930 Free Internet Speech

<p>When people think of Free Speech, they don’t consider the nuance that the guarantee only keeps the government from restricting speech. In everyday life, your employer, the businesses you patronize, even your church can restrict what you say. With the rise of Tech giants that control Social Media where most speech occurs nowadays, restricting speech seems to be the norm rather than the exception, and has become especially egregious. The examples of bias against conservatives is well-documented, and is encouraged by illiberals who applaud & defend the practice. The specious argument that if you can’t post to Facebook, Twitter or Google, go somewhere else, only requires a few minutes of investigation to perceive that futility.</p> <p>If the monopolies were not biased, perhaps they could be ignored but the danger would always exist to exploit their censorship power at strategic times, for example, just before an election, like they’ve been doing. Even if those companies claim their policy is to be unbiased, they give a wink & nod to employees who abuse their privilege to engage in it. Propaganda works, and the government is the only one we allow to use it because they are supposed to be accountable, but our society is being inundated by totally unaccountable sources; in fact, there are probably foreign actors determining what Americans are seeing & hearing. If ever that was a time for government to intervene to guarantee free exchange of ideas, the time is now.</p>