Yes, I know. The First Amendment doesn’t apply to private companies and social media are private companies. But consider also that 95% (or something like that) of our communications to each other are funneled through social media. When Youtube shuts down a journalist’s coverage of a news-worthy event based on an absurd interpretation of its unilaterally imposed guidelines, it’s something we should document and fix (I don’t pretend to have an easy fix). Matt Taibbi tells the story here. It’s part of a growing trend. This issue burst onto the national stage when Twitter shut down the New York Post’s account over the Hunter Biden censorship story. Krystal Ball’s tweet at The Rising sums up this latest incident:
The damage already done to historians will pale in comparison to the damage done to contemporary and future historians. The victors always get to write the history, but that has traditionally been associated with war, not policy disagreements. Then again, I suppose Silicon Valley, the coastal elites, mainstream news outlets and the authoritarian left might well view the current situation as a war. That would be horrible.