We all know and are aware of the censorship efforts undertaken by Big Tech, particularly those focused on conservatives. But many of us tend to downplay just how serious the threat from Big Tech’s tyranny is. We may think that because these are “private” companies that they’re free to do what they want and that we can just ignore them. But they’re not ignoring us, and they’re rapidly building a world in which anyone who disagrees with them can be cut off from society and dropped down the memory hole.
We live now in the era of “woke capitalism,” in which leftist corporate executives see their most important role as promoting left-wing social causes by using corporate resources, even more so than running a profitable business. While many businesses have learned that “get woke, go broke” is a real thing, many others disregard that, particularly the monopolists of Big Tech.
Protected from competition by intellectual property laws and armies of lawyers willing to defend those laws, Big Tech is openly and unabashedly trying to mold public opinion, giving voice to the left and silencing the right. There will come a day when you won’t be able to find conservative opinions when you do a Google search, when your conservative friends will be banned from your Facebook and Twitter feeds, and when many people will equate conservatism with the lunatic fringe.
We’re witnessing a massive experiment in social manipulation, undertaken by Big Tech and using the internet that we’ve grown to know and love. Only now, instead of the internet being a tool to allow everyone to be heard so that free expression can reign, the internet will be manipulated to allow only certain viewpoints so that human beings will be slowly and unknowingly enslaved.
With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), more and more household devices are connected to the internet. Eventually everything we do will require internet connectivity, so that if we stray from Big Tech’s desires we can be censored and cut off from the world. Yes, we may be technically “free” to say what we want and run the businesses we want, but if Big Tech decides to cut off our ability to market our products or communicate with others because we hold un-PC political views, that freedom is a hollow one. We will essentially be able to be made non-persons by Big Tech.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to fight Big Tech tooth and nail. But the solution isn’t in top-down approaches such as breaking up Google and Facebook or giving the government greater control over the internet. It’s in bottom-up approaches that break Big Tech’s ability to rely on intellectual property laws to stifle competition, so that competitors can rise up and take advantage of Big Tech’s weaknesses and provide us with social media, search engines, and internet service providers that really value freedom. If we fail to take action today, we may soon pass the point of no return.
