After the QAnon Ban, Who's Next?

[Dashinka 24,736]

After the QAnon Ban, Who's Next?
 

Matt Taibbi

Oct 7

 

Bring up bans of QAnon or figures like Alex Jones (or even the suppression or removal of left-wing outlets like the World Socialist Web Site, teleSUR, or the Palestinian Information Centre) and you’re likely to hear that the First Amendment rights of companies like Facebook and Google are paramount. We’re frequently reminded there is no constitutional issue when private firms decide they don’t want to profit off the circulation of hateful, dangerous, and possibly libelous conspiracy theories. 

That argument is easy to understand, but it misses the complex new reality of speech in the Internet era. It is true that the First Amendment only regulates government bans. However, what do we a call a situation when the overwhelming majority of news content is distributed across a handful of tech platforms, and those platforms are — openly — partners with the federal government, and law enforcement in particular? 

In my mind, this argument became complicated in 2017, when the Senate Intelligence Committee dragged Facebook, Twitter, and Google to the Hill and essentially ordered them to come up with a “mission statement” explaining how they would prevent the “fomenting of discord.” 

Platforms that previously rejected the idea they were in the editing business — “We are a tech company, not a media company,” said Mark Zuckerberg just a year before, in 2016, after meeting with the Pope — soon were agreeing to start working together with congress, law enforcement, and government-affiliated groups like the Atlantic Council. They pledged to target foreign interference, “discord,” and other problems.

 

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/after-the-qanon-ban-whos-next

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

I have faith better platforms come along.. freedom tends to win in the long run even if losing a few battles against little deranged snowflakes with an authoritarian complex. 

[Dashinka 24,736]

9 hours ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

I have faith better platforms come along.. freedom tends to win in the long run even if losing a few battles against little deranged snowflakes with an authoritarian complex. 

I hope so as the current platforms we have are horrible.