So you want to cancel the far-right? Think Again.
The dangers of de-platforming Donald Trump
Condemnation of the invasion of the U.S. Capitol by followers of President Trump has been swift and widespread. The lives that were lost in that riot and those that were put in danger led social media companies to quickly ban Donald Trump and many of his allies and followers. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube — all of them decided that Donald Trump’s speech to rile up the crowd that stormed the U.S. Capitol was the last straw. Not to be left behind, Snapchat, Shopify, Twitch, PayPal, Discord, Tiktok, and Pinterest also suspended accounts related to Donald Trump.
Guess what, the conversation among conservatives moved to Parler, a Twitter clone where right-wing conspiracies thrive in a conservative bubble. But then Parler was taken down when Apple and Google app-stores refused to carry the application and Amazon Web Services decided not to host them anymore. This should teach them, they implied. Big Tech wanted to appear like they were helping to tamp down the dangerous rhetoric that was inflaming an already explosive situation.
So what did Parler do? They registered their domain with Epik, a company known for hosting other far-right websites including Gab, a far-right Facebook alternative, and Bitchute, a far-right YouTube alternative. Epik previously hosted 8chan, now called 8kun, a fringe-militant message board, and Infowars, Alex Jones’ conspiracy website.
The separation of liberal and conservative bubbles is now complete. Conservatives may protest that far-right websites are not where mainstream conservatives hang out. However, if their views are not welcome on mainstream social media, or they feel that they are targeted unfairly on these platforms, then they too are bound to gravitate to the bubbling cesspool of misinformation and conspiracies on the far-right. That would create two parallel universes that will not talk to each other and may also lead to extreme ideas to develop and grow on the left as well. This is the stuff social unrest is made of.
Guess who first objected to the de-platforming of Donald Trump? Germany and France. Yes, the same countries whose leaders were repeatedly belittled and mocked by our president, Donald Trump. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said that corporations should not be interfering with free speech. Germany, of all countries, is not alien to the consequences of pandering to a demagogue. Merkel said that the US government should pass regulations that clearly demarcate what is inadmissible in the public discourse. Freedom of speech also has its limits. Afterall, Germany doesn’t allow public displays of Nazi symbols and considers holocaust denial unacceptable. This is not considered a restriction of free speech — just regulation of some unacceptable parts of it.
America’s lionizing of Big Tech CEOs as rock-star celebrities has given them the power and permission to allow all kind of harmful content to proliferate on their platforms under the guise of free speech. Leaving it up to the Twitter, Facebook and similar platforms has given them unprecedented power through monetization of harmful content. If they are going after Donald Trump, will they also close down accounts of the ayatollahs in Iran who call for death of Jews on a daily basis? Extreme groups and despots all around the world communicate on these very platforms. Are they going to go after them as well?
The French finance minister Bruno Le Maire correctly said — “Digital regulation should not be done by the digital oligarchy itself. Regulation of the digital arena is a matter for the sovereign people, governments and the judiciary”.
We Americans as a people have to agree that unrestricted speech and freedom of speech are not the same. We can restrict certain symbols and words of hate without impairing freedom of speech. Some boundaries are OK. If we can restrict child porn, hiring assassins, prostitution, and drug-dealing online, then why can’t we extend restrictions to incitement of violence?
Big Tech is already too powerful. Today they are restricting the conservatives because they have deemed it to be the right thing to do. Tomorrow the shoe could be on the other foot and they may find Black Lives Matter offensive if that’s the political flavor of the day. However, and in all fairness, they are stepping into a void left by the vacuous policy positions of libertarian politicians who equate small government with being against all forms of governance. We have to drop this dogma post-haste and press our politicians to do the job they were elected to do. In the end we deserve the politicians we get.
The driving force behind rage, disinformation, and bigotry is greed. How is Rupert Murdoch able to run the most profitable ecosystem of lies and conspiracies? This is how — he contributes to the campaign funds of politicians and they let him do what he wants in the name of free speech. It is easy to defend something when it is considered constitutional. Murdoch is an Australian who couldn’t care less what happens to America. All he cares about is a captive audience and making money off them. His Fox News network has done that remarkably well by convincing its audience that they are being hoodwinked by the left and that half the country is their enemy. A machine of unmitigated rage has cultivated a generation of Americans who are angry with and suspicious of their fellow countrymen. It is not surprising that CNN and MSNBC are taking a leaf out of the Murdoch playbook as well. It’s all about money.
Big Tech follows the same model but with a hands-off approach purportedly in the interest of fairness. By allowing rage and trolling to proliferate and thrive on their platforms, and by monetizing those eyeballs, Big Tech has become so wealthy that it is able to buy out competitors or crush them. This has resulted in unprecedented consolidation and creation of monopolies that are each valued at more than GDPs of some countries. Our politicians enacted Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act, that allows Big Tech to escape liability for harmful and illegal content, which they even monetize. This is how Big Tech has captured our government. Now Big Tech is the government.
When we have unchecked consolidation of business, especially media and social applications, we lose diversity of information. 72% of local TV channels are owned by one conservative-leaning media company called Sinclair. Local newspapers are dead or dying because news has become nationalized, or even globalized, through social media that “personalizes” news for each reader exacerbating confirmation bias. The algorithms developed by Big Tech decide what each one of us must read. We no longer decide for ourselves what is right or wrong because we are being conditioned with the drip-drip-drip of skewed information.
When Rome fell in the fourth century CE, all intellectuals in Rome either fled or were killed by the Barbarians. The intellectual void was filled by the Christian Church. When people needed answers to the mysteries of the universe or the vagaries of nature, the Church provided the answers because there was no one else available. And thus followed a thousand years of Dark Ages that resulted in the demographic, economic, and cultural deterioration of Western Europe. By creating information bubbles inhabited by people who are suspicious of each other and are willing to accept any information that discredits the other side as truth, Big Tech and the captive political class may be ushering in the Dark Ages of America. We don’t need Barbarians at the gate when they are within the walls.
You may ask if there’s no hope left. Yes there is — we can still turn this around but it will have to be a very deliberate and collective decision on part of we the people of the United States. We need to do the following:
1. Break up Big Tech and Big Media and allow competition to thrive, especially local papers and independent news channels. Then hold them to strict journalistic standards.
2. Tax CEOs who are mega-billionaires at a progressively higher rate to return wealth to the commons.
3. Create a framework that restricts harmful content — which means we need to debate what is harmful.
4. Don’t vote for politicians who take corporate contributions.
There are some early signs of improvement already. Attorneys General in 48 states have filed unprecedented anti-trust lawsuits against Facebook and Google. Many large corporations like AT&T and Marriott, and some from Wall Street, like JPMorgan, have hit the pause button on political contributions following the Capitol violence. I hope this will be an enduring trend that forces selfishly opportunistic politicians to put the country ahead of their ambitions.
It may feel good to banish Donald Trump and his cronies from the internet but its unintended consequences could be far worse than his odious words and pernicious actions. We need a new framework so that we can start talking with one another again. Otherwise, the United States of America will become a failed experiment. The world can’t afford that.
References:
- Matt Stoller and Sarah Miller — The Guardian, Jan 11.2021
- The Blaze, Jan 11.2021
- The Hill TV, Jan 12, 2021
- Bloomberg News, Jan 12, 2021
