Big Tech Censorship: Unintended Consequence of Forgetting Who they Were
Yes, Big Tech squelches ideas and information it doesn’t like. I know, not news. But, their failings may just be because they forgot who or what they had been and hoped to be.
Big Tech in the Beginning
Facebook was about keeping in touch with friends and family members. Twitter was about trying to say something with precious few characters – kind of its own mini-game. Paypal was a simple payment processor. YouTube was just entertaining and informative and Google was straight-up search.
Ah, the good ole days.
Massive Growth, and Someone Noticed
The big guys saw amazing growth – almost monopolistic power (some by acquisition) – and the left noticed.
Why was the left better at directing these agencies to promote an anti-American message in the country that made their amazing stories possible?
A Dark Turn
All of Big Tech forgot who they intended to be and became something else – something darker and MUCH more sinister.
Originally, they were information tools, open forums, communication lines, entertainment, and virtual group hugs. Then, they went political and it went wrong … so VERY wrong.
Google stole news stories from outlets without paying them and pushed them as “search results” while also promoting liberally-aligned content and suppressing all dissent.
Facebook went to a timeline rife with “approved” news stories that sometimes overwhelmed users’ family events, cute animal posts, and local happenings. Then, they started hiding content that was not aligned with liberal-think.
Youtube added propaganda videos to users’ homepages that didn’t match their normal interests. The video streaming platform demonetized conservative content while propping up liberal creators.
Paypal decided who could and could not receive payments through them based on their content. Meme creators, publishers, and writers who made content deemed unfavorable were sent packing.
They all made editorial decisions more akin to a publisher than an open forum.
A Different Beast
Sure, Facebook and Twitter were meant to connect families and communities over vast distances and in real-time. Initially, they did that. Then, they decided to be the arbiters of truth and righteousness.
Google was created as a better search engine with fast, accurate results and initially, Google did that. Then, they decided to be the arbiters of truth and righteousness. Oh, and then they bought YouTube and bent that to their will as well.
Paypal was a simple payment processor with no agenda. Then, they decided to be the arbiters of truth and righteousness.
Seeing a theme?
They all turned into small, authoritative, quasi-government agencies. They hired censors, created committees and panels to determine what could be said and what could not, which groups were good and which were not. Ultimately they decided whose thoughts were good and whose were not. They communicated with progressive leaders in government to decide which of these things were good and which were not.
Their Turn to the Dark Side is Failing
They changed their terms of service (TOS) whenever it was politically expedient – and continue to do so. The algorithms they use to promote, suppress or ban posts are not public knowledge. But, their invisible ban-hammer has real consequences.
- Loss of revenue for affected sites (provable harm in a lawsuit?)
- Chilling of free speech in collusion with the government (Don’t memory-hole me bro)
- Silencing of opposing positions in public debate (Where are the Journalists?)
Why it’s Terrible, but not TERRIBLE
Once Google, Facebook and/or Twitter don’t like a website’s content, they blacklist it. They make sure to send as little traffic to that site as possible by making the site’s content nearly invisible. If no ban or suspension is issued, then it’s just a shadowban. I am familiar with this – VERY familiar.
Once Big Tech goes nuclear on a site and decides to under-promote or outright hide a website’s content, what do you think that publisher will do? Give up and shut down? Perhaps, but not likely.
Instead, they realize that Google isn’t going to put them at the top of search results, Facebook is going to bury or ignore their posts, and Twitter will hide their replies. So, why bother trying to please them anymore? Content providers then start ignoring all of Big Tech’s rules and publish what they want, how they want. They find ways to attract audiences by other means.
What that means for Big Tech Censorship
More websites every day decide to ignore Google, Facebook, and Twitter’s rules and push what they want because they’ve found that search engines like Duck Duck Go, video outlets like Rumble, and payment processors like AlignPay can replace those oligarchical monstrosities with little effort.
It won’t take long until the only people left using their search, micro-blog, payment or streaming platforms are far-left head-nodders and their ‘angry Karen’ minders.
Big Tech can make its rules, censor posts, suspend influencers and ban presidents as much as they want. The skeptics, critical thinkers, and skilled debaters will move on and Google, Facebook, Twitter et al will cement their legacies as left-wing echo chambers where no one dares issue even a whisper of dissent.
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Yep, Cancel the Cancel Culture. They are irrelevant.