Danimal writes:
If you are interested, I would like to ask for you to post something on it from a different life experience and also because you depend on electronic media for income. It seems as though Substack is more immune to censorship by government fiat.
For this veteran who stood a post while Americans slept it is infuriating to say the least. Lockdowns are now possible once again...
First off, thank you for your service.
Secondly, here are my thoughts right off the bat. I’m so grateful Elon Musk bought Twitter and turned it into X. I think it’s a terrible, disappointing ruling that will be catastrophic if Biden prevails in November. Imagine, now, they have their lawfare as a precedent and the ability to censor social media. Hello, 1984.
The fight isn’t over. There will be more debate over this in the coming years. Here are a few thoughts I have beyond the obvious.
I’ve been online since 1994—before eBay and Google, there was even a working web, especially before social media. I knew they rigged the 2020 election because they were subverting the First Amendment by censoring social media. I found it terrifying. No one I knew cared because the Left was in power.
Most people are starting to understand how heavily censored Google, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are already. Competition will be the key to luring users away from these sites and moving them toward less censored sites.
That probably means Rumble will attract more users, as will X.
I’m most worried about TikTok. The Biden administration and the Democrats want complete control of the app. If they manage to force the sale and it lands in the hands of one of their billionaires, then they will have greater power to influence the public, which is all they want.
They want complete control of “the narrative” and thus, “reality.”
Upside:
The Biden administration might lose in November, in which case, the Trump side will be able to pressure social media companies into removing what they deem “misinformation” or “disinformation.”
For instance, let’s say there is a story circulating that says Trump said he’d be a dictator from day one. That’s obviously false and misinformation. Trump’s administration can now send their FBI (after they clean house) to force social media companies to take down those stories, and then it will be the Left that screams and cries about it.
It just means I will fight harder to remove the Democrats from power because they are the side that no longer believes in free speech.
I believe the decision did not rule on the merits, only that plaintiffs lacked standing?? Am I misinformed?
The censorship is quite prevalent and growing in every venue. I even had a post denied on the WSJ a week or two ago for including the term "Project Veritas" in my post. I was commenting upon the woman who taped Justice Alito surreptitiously. My comment was that I didn't see that what she had done differed markedly from what James O'Keefe does with Project Veritas. After I clicked on "Send" a message appeared immediately telling me that the comment was rejected. I wrote asking why and received a reply three days later telling me that "Project Veritas" was a forbidden term. WTF?!?!?!?
I haven't looked at the decision so I don't know how sweeping it might be. No, I'm not an attorney, but one of my favorite quotations is Einstein's "If you can't explain it simply you don't understand it well enough." I'll find someone who explains it simply. I find that Turley usually does a good job of making legalese understandable to laymen.