could be denied should a tech giant engage in deplatforming, censorship, or other antitrust behavior.
More and more, Americans have their very own tax dollars used against them, their families, and the great way of life that America affords. Big Tech in the hands of Big Government guarantees eroding freedom for the American public.
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~~Reprinted with permission. See the original article here and leave some comments!
