WhatsappThe White House is the seat of power of the United States government. But there are other seats of power that are enormously significant. Perhaps the most powerful of all is the company that dominates our lives in so many ways called Google. It is not only when we search on Google that we reinforce the mammoth power of Google. Every time we use the internet, the advertisements that we see on more than 50% of the internet are Google ads. Google is ubiquitous on the internet. They have enormous power over what we see and think, and we don’t realize it as it is happening.
One may question whether or not this is so dangerous. After all, is Google so problematic, even if they lean leftward. After all, they are not in power. They just care about market share and earning more money, and less about ideology. Right? Wrong. Google, Facebook, and Twitter have each amassed so much cash, power, and market reach, that they are way passed the line of being concerned first and foremost about money or market share. They have way too much power and care more about using their power to “improve” society than they care about their spreadsheets.
The “original sin” of allowing Donald Trump to be elected in 2016 is being atoned for on a day-in, day-out level by all of the progressive-oriented big tech companies. Silicon Valley and Washington D.C. are much more connected than people realize. Jeff Bezos did not purchase the Washington Post without good reason. He is doing a great job of insuring Amazon’s massive power to be above the fray of controversy. But Amazon, like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, have way too much power, and therefore they pose a threat.
The line of “Big Tech cannot be the watchdog of Big Tech” is very important. But, in truth, it is very challenging to say that Washington D.C. should be the watchdog too. The key thing that must change is the power to censor. Google and Facebook must be made to understand via laws that threaten their very existence if they continue with their policies of defining the limits of free speech. Free speech is not just important. It is as important as the air we breathe.
Russian aggression, in the past and now, should serve as a reminder to everyone in the world as to what happens when limits on free speech are clamped down on the masses. When free speech becomes limited, brutal dictatorships emerge that lead to tens of thousands of deaths. Yes, America’s democracy is at stake. We must fight to defend our life of freedom in the Western world.
