Thursday, January 14, 2021

Superpowers Without Armies

Twitter and Facebook are global giants. They have proven that they can shut off huge, written communication channels as they please. If they don't like what you're saying, you don't get to say it on their massive platforms.

Good for them.

What happens to a nation that doesn't like that sort of thing and outlaws them?

Well, nothing, really. Facebook and Twitter don't contribute one red pfennig to anyone's economy. I think there's a good argument to be made that they actually reduce economic output by wasting their users' time. Since the tech giants don't have a military arm, a country can destroy them without fear of retaliation. There would be a political price to be paid, but if you created substitute platforms like Gab or Parler and let people know they needed to move, I don't think there'd be a lot of fussing. Personally, I have no loyalty to Twitter or Facebook although I use them both.

I think I'll stop here. I still need to back up this blog and look into another method of hosting it. I'm not sure I'll be shut down, but it's certainly a possibility. If this is where we are in January of 2021, I'm not optimistic about the state of the First Amendment come July.

In other news, ANTIFA has come to San Diego. Freedom leaves when they arrive. With UCSD and SDSU as feeders, I can't imagine their influence will decrease over time.

1 comment:

One Brow said...

You haven't commanded/encouraged anyone to commit violence, and you're not spewing off stream of ugly words. You're not going to be shut down. That's just conservative paranoia.

However, there is certainly nothing stopping you from creating your own server farm and setting up your own direct internet access. I'm surprised the Parler people didn't do that.