Daily Stormer The Most Censored Publication in History
The first thing to remember when looking at the current state of social media censorship is that all of these big tech moguls appeared before Congress and swore under oath that they do not do editorializing. They said this because if they do editorializing, they are technically no longer protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, as they become a publisher and not a platform.
Now, because they know they have the government fully on their side, they’re just openly saying that they engage in editorializing, and claiming it is their First Amendment right to do so.
RT:
Twitter is attempting to stop Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s investigation into its moderation practices, calling the probe “retaliation” for its suspension of former president Donald Trump.
“Twitter seeks to stop AG Paxton from unlawfully abusing his authority as the highest law-enforcement officer of the State of Texas to intimidate, harass, and target Twitter in retaliation for Twitter’s exercise of its First Amendment rights,” Twitter said in its court filing on Monday.
Twitter said the investigation comes down to the platform making “editorial decisions” Paxton disagrees with, including suspending Trump’s account following the US Capitol riot on January 6.
On January 13, Paxton, a Republican, announced an investigation into the moderation practices of “Big Tech” companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter and Amazon.
“First Amendment rights and transparency must be maintained for a free online community to operate and thrive,” he said in a statement about the investigation, adding that the “seemingly coordinated de-platforming” of Trump and other leading conservative voices “not only chills free speech” but “wholly silences those whose speech and political beliefs do not align with leaders of Big Tech companies.”
Twitter has said the investigation requires them to hand over “volumes of highly confidential documents” related to their moderation policies, which they claim could compromise their moderation practices altogether.
The social media platform claimed in their filing that they tried compromising with Paxton and narrowing the scope of his broad investigation, but they could not come to an agreement.
“Instead, AG Paxton made clear that he will use the full weight of his office, including his expansive investigatory powers, to retaliate against Twitter for having made editorial decisions with which he disagrees,” they said in their suit, which was filed in Northern California.
Yeah, they definitely don’t want their secret moderation policies opened up. That would definitely “compromise the practices altogether.” Not least because it would show that they have official back channels between the five big tech companies to coordinate censorship.
But just imagine for a second: who do you think the Founding Fathers would say represented the First Amendment as it was written?
- An “oligopoly” that has a total control over public speech saying it is their “First Amendment right” to silence anyone they want, including the sitting President of the United States, or
- Normal people who want the freedom to say what they want to say?
Obviously, this appears to be a rhetorical question, though apparently it is not.
We are so far away from the supposed “fundamental values” of this country that corporations are openly claiming that their rights trump those of individuals.
But this country… this country has a lot of problems.
