It's exasperating to watch current events surrounding social media, as powerful companies censor political speech that is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Freedom is a basic human rights but denied to the majority of eight billion people on the planet. The one last holdout is, of course, America.
However, there are those who see themselves exempt from the law of the land. Facebook and Twitters CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey have become hugely successful financially, because they provided a product the whole world would warmly embrace. People are always hungry for relationships in this very busy world.
There are no perfect men--only men with perfect intentions--and these successful men very likely didn’t start out flexing their muscles and beating their chests to say they are stronger and better than most of us. Yes, the people who embraced the social media platforms and made them members of the super-rich.
To my mind they are simply examples of what mortals are heir to and what ruins people who are not grounded in strong moral character. We couldn’t know them for who they are until they became successful narcissistic creeps. But the Founders who drafted our Constitution thought far ahead and provided the First Amendment to guarantee free speech.
This is the case with these two men who think what they think is more important that what the rest of us think. We had a platform to air our views, but they were discarded when when they did not conform.
Obviously, they think they are above the law of the land. It is encouraging that some in Congress are taking steps to make them answer for their abuses of the people’s constitutional rights.
I’m wondering if the story of "Faust and the Devil" applies to these very lucky fellows. The story is about an ambitious person willing to surrender moral integrity in order to achieve power and success. Do you think these guys are really geniuses, or did they in fact sell their souls to Satan in exchange for power, fame, and fortune?
In the case of Facebook and Twitter, their partisan censorship can hardly be considered driven by honest intentions.
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom” Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying. In my opinion, these are not wise men.
Consider that when government shuts down the First Amendment, we refer to that as tyranny. We the People can right such wrongs at the ballot box. But when private companies engage in abuses of our constitutional rights, we seem to be helpless to fight back.
President Trump wrote an executive order early in 2020 preventing such behavior of social media companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
“They’ve had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences," he said in a speech. "And we can’t allow that to happen.”
President Trump's executive order notwithstanding, censorship continues. Congressmen have come forward expressing the need for legislation to correct this problem.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of the FCC was the reason Trump wrote his executive order. But Facebook and Twitter are still immune from punishment for their abuse of power.
Many in the Congress think it is time for government to step in and pass legislation to make such abuse by private companies illegal. This is much like the Sherman anti-trust laws which were passed in 1890. Is it time to do the same with social media companies?
Users can simply boycott these platforms, as some are doing. There are alternatives to Facebook, such as Parler and MeWe.
Finally, not only did the Founders protect our citizens from censorship through the First Amendment, but they also gave us Article V to provide for a way to shore up or make adjustments to the Constitution.
Go to www.conventionofstates.com and support the movement to make some important changes.
