ROMNEY WORDSWORTH – There is a confluence of trends and technologies occurring right now that are going to combine into a “Perfect Storm” to take away your Freedom of Speech from you. Here is a list:
1) Two Silicon Valley “experts” recently gave an interview to Wired Magazine espousing the idea of building “pop ups” on social media platforms to “shame” people for writing ideas deemed “racist”, “offensive”, and the familiar litany of Leftist “isms” that are considered politically incorrect. Developer Adria Richards endorsed the implementation of warnings that appear on people’s computer screens before they are able to post ‘offensive’ content. Nadia Kayyali of the Electronic Frontier Foundation pushes the same idea, being quoted as saying: “Can we shame people with pop-ups? Because shame seems to work a lot better. ‘Hey, did you know you’re being racist right now?’ ”.
Think about what this means. Very soon, every statement you post online is about to be classified and categorized by some faceless Thought Police. If you are a Conservative, or a Christian, a massive and detailed dossier is being created labelling your thoughts as “racist”, “sexist”, “bigoted”, etc. More on how this will be used against you later.
At a certain point, with the flip of a switch, the shaming pop up can and will morph into a ban on your post, a ban on your social media account, and a ban on you having access to the Internet at all. Eventually the pop up will say: “Stay where you are, Police have been dispatched to arrest you.”
If you think this is fear mongering hyperbole, think again. That great Villainess of the Gaming World, feminist Anita Sarkeesian, has gone to the United Nations to push for new International Laws against “cyber violence”. Her assertion is that being critical of someone else’s viewpoint online is tantamount to “harassment”.
Sarkeesian has been quoted as saying: “We need to broaden the definition of online harassment and abuse. For example, someone will post a YouTube video that defames me, and then thousands of people will reply to that video and tweet at me ‘You liar’ or ‘You dumb bitch.’ That’s not a threat, but it’s still thousands of people coming after me, right?”
Fellow feminist Zoe Quinn, who also appeared before the U.N., asserted that transgender people were victims of “violence” as a result of individuals posting their “pre-transition names” on the Internet. Got that? If you insist on calling Caitlyn Jenner by his original name of Bruce, you are guilty of “violence”.
The dynamic duo of internet thought policing want to force social networks to, “Proactively police every profile and post, and (mandate) that government agencies only “license” those who agree to do so.”
Social media giants like Twitter and Facebook are already beginning to tighten the screws on what is considered “harassment”. Twitter is now allowing users to report other account holders for “engaging in abusive or harassing behavior,” one example of which includes “disagreement with my opinion.” A culture of fear, paranoia, and self- censorship is sure to follow in the wake of such a Stasi style snitch system. Rather than protect anyone from abuse, it will be wielded as a cudgel against any conservative dissent to Leftist ideas and the Leftist Agenda.
Readers who regularly post to social media already know that many sites already employ a prior restraint censorship on what they want to say. It happens every time you post something and it goes to “Awaiting Moderation” limbo. In fact, when this happens, your post never gets posted, it is just chucked down the memory hole by people who don’t want your voice to be heard.
Now, I know that some of you would retort that: “Hey, they are private businesses and they can do what they want. The First Amendment doesn’t apply to private businesses, only to government action.” But that isn’t the rule when the Left doesn’t want it to be the rule. Try excluding someone from your business based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, etc., and the Supreme Court says you are a “public accommodation” and that is discrimination. So why isn’t it impermissible religious discrimination when I want to post on Facebook that homosexuality is a sin, and it is scrubbed for violating their so-called “community standards”? Why isn’t Facebook (which I call Faceboot, referring to Orwell’s vision of tyranny) a “public accommodation” as well?
There is really no difference, except that non-discrimination is a one way street in America, and the traffic always goes against Christians.
In Part Two, we will discuss the free speech implications of Facebook’s new “Universal Search Engine”.