On Sunday, Twitter declared it had permanently banned the personal account of United States House of Representatives Member Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in reaction to some of her posts at Twitter related to coronavirus. And she is far from alone among American politicians whose voices have been curtailed or silenced on social media platforms that disapprove the politicians’ expressed views. Most famously among them, Donald Trump, in his final weeks as president of the United States, was banished from top audience social media platforms.
Greene summed up her reaction to her ouster from Twitter with comments that many Americans agree with after having witnessed major social media companies repeatedly cracking down both on people who challenge the party line and on postings of various targeted sorts, such as criticism of Russiagate allegations and of the influence peddling operation suggested by the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Challenges to coronavirus-related fearmongering, mandates, and “vaccines” are also in the crosshairs of social media companies’ censors.
Here is what Greene said, as quoted in an Associated Press article on Sunday:
‘Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth,’ Greene said. ‘That’s fine, I’ll show America we don’t need them and it’s time to defeat our enemies.’
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) appears to have come to a similar conclusion in regard to what he calls “Big Tech.” Paul, who has not been permanently banned from any big tech social media platform, announced Monday in a Washington Examiner editorial that his “goal is to eventually quit Big Tech entirely.” “Big Tech in many ways helps me to spread my message,” Paul notes in the editorial. At the same time, the censorship by the big tech social media platforms, Paul argues, is both “despicable” and “illiberal”:
But just because private censorship of speech is allowable under the law, that doesn’t make that censorship any less despicable or illiberal. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram are the new town square, and opposing viewpoints are being silenced by the BigTech gatekeepers.
Paul writes that his “exodus from Big Tech” is beginning with YouTube, which he views as the “worst censors” in the lot. No more posting videos at YouTube for Paul, he writes, except for videos that criticize YouTube or direct people to watch Paul’s videos at Rumble, a competing video platform. Indeed, Paul advocates in his editorial that, like him, other people should stop posting at big tech social media platforms. He concludes his editorial with the following call to action:
Competition is the answer. So, to complainers about Big Tech censorship, just quit!
In August of 2018, I commented that “The current internet giants can fall just like Goliath, just like MySpace.” Sen. Rand Paul’s editorial is another indication that the big tech giants, though now apparently mighty, may be approaching their demise. When many more people stop using them, the now dominant social media platforms will become nothing of interest — internet wastelands. It is the users of the social media platforms, after all, that provide the valuable content.
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