Confusion and Evasion About Censorship on Left & Right

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly says that Facebook will “dial up the intensity” of News “suppression” leading up to the fall midterm elections. Note that “dial up” and “suppression” are his own words.

As much as I hate Facebook and Twitter for their unflinching allegiance to left-wing twenty-first century soft Communism, we cannot call them guilty of censorship.

Censorship is only something that a government can do. Only a government has the power of force, so when government engages in censorship — with the threat of fines, jail or even death — it’s brutal and wrong. When Facebook engages in its disingenuous, self-contradicting and hypocritical behavior it’s merely — well, typically leftist.

I know a lot of people who otherwise favor free markets disagree. They say, “Facebook and Twitter have in effect become public utilities. Government must regulate them, and people should be free to sue them for not having everyone’s content.”

But where does it stop? If the government may force Facebook NOT to censor certain ideas or perspectives, then can’t the same government force Facebook to say whatever the government wishes, including on the government’s behalf?

If, say, the Trump administration may force Facebook to post Breitbart News stories, can’t an Obama or Hillary Clinton administration compel Breitbart to post stories in favor of their government policies? You can’t have one without the other.

Principle matters. Consistency matters. They’re what our whole Constitution was based on, and they’re what made the United States the most efficacious and moral country in history.

The ugliest aspect of Facebook and Twitter is they are run by people who seek to install in power a totalitarian-lite dictatorship. Zuckerberg and his ilk strongly supported President Obama, whose Attorney General Loretta Lynch openly supported civil and even criminal charges against people who question global warming or who criticize Islam.

It’s sickening, for sure, to see people like Zuckerberg support censorship by the government while refusing to let dissenting opinion appear on his website. Although it’s not possible to accuse Facebook of censorship, since only government can censor, companies like Facebook and Twitter stand for the actual censorship we can be sure the next left-wing administration will impose on us, now that Democrats have let their inner totalitarians run free (thanks to the excuse of President Trump).

Advocates of free speech must do everything in their power to spread their views. But resorting to force and compulsion, at the expense of free speech, is not right and will not work, in the end.

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