In 2019, the internet celebrates its thirtieth birthday. What was once an open portal for communication and sharing information, the internet has slowly become a totalitarian hub of thought control. Tech giants now censor certain viewpoints while favoring the content they want people to consume.
Helpful information and contrarian viewpoints are a threat to specific authority figures and industries, and tech giants have the power to police this. For instance, 1700+ videos from the Health Ranger’s YouTube channel were taken down with no justification. These videos teach critical thinking and self-reliance; the content penetrates the fragile philosophies and groupthink that pervades big tech culture. This leftist groupthink is so strong, Google will terminates employees for recognizing the fact there are only two genders and that male and female are inherently different.
Likewise, the Gateway Pundit’s conservative viewpoints have faced censorship from big tech. InfoWar's in-depth analysis has faced censorship for simply questioning motives and agendas behind the Parkland, Fl shooting. Strong people like Michelle Malkin have fought back against repeated censorship tactics.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee warns: “The web that many connected to years ago is not what new users will find today. What was once a rich selection of blogs and websites has been compressed under the powerful weight of a few dominant platforms. This concentration of power creates a new set of gatekeepers, allowing a handful of platforms to control which ideas and opinions are seen and shared.”
Perhaps, Berners-Lee should consult the Social Media Neutrality Panel, which featured censored voices such as Pamela Geller of the Geller Report and Margaret Howell of Rightside Broadcasting. The panel discussed social media bias, shadow banning and various other methods used to silence voices and restrict access to information on the web.
Berners-Lee is now working to make internet free, open, and affordable to more people around the world while advocating for decentralization of thought and information. The web cannot welcome innovation and the free flow of ideas if a handful of tech giants have the power to control which ideas and opinions are shared. How can small, innovative online stores and bloggers get their products and message out if the most powerful players in the industry dominate what people see online?
Berners-Lee warns that these platforms become dominant by “creating barriers for competitors.” With their deep pockets and heavy-handed influence, these platforms may “acquire startup challengers, buy up new innovations and hire the industry’s top talent.” These dominant platforms meticulously collect user data from people, which give them an extreme advantage in the online marketplace.
All the data that is being collected on internet users, including searches, connections, and interests, can be used against them to target market products, news, and information. This predatory breach of privacy and target marketing is motivated by profit and is all about controlling what people read, so any voluntary changes made by the tech giants will not be done for the public good because any changes will be counterproductive to their financial mission. There must be a new incentive that changes the way platforms operate.
This incentive should stop tech giants from suppressing any competition or dissent. It should not give them more power to police content. For example, Facebook cannot be trusted to weed out “fake news” from being shared on its platform; this only equates to censorship. Regulations that empower the tech giants will only embolden the problem. New regulations should hold the tech giants accountable for violating freedom of ideas and freedom of expression, even if they disagree with the content or find it “offensive.”
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