For good or bad, the internet and its services have become essential public services. It has pretty much effectively joined the more traditional essential public services like roads, public transportation, mail, the telephone, radio, television and bank services. An email account is nowadays almost as essential as a real-world postal address. Communication with other people has moved in large to online services (for good or bad). While it's theoretically possible to live perfectly fine without any sort of internet connection, nowadays it's so inconvenient and so limiting that it can be justly considered an essential public service.
Imagine if private corporations had the power to stop somebody from having access to these essential public services, for any reason the corporations wanted. Imagine, for instance, that corporations didn't like the political views of a private citizen, and proceeded to harass said citizen by denying him access to public transportation, telephone services, mail, being able to drive on public roads, having access to radio and television, and so on. Needless to say the quality of life, well-being and livelihood of this person would be severely hampered. This would be clear discrimination against a person based on his political views. This would definitely not do, in a free constitutional society. The government would have to intervene.
Yet, this is exactly what is happening, right now, with online services. Huge megacorporations have a frightening amount of power to deny people they don't like essential online services, and they aren't afraid to use them.
Famously, on August 6, 2018, Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify removed all content by infamous Alex Jones, and banned him from their platforms. Given that all four independent companies did it exactly on the same day is quite clear indication of collusion between them. His accounts have also been suspended from Pinterest, MailChimp and LinkedIn.
Regardless of what you may think of Alex Jones (and regardless of whether he's actually serious with all of the conspiracy theory stuff he spouts, or whether it's all just cleverly disguised satire), this is the kind of persecution and discrimination based on political views that has no place in a free society.
Robert Spencer (not to be confused with Richard Spencer; no relation) is a famous critic of radical Islam. Recently his Patreon account was banned. This ban was demanded by the credit card company Mastercard. No reason whatsoever given, legal or otherwise. And this even though, to my knowledge, Mastercard does not own Patreon. And this even though Robert Spencer did not use any Mastercard services on Patreon. They still had the power to ban someone from that service, without having to state any reason whatsoever.
This is a frightening amount of power for a private corporation to have. To ban someone from a service not even owned by that corporation, without the need to give any reason whatsoever, legal or otherwise. This is frighteningly close to a credit card company stopping a private citizen from having a bank account at all, anywhere, because the company says so.
It's not hard to guess that the reasons were most probably political.
It has been noted that all of these tech companies, who own and control like over 90% of all big online services, are headquartered all in the same country, in the same state, in the same city, within something like a 300-mile radius of each other. In a state and in a surrounding culture that's heavily and infamously biased towards a certain political view.
This seriously needs to stop before it gets out of hand. The government has to interfere, and remove this kind of power from these corporations. In the same way that corporations must not have the power to deny a private citizen access to essential services like transportation, housing and banking, they likewise must not have the power to deny citizens from online services that are nowadays considered pretty much essential. Especially if it happens for political reasons.
Frighteningly, it seems that nowadays there is only one government that has the willingness and power to do this. You can forget about the EU, or any of its constituent countries, doing anything like this (on the contrary, the EU only wants to increase the amount of online censorship and discrimination based on political views). You can forget about countries like the UK, Canada or Australia doing this. The few other countries that might be willing to do this do not have enough power to enact it, except perhaps within their own borders.
The only government with the willingness and power to do this that exists is the one of the United States (which, quite conveniently, happens to be the country where most of these tech corporations are headquartered). Trump's administration seriously needs to do something about this, now.
And it has to be done now. I fear that if the left-wing party gets in power in the future, we can forget about it, and the erosion of people's rights to online services will only get worse and worse. Over time it may even seep to real-life services, and the erosion of the most basic human rights.
Imagine if private corporations had the power to stop somebody from having access to these essential public services, for any reason the corporations wanted. Imagine, for instance, that corporations didn't like the political views of a private citizen, and proceeded to harass said citizen by denying him access to public transportation, telephone services, mail, being able to drive on public roads, having access to radio and television, and so on. Needless to say the quality of life, well-being and livelihood of this person would be severely hampered. This would be clear discrimination against a person based on his political views. This would definitely not do, in a free constitutional society. The government would have to intervene.
Yet, this is exactly what is happening, right now, with online services. Huge megacorporations have a frightening amount of power to deny people they don't like essential online services, and they aren't afraid to use them.
Famously, on August 6, 2018, Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify removed all content by infamous Alex Jones, and banned him from their platforms. Given that all four independent companies did it exactly on the same day is quite clear indication of collusion between them. His accounts have also been suspended from Pinterest, MailChimp and LinkedIn.
Regardless of what you may think of Alex Jones (and regardless of whether he's actually serious with all of the conspiracy theory stuff he spouts, or whether it's all just cleverly disguised satire), this is the kind of persecution and discrimination based on political views that has no place in a free society.
Robert Spencer (not to be confused with Richard Spencer; no relation) is a famous critic of radical Islam. Recently his Patreon account was banned. This ban was demanded by the credit card company Mastercard. No reason whatsoever given, legal or otherwise. And this even though, to my knowledge, Mastercard does not own Patreon. And this even though Robert Spencer did not use any Mastercard services on Patreon. They still had the power to ban someone from that service, without having to state any reason whatsoever.
This is a frightening amount of power for a private corporation to have. To ban someone from a service not even owned by that corporation, without the need to give any reason whatsoever, legal or otherwise. This is frighteningly close to a credit card company stopping a private citizen from having a bank account at all, anywhere, because the company says so.
It's not hard to guess that the reasons were most probably political.
It has been noted that all of these tech companies, who own and control like over 90% of all big online services, are headquartered all in the same country, in the same state, in the same city, within something like a 300-mile radius of each other. In a state and in a surrounding culture that's heavily and infamously biased towards a certain political view.
This seriously needs to stop before it gets out of hand. The government has to interfere, and remove this kind of power from these corporations. In the same way that corporations must not have the power to deny a private citizen access to essential services like transportation, housing and banking, they likewise must not have the power to deny citizens from online services that are nowadays considered pretty much essential. Especially if it happens for political reasons.
Frighteningly, it seems that nowadays there is only one government that has the willingness and power to do this. You can forget about the EU, or any of its constituent countries, doing anything like this (on the contrary, the EU only wants to increase the amount of online censorship and discrimination based on political views). You can forget about countries like the UK, Canada or Australia doing this. The few other countries that might be willing to do this do not have enough power to enact it, except perhaps within their own borders.
The only government with the willingness and power to do this that exists is the one of the United States (which, quite conveniently, happens to be the country where most of these tech corporations are headquartered). Trump's administration seriously needs to do something about this, now.
And it has to be done now. I fear that if the left-wing party gets in power in the future, we can forget about it, and the erosion of people's rights to online services will only get worse and worse. Over time it may even seep to real-life services, and the erosion of the most basic human rights.
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