Big Tech Doesn’t Make Money off Censorship, Right-Wing Terrorists Forced Their Hand

There are many people on the far right and some on the civil libertarian left that have taken issue with what has occurred both by blocking Trump and some of the QANON followers from platforms like Twitter and for big tech companies to essentially taking down Parler.

I understand the civil liberty concerns. There is always a danger in over reacting (like we did after 9/11) and creating bad precedents in the process. We must always uphold the first amendment rights and be wary of censorship. As Noam Chomsky once stated, free speech is especially there for the language and ideas you despise. When it comes to social media platforms, they are of course not the government, therefore the First Amendment is not necessarily violated when they kick people off their sites or censor material. With that said, with the amount of power they have, I do think any censorship that they engage in should be of concern and considered in the larger social aspect.

The reality, however, is that social media and big tech do not make money off censorship. Places like Twitter and Facebook have allowed absurdities and frankly dangerous conspiracy theories and language to be used for a long time precisely because they are not all about censorship. They lose money every time a group of people is kicked off or leave their platform. Their “openness” or lack of censorship was so apparent that Facebook allowed Russian trolls to infiltrate the page in 2016, possibly throwing the election to Trump. Twitter allowed Trump to trade insults with Kim Jung-un up to the point of nuclear war.

However, right wing terrorists inspired by a sitting president have finally forced their hand in a special way. And yes, big tech might overstep at times, and if so I hope they do a course correction. However, the fear is well founded, if they do nothing and right wing groups carry out something that makes the events of January 6th look minor in comparison, will social media then be held to account? This is even more of the case with Parler where open death threats and calls for violence are being passed around. There is not even a question about this. This is not protected by the First Amendment and a site that doesn’t have the willingness to to control goes on its site should not be available to the public.

I have always been an advocate of free speech and have spoken out from attempts from the left, particularly the ultra-woke segment, that try to silence and censor any views or ideas that are not exactly “in-line.” This also applies to the right who have tried to silence groups like those advocating for Palestinian rights. I do think there are real dangers in regard to censorship, academic freedom, and threats to the First Amendment. However, I don’t want to see the crocodile tears of the far right. You forced this censorship. At the end of the day big tech made the calculation that they would rather be blamed for some censorship than for doing nothing and allowing a civil war.