Donald Trump Jr. has an editorial at The Hill in which he examines the fight that the right has to fight against the tech oligarchs and the power they have over what you see and what you don’t. The traditional conservatives have been reluctant to take up this battle because they adhere to the old idea that censorship can only be put in place by the government. But in the age of the internet and global digital communication, we see that this is most certainly not the case. As the internet has become the primary means of communication we can see that those who control the platforms have power as great or even greater than governments have previously had. Thus we must begin to change our view of what really constitutes censorship in a digital age and how to secure the freedoms of the people from those with vast amounts of wealth and power.
As Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives becomes ever more flagrant and overt, the old arguments about protecting the sanctity of the modern public square are now invalid. Our right to freely engage in public discourse through speech is under sustained attack, necessitating a vigorous defense against the major social media and internet platforms.
From “shadowbans” on Facebook and Twitter, to demonetization of YouTube videos, to pulled ads for Republican candidates at the critical junctures of election campaigns, the list of violations against the online practices and speech of conservatives is long.
I certainly had my suspicions confirmed when Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, “accidentally” censored a post I made regarding the Jussie Smollett hoax, which consequently led to me hearing from hundreds of my followers about how they’ve been having problems seeing, liking or being able to interact with my posts. Many of them even claimed that they’ve had to repeatedly re-follow me, as Instagram keeps unfollowing me on their accounts.
While nothing about Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives truly surprises me anymore, it’s still chilling to see the proof for yourself. If it can happen to me, the son of the president, with millions of followers on social media, just think about how bad it must be for conservatives with smaller followings and those who don’t have the soapbox or media reach to push back when they’re being targeted?
Thanks to a brave Facebook whistleblower who approached James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, we now know that Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant developed algorithms to “deboost” certain content, limiting its distribution and appearance in news feeds. As you probably guessed, this stealth censorship was specifically aimed at conservatives.
