European leaders have a point—up to a point
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire condemned decisions by Twitter, Facebook, Apple, et al to shut down Donald Trump’s social media accounts. Le Maire accused Big Tech of forming a “digital oligarchy,” and called for public regulation of big online platforms.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized a “breach” of the “fundamental right to free speech” as “problematic.”
I get it. “Digital oligarchy” is apt. I applaud the efforts of Europeans to hobble Big Tech as they have been doing and will continue to do; we should have been doing a lot more of it on our side of the Atlantic. If it weren’t for the unshackled free market ideology dominating American politics for the last 40 years, we might have been doing it.
Nevertheless, maybe they should butt out of the Trump social media lockdown controversy for the time being . . . at least until the dust settles around the transition to the Joe Biden administration.
The old analogy of “freedom of speech doesn’t give you the right to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater” applies in this situation.* If Angela Merkel had had to live in a country with its leader shouting ‘fire!’ every day for four years straight, ultimately leading to an attack on the nation’s Capitol building by a lawless, violent, gun-toting mob bent on overthrowing the government, she might be willing to bend a little to the practicality of muting that voice as soon as possible, whether by Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Jeff Bezos, or my local mail carrier (I’d rather entrust the power to her than to the aforementioned, but that’s going to have to wait for The Revolution).
What was done by the social media giants was to stanch the hemorrhage in an emergency. Someone had to do it, or the U.S. President would have continued to twist the knife into the body politic. There was no other way to stop him short of an elephant-grade tranquilizer.
Surely, the German government has enough brilliant tech savants at its disposal to create a platform for Donald Trump to continuing screaming fire! 24/7 to the entire world— if they are really that concerned about the freedom of his abrasive, abusive, divisive, inflammatory, foul-mouthed, callous, xenophobic, misogynistic, white-supremacist ravings.
Next steps: taming the corporate beasts in America
The long-term remedy to the domination of the media ecosystem by corporate giants in the U.S. requires nothing less than a paradigm shift in the approach to the entire out-of-control plutocratic regime we find ourselves under.
North Carolina Republican Ted Budd introduced legislation earlier this month for regulation to prevent big social media platforms from “suffocating the voices of conservatives.” Aww.
Consider the irony: the same folks who have been suppressing minority voting rights (in like, forever), slashing regulation in everything from health care to environmental protection, pushing so-called “right to work” laws that cut the knees out from under labor unions, installing federal judges inimical to the economic freedom of lower classes (minorities in particular), allowing media giant Sinclair Broadcast Group to snap up 40% of local TV news stations in the U.S. to promote right-wing ideology, privatizing schools, privatizing prisons, cutting taxes to enrich the few to the disadvantage of the many—in all these ways depriving citizens of their freedom—these same people are crying foul when the social media landscape turns out to be tilted somewhat away from them. At least as they see it. This is grim and laughable at the same time.
Those on the Right who would like to regulate Big Tech on behalf of their own narrow interests are caught in a trap of their own making. Their embrace of free-market capitalism is antithetical to the kind of government regulation required to restrain the tech giants from doing whatever they damn well please. These gigantic companies, exploiting this contradiction to their continuing advantage, have the wherewithal to hire the most influential lobbyists and the cleverest lawyers in their defense. They also have the American public in thrall to their services. It’s all part of the free market and consumerism run amok, facilitated by an ideology that prizes profits over people.
This is precisely why the ceremonial grilling of tech executives by Congressional committees has produced almost nothing in the way of tangible results. Free market ideologues have few to blame but themselves for bringing about this state of affairs.
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* OK, technically maybe one does have the right to yell “Fire” in a crowded theater, but you catch my drift.
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The discussion above largely concerns the content and reach of social media. Just as important, as I have posted previously on this blog, are their addictive characteristics that hijack the nervous system, penetrate deep into the limbic system, and rob the user of judgment and free choice.
A post considering the implications of internet addiction for democracy is:
The Other Addiction: Is Democracy Sunk?