How Democracy Dies: Big Tech Becomes Big Brother
How Democracy Dies: Big Tech Becomes Big Brother
BY TYLER DURDEN THURSDAY, MAR 04, 2021 - 23:40 Authored by Leni Friedman Valenta with Dr. Jiri Valenta via The Gatestone Institute,
"Digital
giants have been playing an increasingly significant role in wider society...
how well does this monopolism correlate with the public interest?," Russian
President Vladimir Putin said on
January 27, 2021.
"Where is the distinction between successful global businesses,
sought-after services and big data consolidation on the one hand, and the
efforts to rule society[...] by substituting legitimate democratic
institutions, by restricting the natural right for people to decide how to live
and what view to express freely on the other hand?"
Was Mr. Putin defending democracy? Hardly. What
apparently worries him is that the Big Tech might gain the power to control
society at the expense of his government.
What must be a nightmare for him -- as for many Americans -- is that the
Tech giants were able to censor news favorable to Trump and then censor Trump
himself. How could the U.S. do this to the president of a great
and free country?
Putin made these comments at the Davos World Economic Forum, in
which he and Chinese President Xi Jinping, sped on by the "Great
Reset" of a fourth industrial revolution, used enlightened phrases to
mask dark plans for nation states in a globalist New World Order. Thus did Xi
caution attendees "to adapt to and guide globalization, cushion its
negative impact, and deliver its benefits to all countries and all
nations."
In March 2019, Putin signed a law "imposing
penalties for Russian internet users caught spread 'fake news' and information
that presents 'clear disrespect for society, government, state symbols the
constitution and government institutions.'" Punishments got even heavier
with new laws in December.
Meanwhile, opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced
to prison for more than three years (with a year off for time served), in part
because he revealed photos of a lavish Russian palace allegedly belonging to
Putin on the coast of the Black Sea. Its accouterments supposedly include an $824
toilet brush. Many of the thousands of people protesting Navalny's
imprisonment have since been protesting Putin by waving gold-painted toilet
brushes.
How nice
that American Big Tech companies is pushing democracy in
Russia -- even while it is denying it at home. Do you
notice how many leaders in Europe have risen to condemn censorship in America
even though many in Europe are censoring their citizens as well, and are not
exactly fans of the person who was being censored, former President Donald J.
Trump? Like Putin, they probably do not want Big Tech competing with their
governments, either.
The power-sharing of the U.S. Federal government with Big Tech appears a recipe for unharnessed power and corruption. Navalny caught on right away, saying:
"This precedent will be exploited by the enemies of freedom
of speech around the world. In Russia as well. Every time when they need to
silence someone, they will say: 'this is just common practice, even Trump got
blocked on Twitter.'"
What
watchdog, if any, is now restraining Big Tech in America? It
has become quite clear that Big Tech's censorship may well have cost Trump the
election, even if one ultimately finds that election fraud did not.
Big Tech took it upon itself to censor an exposé -- published by
the New York Post on
October 24, 2020, as well as follow-up exposés --
reporting that Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son, had sold his influence to China
and Ukraine, and had raked in millions for the family.
The Media Research Center (MRC) found that
"One of every six Biden voters we surveyed (17%) said they would have
abandoned the Democratic candidate had they known the facts about one or more
of these news stories". That information might well have changed the
outcome in all six of the swing states Biden reportedly won.
Last August, Twitter also undertook censoring the
trailer of an explosive documentary entitled "The Plot Against the
President." The film, narrated by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) with
commentary by leading members of the Republican Party, exposes leading members
of the Democratic Party and their deep state allies, many of whom knowingly used
phony evidence to frame President Trump and some in his circle to try convince
Americans that he and his campaign had colluded with the Russian government to
win the 2016 election.
The film claims, using with recently declassified information,
that President Barack Obama, as
well Hillary Clinton,
were involved in an almost four-year attempted coup incomparably more
undemocratic than any riot at the Capital Building on January 6.
Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence
Committee, claimed in
August 2020 that Biden also knew of the ongoing efforts to unseat Trump.
Nevertheless, Trump did not target them, perhaps to avoid dividing the country
even further.
According to the Washington Times, the
Twitter account of the movie, which debuted in October 2020, attracted 30,000
followers. Twitter blacklisted it for a day, but after a public
uproar, put the popular documentary back. Our question is: How many
blacklistings did Twitter not put back?
The January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was a pivotal event for
Trump and the Republican Party. Prior to January 6, President Trump had offered
to deploy 10,000 troops to the capitol, according to his former Chief-of-Staff
Mark Meadows. The Pentagon and the Department of Justice had also offered help
but were also reportedly turned down by
the US Capitol Police The problem, apparently, was "optics" --
about a Capitol now surrounded by barbed wire and thousands of troops, which
the current Administration now seems to like.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for further details
about the event were also rejected -- it is not clear by whom. It is
ridiculous, therefore, for anyone to frame the riots, ugly as they were, as a
seditious "insurrection," particularly in light of what appears to be
a massive security failure that could have averted the violence. One thing is
certain: the timing of the event could not have been more perfect for
opposition groups, which is probably why it had been planned for weeks before
January 6.
