In the case of social media companies here in the United States, we are finding that these heavily biased corporations are hoping to have their cake and eat it too.
Simply put, platforms such as Twitter and Facebook will use the public to create content for them, and then monetize that content in a plethora of ways. We create witty statuses, funny videos, or hot button discussions, and then the algorithms get to work. They harvest the data of those who are engaging online, and they sell this browsing “personality” to advertisers who can then target you for rampant consumerism in ways that you didn’t even know existed.
Therein lies the issue, however. We “pay” to use these platforms with our data. We give Facebook the rights to our browsing history, our scrolling habits, and our creative content in order to use the platform itself. Because of this, social media is no different than the public square.
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But Facebook, Twitter, and others are constantly oppressing the American freedom of speech online by targeting and censoring the political views of those with whom their CEO’s disagree. More often than not, that means latching on to the “resistance” movement against Donald Trump.
Treading so roughly on the Constitution is an abomination, and the federal government may finally be looking into these actions.
The Justice Department is opening a broad antitrust review into whether dominant technology firms are unlawfully stifling competition, adding a new Washington threat for companies such as Facebook Inc., Google, Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.
The review is geared toward examining the practices of online platforms that dominate internet search, social media and retail services, the department said, confirming the review shortly after The Wall Street Journal reported it.
The new antitrust inquiry under Attorney General William Barr could ratchet up the already considerable regulatory pressures facing the top U.S. tech firms. The review is designed to go above and beyond recent plans for scrutinizing the tech sector that were crafted by the department and the Federal Trade Commission.
The “competition” in question is often coming from free speech-centric platforms such as Yippy, Gab, or Parler, who promise to strictly adhere to the First Amendment’s guarantee.
