Opinion: Bring Big Tech Down to Size
Written by dariandudrick on January 12, 2021
The cancel culture reached a new, dangerous level over the weekend.
Twitter first suspended President Trump’s account after the riot at the U.S. Capitol last week, accusing him of inciting violence. Then on Friday night, the social networking service permanently suspended his account.
Also on Friday, Google suspended the Parler app from its Play Store, claiming the free speech social networking platform – known for being an escape from Twitter for conservatives – failed to moderate “egregious content” in regard to the Capitol riot.
Apple followed suit Saturday, pulling Parler from its App Store, and then early Monday, Amazon suspended the Parler website from its cloud hosting service.
Is anyone surprised?
There have been, and continue to be, countless examples of Twitter, Facebook and Google suppressing conservative thought – the latest example being permanent suspension of the president’s account.
On the other hand …
Twitter, for example, has no problem with the violence and anti-Americanism spewed by many users of its site – such as antifa supporters or Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Twitter and Facebook are shielded by Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which protects social media platforms from being sued for content created by its users.
The problem is Big Tech picks and chooses, i.e., editorializes, its content … like a publisher. That’s a violation of Section 230.
There’s no disputing Big Tech has too much power. And that should be a major concern for all Americans, whether Republican or Democrat.
Something must be done. Congress must act. It should start with President-elect Joe Biden publicly condemning Big Tech for censoring speech.
But will he?
