Censorship: Twitter Takeover Totally Panics Political Regime of LeftLibDemSocMediaTechPol

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Wed May 11 01:51:44 PDT 2022


Make Twitter Great Again

https://americanmind.org/salvo/make-twitter-great-again/

The prognosis for free speech in America promises marked improvement.

Elon Musk is soon expected to take over Twitter Inc., following the
company’s acceptance of his $45 billion offer.

Musk has pledged to promote free speech, which he described as “the
bedrock of a functioning democracy.” I for one am cautiously
optimistic that Elon can Make Twitter Great Again.

I’m optimistic because I believe Musk is a capable leader and
entrepreneur who will stand by his principles. But I’m cautious
because of the ferocity of the opposition from powerful opponents of
free speech. Musk’s agenda, which is simply free speech on Twitter,
threatens the institutions in the United States which are both
beneficiaries of, and responsible for, coordinated online censorship.

The primary beneficiaries of online censorship are other Big Tech
companies like Facebook and Google. Wielding monopolistic-level market
share and using clandestine algorithms, these corporations enjoy the
self-appointed roles of gatekeeper in the Information Age.

Google can capriciously change which news outlets to amplify, which
political candidates to boost, and which businesses to promote. As a
result, opinions change, votes shift, reputations are ruined, and
businesses can either boom or burn.

But Big Tech censorship only works if separate platforms adopt
identical policies, which is exactly how the cartel operates. Look how
they each handled the Hunter Biden laptop story, COVID, and Kyle
Rittenhouse in the same way.

If Facebook had blocked all posts saying vaccinated people can spread
COVID, but Twitter had allowed them, then Facebook’s censorship would
be exposed as arbitrary and wrong. That would impair the company’s
credibility, drive users away, and hurt Facebook’s bottom line.

Ideally, that scenario would represent the “free market of ideas” in
action. But Big Tech has rigged the information market. They’ve
created a syndicate by informally coordinating to suppress certain
information and ideas from spreading anywhere. If one company defects
then the syndicate collapses.

Facebook and Google are threatened by a free Twitter for the same
reason that the mainstream media is threatened by a user-based
platform like Substack, and the reason the media was so hostile to
tech companies before censorship really started. That’s why Apple and
Google are already threatening to pull Twitter from their app stores.

Other members of the information cartel include non-government
organizations (NGOs)—advocacy groups, think tanks, and major
charitable foundations. NGOs, terrified that Musk is a “free speech
absolutist” who will permit “hate speech” to dominate the platform,
are mobilizing against him.

This is no surprise, as these groups, like the ACLU, Human Rights
Watch, Amnesty International, and others, are funded by the likes of
George Soros and have a track record of undermining American
sovereignty and values. These organizations oppose Musk for the same
reason they have opposed efforts to stop online censorship. They
actively cheer censorship, and want America to adopt European-style
“hate speech” laws, where you can be fined thousands of dollars or
even sent to prison for saying or posting online things deemed
“hateful.” The European Union, which, in its own words, “accepts NGO
involvement in policy- and decision-making as not only a necessity,
but as a requirement,” is frightened of what Musk might do with
Twitter. They are even arguing that an American company shouldn’t be
allowed to have free speech because of the EU’s hate speech laws.

The Democrat Party is also sounding alarms about the potential threat
of  Musk’s buyout of Twitter. Former President Barack Obama, the Biden
administration, and U.S. Senators Dick Durbin, Elizabeth Warren, Mark
Warner, and Jeff Merkley have all expressed profound concern, going so
far as to label the development “dangerous for our democracy.”

These admonitions come as no surprise either. After all, this is the
same party which wants Big Tech to censor more; which enjoys a
codependent relationship with these companies to root out
“disinformation” online; and whose base is increasingly supportive of
the government banning lawful speech. Should Musk make Twitter’s
algorithms open source—as he’s said he’ll do—Twitter’s partisan
policies will be exposed. Democrats will have to fess up to the fact
they owe their power in large measure to this censorship regime.

Finally, mainstream media is categorically opposed to Musk. Outlets
from CNN to NBC to the Washington Post to the New York Times have come
out swinging, with pronouncements that the changeup at Twitter HQ will
“probably suck for women” and that only “straight white men” will
enjoy free speech.

What’s clear is that the media is against anyone or anything which
presents a threat to the beliefs of the information cartel. The media
deified Anthony Fauci—even when he was wrong—and others in the medical
establishment while they actively suppressed anyone who dared to
question prevailing narratives on the virus.

For two-plus years, the media amplified the official narrative that
masking was/is effective (it wasn’t); that vaccines would prevent the
spread of the virus (they haven’t); and that there was no way the
virus came from a lab (it likely did). Mainstream corporate media went
out of its way to mock, punish, and silence any voices of even mild
dissent. A Twitter where free speech thrives threatens media companies
that rely on widespread censorship to hide their blatant partisanship
and chronic distortion of the truth.

Musk’s Twitter takeover represents the single greatest threat to the
information cartel to date.  Some of the main players in this
cartel—NGOs, Democrat politicians, and media corporations—face the
prospect of narrative collapse. Elon Musk should know that, insofar
his plans for Twitter include restoring free speech to the platform,
he will be attacked at each step by the element of society that stands
to benefit from censorship and the status quo. I hope he is ready,
because the American people are certainly ready for a restoration of
free speech online.


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