The censorship of big technologies comes to conservative voices and is fast approaching. In their actions to remove conservative voices from the public sphere, the big tech companies that collectively control the flow of information to billions of people have announced that they control the American political system.
We cannot meet in person due to COVID-inspired restrictions, and now we cannot meet online for fear of being silenced.
With the support of influencers like Michelle Obama, as well as many of the congressmen and the media, social media sites are expelling conservatives from their user base. It is happening at an alarming rate.
The government has been forcing people not to meet in person. All of life has become online. And now, the spaces that almost everyone uses to interact with friends, work, family, strangers, to meet, to exchange ideas, are being purged of those who do not adhere to progressive ideas or democratic.
It appears that Facebook, Google, Twitter and Apple have teamed up in taking action against conservative accounts and are doing so shamelessly and without any oversight. Great technology has made us his bitch and we can do nothing but comply or silence ourselves.
There is no real way to keep this from happening. Great technologies have been given the keys to the kingdom and they do not return them. They have the tools and the power to block dissent and use them.
We are not allowed to leave. We are not allowed to meet. And now we are not allowed to talk online. If the goal of the United States, progressive establishments and politicians, is to crush dissent, to prevent those who simply disagree from speaking out in their opinion, they are doing a stellar job.
We have gladly given these great technology companies access to our most personal data, hopes, dreams, thoughts and ideas. We have shared our deepest heartaches and our most ecstatic joys. On Twitter, we have shared quick and intense ideas, it has been a forum for many to express outrage, but also to engage with others in a humanizing way.
Social media is often mocked like a garbage fire, a garbage dump, a wasteland, but they are also an amazing tool for creating an incredibly inclusive, diverse and open new city square. With this latest crackdown, social media is undermining its own usefulness.
Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, Google, YouTube and other platforms have made masses of money with their brilliant inventions. As users flocked to these platforms, their executives and shareholders were able to sell advertising to almost every major, minor, and independent company.
They liked their money, but they don’t like how they used the people they created. As such, they have been installed this week with their corporate weight to block, ban, suspend and remove users from their platforms. While people mourn that this is opposed to the First Amendment, others claim that social media companies are private and are not required to uphold our laws and rights. But at a time when the interface is not optional, those who control it must be accountable to the public.
We introduced ourselves to their conditions of use. We showed up at blockades. We gladly courted the subjugation of our liberties. We have allowed this to happen to our society. And we have to get it back. Gather. Speak clearly. Don’t shut up.