Big Tech Companies Are Government Granted Monopolies Engaged in Censorship
Posted by freedomforall 2 years, 11 months ago to Government
Excerpt:
"Big Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter are monopolies that need to be reined in to curb the amount of censorship they’re engaging in, constitutional lawyer Craig Parshall told The Epoch Times.
Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act helped a small group of companies, including Google and Amazon, rise to powerful heights. Those companies, collectively known as Big Tech, now wield enormous power.
The section shields technology companies from most lawsuits, with few exceptions.
“That gift was to incentivize competition. What it’s done, is it’s grown a series, a handful of giants, I’d say it’s Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple, and Amazon—five companies that basically rule the landscape in terms of digital information, viewpoint, and opinions, everything from politics, to religion, to culture, arts and entertainment,” Parshall said.
“So you have five monopolies created as a result of a congressional subsidy in the form of get out of lawsuit free card,” he added."
"Big Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter are monopolies that need to be reined in to curb the amount of censorship they’re engaging in, constitutional lawyer Craig Parshall told The Epoch Times.
Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act helped a small group of companies, including Google and Amazon, rise to powerful heights. Those companies, collectively known as Big Tech, now wield enormous power.
The section shields technology companies from most lawsuits, with few exceptions.
“That gift was to incentivize competition. What it’s done, is it’s grown a series, a handful of giants, I’d say it’s Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple, and Amazon—five companies that basically rule the landscape in terms of digital information, viewpoint, and opinions, everything from politics, to religion, to culture, arts and entertainment,” Parshall said.
“So you have five monopolies created as a result of a congressional subsidy in the form of get out of lawsuit free card,” he added."
I also don't see these companies as censoring anyone. They're helping publish ideas of people who 30 years ago would have been handing out fliers and maybe posting them to BBSs and usenet groups.
They use their financial and market strength to provide roadblocks to competition, to keep companies from providing services to them. This is not quite as true in tech as manufacturing where suppliers who are supplying goods to the monopoly are discouraged from also supplying the start-up competitors.
But tech companies need servers and internet access -- ask Parler.
There is a dichotomy in place here where these companies promote a vision of themselves as the new town square promoting communications between people. Helping people publish ideas.
But they are increasingly promoting a political philosophy and blocking anyone who disagrees with it saying that they are a private company and can control their content.
Which is true, but then they are not the town square and are misrepresenting themselves. It i a form of fraud -- they built a multi-billion dollar business on a premise that they no longer support.
These companies pretend to be open forums (and are virtual monopolies protected as such by government), but do engage in censorship of opinion and political discussion when the opinions or discussion run counter to the beliefs of those running the company. This behavior is counter to the "best goods and services" being offered.
You say you don't see censoring so I figure you must have missed such things as banning the POTUS or banning stories from publications like the NY Post because the monopoly disagreed with what was being said or wanted to bury a true story.
I actually think that deplorable element of society can publish things more easily than ever. 25 years ago they would have been publishing zine's, posting flyers, and maybe posting on FIDOnet or Usenet groups accessible via BBS. But now they're oppressed because they can't get their crap published as widely as they'd like.
Even if the gov't took over companies and forced them to publish gov't-approved ideas, or really just flood the zone with shit in an effort to confuse people so they accept whatever the government says, it wouldn't necessarily work. It's a new medium, and people are getting better at seeing through the lies.
That is what is happening and yet you fail to see it because in your brainwashed view it's for the common good.
However, deplorable hateful types like BLM, Antifa, and the rantings of the latest Ayatollah get a free pass to say whatever they want. How many prominent left wing extremists can you name that have been banned or censored by these companies?
These companies have become left wing extremist partisan political tools and propaganda machines and no longer deserve any kind of government protection.