Is this the beginning of the end of American tech hegemony around the globe?
What would foreign countries think of Twitter banning Trump and Google/Amazon/Apple booting off Parler? If those American Big Tech firms can do this to their own President, imagine what they would do to foreign leaders, corporations, and individuals when they see fit.
For the past two decades, the American Big Tech played a big role in the US hegemony around the world. Now that the Big Tech is seemingly overgrowing its government and is arguably more powerful, would foreign countries trust them anymore?
Take social media for example, would foreign countries still use Twitter, Facebook, or will they start thinking about building their own? China has already done that. Would Europe follow? Recognizing the difficulties and challenges in creating another Facebook, would foreign countries be willing to invest time and money in it?
Note, I am not arguing about whether it's right or wrong for Twitter to ban Trump, but want to start a discussion on the consequences of doing so.
They’re private companies, it’s within their legal right to do so. Especially when those are inciting violence, sedition and treason through their platforms. They don’t have to a party to that. If ppl want to do that, let them feel free to use their own voices, but no one has to give you a loud mike to reach the masses in doing so. Go find one that will. The president along with the biggest no-name in the country, have to abide by the law in the same respect. If they don’t then we don’t have a democracy anymore, which seems to be what 70m ppl are advocating for.
For a party that screams at the top of its lungs about FREEDOM, y’all are so fucking intolerant of giving it to other entities like Big Tech
If Trump wants to exercise his right to free speech and make announcements, subliminal or not, he has an entire press briefing room available to him
To be fair, what good is a press briefing room going to do when 5-6 companies can make it so that nobody in the world hears what you have to say? The left screams "PRIVATE COMPANIES, ITS CAPITALISM GO COMPETE" and then attempt to censor every other available source of information. CNN trying to take down Fox. Apple removing Parler. Hollywood blacklisting celebrities. Try to make your own right-wing platform app, and it won't be possible. A Foaming at the mouth mob will scream until your app has nowhere to be platformed. At what point do you reflect on the fact that maybe if you have to censor your "opponent", your message might be wrong? The dictator censors, the dictator does not get censored. You are not the revolution against a fascist. You are siding with every establishment politician and news outlet and CEO and they're laughing all the way to the bank while they manipulate sheep in our country to riot on command. What good is a press briefing room when nobody can talk about you (unless it's to post pictures of Trump's decapitated head or #hangmikepence etc.)? When Facebook, Insta, Alphabet, Apple, Twitter, and MSM can completely control the minds of 50+% of our population, is that then too much power?
You're trying to point out the hypocrisy of the government party, but are just proving yourself wrong. Republicans are the party of decentralized power. We hate the federal government, we had government interfering in our lives and we hate outside forces such as China and the fact that Amazon and Walmart make millions while our neighbors are about to be evicted from their homes because of liberal politicians. Yeah, we hate when large companies restrict online freedoms. Wasn't the left trying to make Trump's tweets "official presidential statements" just a year ago?
Everyone is so ready to point a finger at the other side just to prove themselves right that they don't even see the decline of America before their eyes. But it's ok, because Trump's a racist.
I guess that's the point. They are private companies so they can do whatever they want, including silencing foreign individuals and spreading misinformation on foreign countries. If they keep doing whatever they want, they are likely to lose trust from all foreign countries, even including allies in Europe.
I’m game for every social media function to simply not exist anymore.
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On a serious note, I don't think so. WSO is a form of social media as well. We definitely need these kinds of stuff. We need a platform for people to be heard (and those include the President of the United States).
"They're private companies, therefore we can't criticize their actions and just have to accept it when they commit abusive behavior".
Long ago, smart people realized that industries that were of special public importance or prone to natural monopolies had to be regulated differently. We figured this out with telecoms (AT&T can't shut off your phone service because they don't like what you're saying), but for some reason with tech, people become sycophantic boot lickers hoping that Zuckerberg will notice all their simping for him.
Great point. If something is of special public importance, it should be regulated differently, and by their own country specifically. Each country has its own utility companies and telecom companies. Looks like the fall of Big Tech is inevitable (fall meaning they lose international market).
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