Posted on 05/27/2019 11:40:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
Social media companies, whose base of operations are on the Left Coast and operated by staff who are almost universally left wing, are squeezing conservatives. There have been some pretty glaring examples of bias, specifically the whole notion being accounts being suspended on Twitter for entirely arbitrary reasons. Yes, Facebook banned Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam for his long history of bigoted remarks, like calling Jewish people termites, but his account wasn’t suspended on Twitter. Oh, and even without using examples of bias, Twitter itself admits that the environment is so left wing that conservative employees cannot speak up without fear. Still, while the tech giants of Silicon Valley are very, very…veryliberal, they still like making money. Hence, why Facebook has dedicated staffs to serve its conservative and liberal clientele. Despite conservatives being cracked down harder than liberal users, Twitter still knows that they need Right America to stay engaged on their platform.
Whether we like it or not, social media is where business, political, and cultural news spread and intersect. Many have called it a cancer on society. They may be right, but they’re here to stay for now—and debates circling the issues that we face as a nation are shared on these platforms. Still, that doesn’t mean that some on the Hill view the ever-increasing power of social media companies as a problem. There has been talk about regulating these companies, breaking them up, or doing away with them altogether. One Republican Senator, Josh Hawley (R-AR), says that these companies have done more harm than good, that they’re dabbling in the “addiction economy,” and that they should more or less be eradicated. Hawley made these claims in an op-ed for USA Today last week. Vice added the impact social media is still in its infancy, but added that the basis for Hawley’s criticism of the social media giants isn’t without merit. Making them go away probably isn’t realistic, but breaking them up could be an option (via Vice):
A Republican senator who works on antitrust says that social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, have done more harm than good and they should “disappear.”
[…]
“Social media’s innovations do our country more harm than good. Maybe social media is best understood as a parasite on productive investment, on meaningful relationships, on a healthy society,” he wrote. “Maybe we’d be better off if Facebook disappeared.”
[…]
Some lawmakers asked Zuckerberg why Facebook shouldn’t be broken up, but, for the most part, Zuckerberg has gotten off easy by pitching himself as living the quintessential American dream: From humble beginnings in a Harvard dorm room, a college dropout made an all-American company that has connected the world and created many thousands of high-paying jobs.
Hawley called out those lofty claims in his op-ed: “Ask the social giants what it is they produce for America and you’ll hear grand statements about human interaction,” he wrote. But “Facebook, Twitter, Instagram—they devote massive amounts of money and the best years of some of the nation’s brightest minds to developing new schemes to hijack their users’ neural circuitry.
[…]
“High salaries and stock options have encouraged a generation of our brightest engineers to enter a field of little productive value. This is, to put it mildly, an opportunity missed for the nation,” Hawley wrote. “What marvels might these bright minds have produced had they been oriented toward the common good?”
Hawley’s argument is persuasive, but there is, of course, no way to magically make social media disappear. Considering that he’s on the subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy, and consumer rights, breaking the social media giants up might be the next best choice.
What say you?
Check out YogicCowboy’s comment.
How would you feel about electric companies supplying a different voltage for every state?
Ted Turner tried to buy them 40 years ago they screamed like a scalded cat he was too conservative. That is what led to CNN.
“Why would you want to read a newspaper or a website that would kick you off if your comments were conservative? Don’t give them the chance. Stay away.”
They bought every newspaper in the state and took them online. All the local news is there and nowhere else. Yeah you can get FOX news on satellite, but you can’t get anything local.
If you want to check anything local you have to go there, they are literally the only game in town.
Apparently, the local news is so important that I have gone that whole 12 years without any word of it and still managed to survive. I haven't missed a thing.
If local news is so important to you, what is preventing you from reading about it online at these "only game in town" websites? What's wrong with that?
The nearest grocery store to me is in this small town and it is the "only game in town". There's no competition for it locally. Next closest grocery store is 40 miles away. But I still buy my groceries there.
I emphasised feminine instead of women, and I made myself clear, No, some women are not feminine and are geeky. They are very few however.
If Apple had marketer-designers who categorized women accurately to make the iphone a transformer of the social status of computers in the culture, it means that one can safely do the same thing everyday to be just as successful.... whether you are a man or woman.
In fact this idea to condemn people making classes of people like this is a feminine attribute.
I think Brad Parscale should turn over the 2020 campaign to Kellyanne or similar. Then he should start a kick-ass social media company combining FB- and Twitter-like apps. Make it actually free without censoring content except for obvious porn.
Something’s got to happen soon because you just know they’re gonna ban Trump a year or so from now to tamper with the election.
