Big Tech Censorship Is a Problem, but More Government Involvement Is Not the Solution

in #censorship2 years ago

Image Credit: iStock.com/nespix

Make no mistake, the solutions to this problem offered by nationalist types—like Section 230 repeal or antitrust legislation—would only entrench the powers of existing companies and give Democrats—who are pushing for more censorship—exactly what they want.

Source: Big Tech Censorship Is a Problem, but More Government Involvement Is Not the Solution - Foundation for Economic Education

Censorship is generally a bad thing regardless of how you personally feel about the speech in question but I could not agree with this more. Government is NOT the solution (and rarely if ever is). This is for a multitude of reasons but the biggest ones include:

  1. Big tech censorship involves big tech companies censoring platforms that they own. It can be a wrong decision, it can be a stupid decision, it can be a partisan decision, but it is and should be their decision. The 1st Amendment protects us (theoretically anyway) from the government regulating speech, not from people or companies regulating speech on their own platforms/services.

  2. Government getting involved will only lead to a far worse situation. I mean do we really want government involved in regulating speech one way or the other? Constitutionally they have no right to do so and for very good reason.

  3. Free market solutions are the best solutions and there are some really great ones, not least of which is the censorship resistant Hive blockchain. Every story about big tech censorship should be taken as an opportunity to evangelize Hive. It's one of the best advertisements that there is. Government regulation, among other things, would only entrench these big tech companies further and limit the potential growth of smaller competitors. It's time for the domination of the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to end.