Great technological censorship comes for conservative voices and it comes fast. In their efforts to remove conservative voices from the public sphere, large technology companies that collectively control the flow of information to billions of people have only announced that they are in control of the American political system.
We could not 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 in Congress and media, social media sites are banning conservatives from their user base. This happens at alarming speeds.
The government forced people not to meet in person. All life has become online. And now the spaces that almost everyone uses to meet with friends, work, family, strangers, exchange ideas are purified from those who do not adhere to progressive or democratic ideas.
Facebook, Google, Twitter and Apple seem to have teamed up to take action against conservative accounts, and they do so shamelessly and without any oversight. Great technology has made us their bitch and we can do nothing but comply with it.
There is no real way to make this happen. Big tech has got the keys to the kingdom and is not giving it back. They have the tools and the power to block disagreement and they use it.
We may not go out. We may not get together. And now we are not allowed to talk online. If the goal of corporate America, established and progressive politicians is to avoid disagreement, to prevent those who simply disagree from speaking their minds, they are doing an excellent job.
We have willingly given these great technology companies access to our most personal details, hopes, dreams, thoughts and ideas. We shared our deepest sadness and our most ecstatic joys. On Twitter, we shared quick tasks and intense ideas. It was a forum for many to express indignation, but also to engage with each other in a humanizing way.
Social media is often ridiculed as a shower fire, a well, a wasteland, but it is also a wonderful tool for creating a new city square, incredibly inclusive, diverse and open. With this latest suppression, social media is undermining its own utility.
Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, Google, YouTube and other platforms have made a lot of cash from their brilliant inventions. As users flocked to these platforms, their CEOs and shareholders were able to sell ads to almost every major, minor, and independent enterprise.
They like their money, but do not like how people used what they created. As such, they moved in this week with their corporate weight to block, ban, suspend and remove users from their platforms. While people cry that this is contrary to the first amendment, others claim that because social media businesses are private, they will not uphold laws and rights. But at a time when the interface is not optional, those who control it must be accountable to the public.
We have submitted their terms of use. We have our subject to locks. We have willingly tested the subjugation of our freedoms. We have allowed this to happen to our society. And we have to take it back. Collect. Speak out. Do not be silent.