So called “feminine attributes” are the reason I’m in the construction trade where I can refuse to work with other females-and all but one of my friends are male-I have no use for most females/women-having grown up with a male sibling and mostly male cousins in an isolated area, I can’t relate to women and I don’t even think the way they do-FReeper females are the exception...
“Publicly-traded corporations” ARE private companies meaning they are NOT run (or should not be run) by the government. The Left, and maybe people like you, are trying to get to socialism (read “tyranny”) but we’re not there yet. You act like you have no problem with government unconstitutionally interfering with how companies are run.
What are you, a government guy - ex-gov’t worker or bureaucratic head or something? Communications Decency Act of 1996 Section 230 is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Get with it.
“The Federal government already has the regulatory power over them” - yeah UNCONSTITUTIONAL power = the power of tyranny.
Get with it. You seem to have no idea what America is meant for. Certainly NOT unconstitutional government.
Reread the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the founding documents of the Untied States, the Constitution being the Supreme law of the Land, find out what they mean as written and originally understood and intended, and then get back to me. In the meantime, don’t waste my time.
If they were the “brightest minds “, they wouldn’t be liberals. QED
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Q. How does social media classify and ban certain groups
A. Watta coincidence (smirk). Obama compiled an "extremist list" that sorely resembles the groups being banned by social media.
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Obama Declares War On ‘Extremism’ / FR Posted 1/13/15 by seekandfind
A list of 72 types of Americans that are considered to be “extremists” or “potential terrorists” in official U.S. government documents. This list will really give you a good idea of what Barack Obama means when he uses the word “extremist”. Each of these 72 items is linked (at web site). As you can see, this list potentially includes most of the country…
OBAMA’S LIST OF EXTREMISTS AS FOUND IN OBAMA-ERA OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS:
Those that talk about “individual liberties,” that advocate for states’ rights, that want “to make the world a better place,” that are interested in “defeating the Communists”
Those that believe “that the interests of one’s own nation are separate from the interests of other nations or the common interest of all nations.”
Anyone that holds a “political ideology that considers the state to be unnecessary, harmful,or undesirable.”
Anyone that possesses an “intolerance toward other religions.” Those that “take action to fight against the exploitation of the environment and/or animals”
“Anti-Gay,” “Anti-Immigrant,” “Anti-Muslim,”“The Patriot Movement,” “Opposition to equal rights for gays and lesbians”
Members of the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, Members of the American Border Patrol/American Patrol, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, the Christian Action Network, citizens networks.
Those “opposed to the New World Order,” engaged in “conspiracy theorizing”, those that believe that Mexico, Canada and the United States “are secretly planning to merge into a European Union-like entity that will be known as the ‘North American Union’”
Anyone opposed to Agenda 21, anyone concerned about FEMA camps, that “fears impending gun control or weapons confiscations,” the militia movement, sovereign citizen movement, that “don’t think they should have to pay taxes” Anyone that “complains about bias,” that “believes in government conspiracies, that “is frustrated with mainstream ideologies,” that “visits extremist websites/blogs,” that “establishes website/blog to display extremist views,” that “attends rallies for extremist causes,” that “exhibits extreme religious intolerance,” that is personally connected with a grievance,” that “suddenly acquires weapons,” that “organizes protests inspired by extremist ideology”
“Militia or unorganized militia,” “General right-wing extremist,” Citizens that have “bumper stickers” that are patriotic or anti-U.N., those that refer to an “Army of God,” that are “fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation),” that are “anti-global,” that are “suspicious of centralized federal authority,” that “revere individual liberty,” that “believe in conspiracy theories”
Those that have “a belief that one’s personal and/or national ‘way of life’ is under attack,” that possess “a belief in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in paramilitary preparations and training or survivalism,” that would “impose strict religious tenets or laws on society (fundamentalists)” that would “insert religion into the political sphere,” that would “seek to politicize religion,” that have “supported political movements for autonomy.”
Anyone that is “anti-abortion.”
Anyone that is “Rightwing” including “Returning veterans,” those concerned about “illegal immigration,” those that “believe in the right to bear arms,” anyone that is engaged in “ammunition stockpiling”
Anyone that exhibits “fear of Communist regimes” “Anti-abortion activists” those against illegal immigration, those that talk about “the New World Order” in a “derogatory” manner
Those that have a negative view of the United Nations, that are opposed “to the collection of federal income taxes,” that supported former presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr, that display the Gadsden Flag (“Don’t Tread On Me”)
Those that believe in “end times” prophecies, including Evangelical Christians.
NOTE: Obama was assisted in compiling the list by the Southern Poverty Law Center that raises mega bucks
compiling lists of "hate groups. SPLC was recently discredited as being racist and sexist.
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