Free Speech Servers, App Stores, And Maybe Free Speech Hardware Manufacturers Will Materialize, Perhaps As Far Away As Other Countries!
As big tech teams up with select media counterparts to suppress conservative views, many left-leaning Americans and Democrats have been quick to remind them of their love for the free market — suggesting conservatives should just build their own apps. But the left and the right should agree on this: None of us wants that.
After the removal of Parler from Apple, Google, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), and censoring of the president on Twitter and Facebook, lefties had a clever retort for whiny-righties: If you don’t like it — leave. That’s fair. The idea is this: Conservatives and/or free internet speech lovers should create their own apps, servers, internet service providers (ISP), computer companies, etc. But here’s the problem: They will.
Parler, an app created to protect free speech, is only the first in the oncoming technology onslaught, finding a Russian tech company more accepting of free speech than an American company, Amazon. Parler’s removal from the internet may very well have been the shot heard ’round the world in a pending tech civil war. Meanwhile, Facebook, which is reportedly just as responsible (if not more) for allowing the Capitol rioters to organize using its service, remains online and unscathed.
The second shot may have well been an Idaho ISP placing blocking measures for Facebook and Twitter, because of customer concerns. Coming soon, an entire market aimed at free speech and conservative or libertarian ideas. Free Speech Servers, Free Speech App Stores, And Maybe Free Speech Hardware Manufacturers Will Materialize, Perhaps As Far Away As Other Countries!
Expect a major rise in VPN, and encrypted messaging services, as people’s social media fear sets in. Will this even be the moment Google starts to lose market share to privacy-focused search engines such as DuckDuckGo.com? But it won’t stop at apps, servers, search engines and hardware. Governments are also taking sides, potentially fueling the movement.
Uganda cut off social media because of election concerns, prompting Twitter officials to ironically care about themselves being censored. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has condemned Twitter and Facebook for censoring President Trump, and Australia, Poland, Germany, and other countries echo those concerns.
In an apparent damage control attempt, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s founder, posted a sorry, not sorry Twitter thread, seemingly admitting left bias, on the tail end of another apology, again seemingly admitting left bias around Twitter’s takedown of the New York Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden.
Oliver Darcy at CNN has suggested that cable companies take down news stations like Fox News for their conservative bias, yet is completely unaware his own station is the opposite side of the same coin. In addition, Cumulus Media has threatened to fire show hosts for discussing election fraud. But while we should all love and seek truth, it also shouldn’t be a partisan pursuit.
Just as we allowed certain show hosts to peddle Russian collusion nonsense for years, we should allow conservative hosts to shovel election fraud nonsense. I hate nonsense just like you, but we should let the discussion take place in the open, with a healthy dose of conflict, not pushed into each party’s respective dark corner of the web.
As we lay the foundations of two separate internets, and the possible creation of left and right tech companies, we can choose instead to stop the communication breakdown. It’s quite simple. Since both righties and lefties (for now) seemingly agree in a free market solution, let your money talk. If you believe discussion across cultural, political and social lines makes us uniquely American, subscribe to media sources that encourage objectivity and opposing voices, like this very paper, which requested my conservative view on this topic.
Read Politico, which requested and refused to remove a recent piece by conservative radio host Ben Shapiro, despite staff outrage. Buy a subscription to Spotify, which hasn’t bowed to similar criticisms when it acquired “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Pay advertising only to sources that believe all voices, despite how loony they may be, should be allowed to contribute.
As a person who amplifies great ideas for companies and individuals as a career, I know voicing opposing and controversial ideas leads to breakthrough solutions neither side considered. Many times, you share a lot more in common than you think. I want to read my friend’s feeds on the left and my friend’s feeds on the right, even if they’re angry. I want to have an open discussion across political views on the internet. I want to be corrected when I’m wrong, and challenged. I hope you want that too, but let me warn you, especially all my lovable lefties in this moment: Don’t force conservatives to make their own apps, ISPs, and technology. Because they will likely do just that.
This news was originally published at Des Moines Register.