Besides the tragically awful speech by Joe Biden yesterday, other things were going on in politics. For one, the Big Tech oligarchs were virtually hauled back to Congress and everyone said much the same thing as in prior hearings. There was the exception of a burgeoning unanimity among Democrats and Republicans on doing something specific to the three social media oligarchs. New laws are coming. That might not turn out well.
Zuckerberg wants to get rid of his immunity, Dorsey says he strongly believes in free speech, and Heritage told them to take their money and pound salt.
Speaking for the three social media oligarchs, Dorsey said they believe in free expression and free debate. Seriously.
SECTION 230 IMMUNITY
Zuckerberg now supports the reform of Section 230. He told Congress, “Instead of being granted immunity, platforms should be required to demonstrate that they have systems in place for identifying unlawful content and removing it…”
You think that’s good, but no, it’s not.
He simply wants to use it to eliminate the competition.
Fake conservatives at National Review did make a good point when they noted that oligarchs see federal regulation as a barrier to competition.
National Review said, “Zuckerberg’s proposals would help to kill Section 230 — but only for Facebook’s rivals. It is easy for Facebook to ‘demonstrate that they have systems in place for identifying unlawful content and removing it’ because they already do. It is much less easy, by contrast, for smaller outfits to do so…”
Fake libertarians say if you don’t like it, start your own. Parler did exactly that but then Amazon, Apple, and others dropped them as Parler quickly picked up 15 million people fleeing Twitter and Facebook. They all collude together.
People who rioted on January 6th used Parler 5% of the time and Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter 80% of the time. Yet Parler was the only one taken down for sharing ‘violent content.’
The social media titans protect the Democrats and Democrats protect them for shared power and wealth.
THE HEARING YESTERDAY
During the virtual hearing, House members warned the CEOs of Facebook [Zuckerberg], Twitter [Rasputin], and Google [Sundar Pichai is the worst] that a legislative hammer is about to land, Axios’ Kim Hart, Ashley Gold, and Margaret Harding McGill report.
Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee told the CEOs that their businesses prioritize ad revenue and engagement over rooting out content that harms users, especially children.
Axios reports that The relatively consistent lines of questioning, sometimes crossing party lines, displayed a new unity among members of Congress in their concern about the companies — and a stronger likelihood that they might pass punitive laws.
Republicans are being suckered into making mistakes yet again. I can feel it.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg disputed the claims: “While it may be true that people might be more likely to click on it in the short term, it’s not good for our business or our product or our community for this content to be there … [W]e run the company for the long term.”
Jack Dorsey of Twitter falsely claimed he believes in free speech but constantly shuts it down. He shut down the NY Post Hunter Biden story, which was a perfectly accurate report. He shuts down all opposition.
GREAT COMMENTS BY TUCKER
HERITAGE SENDS BACK THEIR HUGE DONATIONS
The Heritage Foundation released to Axios letters it sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai in late October turning down their contributions.
Axios said, “According to a Heritage spokesperson, Google had previously donated a total of $1.55 million to the group. Facebook had contributed $275,000.”
The foundation received $87 million in donations from everyone in 2019 alone.
The letter to Pichai said, “We cannot in good conscience take money from a company that repeatedly, and blatantly, suppresses conservative speech on your platforms.” A similar letter was sent to Zuckerberg.
Axios reported, “Heritage accused Facebook of blocking referral traffic to the foundation’s news and opinion website, and Google of censoring its YouTube videos, including by appending a disclaimer on one pre-election video ‘meant to cast doubt on the credibility of our well-sourced claims about the risks of voting by mail.’
Along with Twitter, the oligarchs have been buying off people for years.
Heritage looks very classy here.
And to be safe, don’t believe a word these oligarchs say.
Subscribe to the Daily Newsletter
wpDiscuz