What these efforts and the media did achieve was an end to all
attempts to ascertain election fraud at a time when Vice President Mike Pence
was counting Electoral College ballots, and allowing speeches from those
supporting that claim. Some politicians even called for
the resignation of Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, and referred them to the ethics committee for
even suggesting an election audit of battleground states, despite questions having
been asked -- with no objections -- concerning the results of the 2000, 2004
and 2016 presidential elections.
Ultimately,
the result of the latest "witch hunt" against President Trump, as it
has been called,
was a contrived impeachment attempt to bar Trump from a future presidential bid
-- a kangaroo court devoid of due process, hearings, witnesses, and evidence.
The prosecution, however, was undeniably eloquent in evoking
"democracy" for a totally undemocratic procedure that justly resulted
in Trump's acquittal.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter banned Trump and some of his
supporters from their cyber domains. An alternative social media platform,
Parler, was banned from the Apple and Google app
stores, and then completely closed down by
Amazon.
Meanwhile, mainstream social media platforms were reportedly used
to rally and organize carry out riots in American
cities last year. No one was penalized.
Do not,
however, expect such slackness now. According to
Fox News:
"People like Obama-era CIA Director John Brennan and Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have made various public statements labeling
Republicans as extremists -- with Ocasio-Cortez claiming the GOP has 'white
supremacist sympathizers' within its ranks, and Brennan claiming 'domestic
violent extremists' in the form of far-right supporters of President Trump are
more dangerous than Al Qaeda."
Columnist and radio host Jeffrey Kuhner warns that
a new bill, H.R. 350, "is the liberals' equivalent of the Patriot Act
redux. This time, however, it is not aimed at Islamic jihadists. Rather, it
directly targets Trump patriots." Kuhner writes that the bill "has
the full backing of the Democratic congressional leadership, the Biden administration...
Big Media and Big Tech."
"The bill empowers the Deep State to monitor, surveil and
spy on American citizens' social media accounts, phone calls, political
meetings and even infiltrate pro-Trump or 'Stop the Steal' rallies.
"Conservatives who are deemed potentially 'seditious' or
'treasonous' can be arrested and jailed, fined and/or lose their employment.
The goal is simple: to crush all dissent to the Biden regime."
Moreover, last month the new Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, ordered a
"stand down "of the entire military for 60 days, "so each
service, each command and each unit can have a deeper conversation about this
issue [extremism]." Normally stand downs last only a few hours or days and
do not involve the entire military. Austin, in addition, has pledged to
"rid our ranks of racists and extremists."
These are words that can be applied to anyone dreamed up,
including Trump supporters, and based, of course, on nothing but propaganda.
Austin's plan is therefore needless, divisive and dangerous,
considering the foreign dangers now circling their prey. This punishment of the
regime's "foes" makes one wonder what is next. Are we already
marching in lockstep with Russia and China? The way to unite and strengthen the
United States is not through suppression and punishment but through political
power with checks and balances, a free press and closer adherence to the
Constitution.
But here, again, there seems to be. a problem. The Federalist wrote in
July:
"According to a new Quillette survey released last
month, 70 percent of self-identifying liberals want to rewrite the U.S.
Constitution 'to a new Americans constitution that better reflects our
diversity as a people.'"
Oh, so that is what we lack: diversity!
What can Americans Do? We are presently at a tipping point in
America. Communist China is working hard and is focused on global domination;
we are just messing around. In an increasingly digital world, the war against
infringements on our freedoms most probably needs to be fought largely in the
digital and cyber-space. That is why ending censorship in both the traditional
and social media is such an important priority. First, break up the Big Tech
companies. Let them become the utilities they originally claimed to be, or else
be liable to lawsuits as other publishers are.
We do take some comfort that whereas dictatorships in
authoritarian countries such as China and Russia is vertical -- from the top
down -- in America, the central government shares power with the states from
the bottom up, and with powers separated: the executive, the judiciary and the
legislative. Fortunately, governors such as Ron
DeSantis in Florida, Greg Abbott in Texas and Kevin Stitt in Oklahoma are now
moving legislatively to
counter federal laws that may have adverse effects on freedom of speech, jobs,
election integrity, the energy industry, the first or second amendments and
general constitutional rights.
This does not speak, however, to the major issue here -- that democracy
cannot survive in a country where a few technocrats and oligarchs can choose to
deny access to information or platforms to candidates running for office.
It is simply unacceptable that they alone -- unelected, unappointed,
untransparent and unaccountable -- can deem what is "harmful" to
society. The job now for all of us is to prevent the United States
from slowly becoming a full-blown tyranny.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/how-democracy-dies-big-tech-becomes-big-brother
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