The Price of Free Speech Must Remain Free

 

The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!

 

H. L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy, 1926

 

 

One of history’s greatest accomplishments has been the creation and implementation of the United States Constitution. It embodies the freedoms that had eluded people for millennia. Enshrined within its pages, it establishes that certain rights are firmly in the grasp of the individual, and no person or entity can infringe on those rights.

 

Perhaps no right is more fundamental to a free people than the right of free speech. Remove or hinder that right, and democracy perishes right before our eyes.

We are precipitously close to the point of no return where free speech is concerned.

 

Consider:

 

The internet has no real physical foundation. The hardware may be tangible, but its implementation resides in the thoughts and beliefs of the individual.

 

There are of course numerous sites around where one must pay a fee or membership to gain access to the content. That is capitalism in action and the Madison Conservative fully supports such endeavors.

 

The concern is with the concept of cancel culture and free speech on the internet.

 

There are a multitude of social media platforms, from Facebook, Twitter, and their like, that charge no fee to their clients but exist in a nebulous environment as it relates to their content. They create no real original anything, they merely offer an opportunity for people to provide material for their platforms.

 

You do not have to pay a fee to be on those platforms, merely part with some personal information. Providing such data is the consumers choice; if you don’t want to share personal info, you don’t have the opportunity to tweet.

These platforms do not pay for their spot on the information superhighway, but make a large amount of money from advertising.

 

In other words, they are monetizing the internet infrastructure for their own profit without having to pay for that access.

 

There is an argument to be made that such a scenario is mildly bizarre, but that is for another post.

 

The central question here is how do social media platforms justify ‘banning’ users from their sites?

 

On one hand, they claim to not be responsible for the content posted, that they are merely a vehicle for others. They make that claim while undertaking the process of censuring speech they deem to be false, misleading, or not in line with ‘their values’.

 

If they are editing content, they should fall under the laws and regulations of the media and the accompanying liabilities.

 

The most prominent example of course has been the removal of former president Donald trumps social media accounts. They deemed his content to be all sorts of bad.

 

Utter nonsense. They first tried labelling his content as other types of bad. Editing and labeling the thoughts and opinions of others seems awfully close to shutting down free speech, or rather speech that the tech industry deems dangerous.

 

The case of Hunter Biden is an excellent example. In the months leading up to the 2020 election, the New York Post reported that Hunter Biden’s laptop had information that could be problematic for Joe Biden. The tech industry shut down the Post’s social media accounts and labelled the story as absolutely false. A letter from 50 former national intelligence officers claiming the story was Russian disinformation was freely circulated. President Trump tweeted often about it, and his account was temporarily suspended.

 

Free speech was cancelled.

 

Of course, the nation has learned that the F.B.I. had the laptop and that the Department of Justice has opened an investigation of Hunter Biden.

 

While obviously not complete, the search of posts by the tech industry conducted by The Madison Conservative has yet to find any acknowledgement from those responsible that they actively engaged in the censuring of free speech, while lying.

 

This is a dangerous step in the devolution of American freedoms.

 

Those responsible must be held to account by their subscribers – the American people.

 

The Madison Conservative does not believe in boycotts, or for the firing of people. We do ask the citizenry to consider where they put their support. We believe such reflection will be of great concern to the world of social media.

 

Which is as it should be.

 

No one, no enterprise, should ever have the ability to silence your voice, especially while making a profit from your personal data.