In the wake of the 2016 election loss for the Democrats and Hillary Clinton, they began to turn their attention to social media. They blamed social media and interference from other countries for their loss. In reality, social media and the internet were there to give people the other side of the story that the mainstream media wasn't presenting. However, the powers that be aren't content to allow any avenue where the mainstream narrative is challenged. This meant that the clamps would get tighter on social media.
After Trump got inaugurated, things got tougher for people on the right and those who reported things that the mainstream media didn't want you to know. Because the left and the tech industry is pretty much joined at the hip, this meant that people were going to be deplatformed. People who were seen as the biggest voices against the establishment suddenly found that they weren't welcome on sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others. It was mainly people on the right who were being censored.
People on the left, including so many average people who don't quite understand what's really happening, cheered for the deplatforming of those who think differently than them. When that was questioned, people said that these sites are privately owned and therefore the owners can do what they want.
There's a larger free speech argument that has not quite been discussed. The founding fathers of this country wrote the protection of free speech into The Constitution. At the time, they had no concept of an Internet or social media platforms of any kind. Free speech basically encompassed the written word and things like simply standing on a soapbox on a street corner.
President Donald Trump could see what was happening. People on the right were begging him to do something about it. People on the right were correctly reminding him of the role they played in helping get him elected. Unfortunately, Trump appeared to be ignorant on the subject. He was quoted as saying something to the effect of, "Just be nice and everything will be okay." In short, he was very naive and allowed the censorship to get stronger.
Now we are seeing partisan "fact checking" and outright censorship of certain posts that don't go along with the official narrative. This has even struck Trump himself. As a sitting president, he has seen his posts censored on social media. As he challenges the election results, some of his comments have been censored as well. Let that sink in.
A sitting president has had his words censored by big tech. This is only the beginning of what's coming since it's not being challenged. It isn't likely to be challenged under a President Joe Biden. I hope Donald Trump understands that this is one of his biggest failings.
