How big tech is destroying our freedom of speech: Rep. Ken Buck
Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican representing Colorado’s 4th congressional district, says we have given too much power to tech companies that restrict the flow of free ideas. In an excerpt from his new book Crushed: Big Tech’s War on Free Speech, he explains how Silicon Valley is fighting the First Amendment.
When it comes to making dreams come true, the cornerstone of America’s growth and prosperity is the First Amendment. Our founders believed that freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and the right to petition for change were of paramount importance. These rights provide a secure, positive foundation for the American dream to flourish.
This American dream is great, it is exceptional, but, unfortunately, it is in grave danger. He is under direct attack from Big Tech.
Thanks to Apple’s market share, technology, and politics, Facebook, Google, and Amazon have gained control of America’s core commerce and communications infrastructure. They are monopolists. Their concentrated power and underlying technology, along with their little brother Twitter, make them the gatekeepers to the marketplace of ideas. They create the rules for what the public sees: what information is added to the news feed, what apps are sold on their phones, what products are listed in their search results.
I believe that all Americans value the free flow of information and the principles of personal freedom more than same day delivery. I believe that while many Americans love social media and the convenience of search engines, most would be horrified at the idea that the owners of Facebook, Google, or Twitter decide which topics are allowed to be discussed, or which news articles are allowed and which are prohibited. . I believe that citizens believe in a system that gives ownership to the inventors of new ideas and businesses and prevents big companies like Amazon from simply stealing ideas or killing upstarts with impunity.
In other words, the power and business models of Big Tech lead to selective dissemination of information and disrupt the free flow of ideas. The fact that these companies have consolidated such vast power should be of concern to all citizens. But we do know that these companies used that power, both for economic gain and to suppress their ideological adversaries. Neither conservatives nor liberals should be satisfied with a few Silicon Valley oligarchs with a monopoly on the marketplace of ideas, and with it, democracy itself.
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During the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, Facebook and Twitter actively prevented potentially damaging New York Post messages about Joe Biden’s son Hunter from reaching the public. Reacting to news of the contents of Hunter Biden’s discarded laptop, including emails showing that he introduced his father to a Ukrainian energy chief (which Biden Sr. denied), Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said: “We are cutting [The Post’s] distribution on our platform.” Twitter was even more strict, blocking users from posting links to The Post’s story and shutting down the newspaper’s Twitter account for two weeks.
Interestingly, a year later – after the election ended – Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted that the so-called hacking offense did not exist, and The Post’s silence was “a mistake.” This was a clear case of Big Tech withholding information that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.
The Google search engine and its proprietary algorithmic relevance logic are, by definition, exclusive. Some results are displayed prominently at the top of the page, while others are hidden far below. While Google’s management insists there is no political bias in its search engine, one 2018 report found that news searches for the term “Trump” returned an overwhelming number of articles from centre-left media. The front page had two links to CNN, CBS, The Atlantic, CNBC, The New Yorker, and Politico. There were no right-wing sites on the list.
Big Tech is increasingly using its monopoly to suppress opinion, often targeting conservative politicians. Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) was banned from his Facebook page for “repeatedly violating our community standards”, suspended from Twitter for questioning the effectiveness of masks, and removed a video from Google’s YouTube.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) has been suspended for two weeks after he ridiculed Time magazine for awarding a “Woman of the Year” award to a biological male. Google’s advertising monopoly – its ownership of the system by which publishers list available ad slots and advertisers bid on those placements – is looming as its most destructive weapon in the war of ideas. Digital advertising is currently the dominant paid marketing tool. While TV ads are arguably still the most powerful medium—look at the huge sums spent on Super Bowl ads—in 2021, advertisers shelled out $189 billion on digital ads. Ads.
If advertising is a form of speech, and Google’s financial future is centered on controlling the digital advertising marketplace, Google aims to be the gatekeeper of the most powerful tool of influence in today’s society – advertising that artificially influences the marketplace of ideas. Should Google decide, for example, which candidates are making “inaccurate claims” and remove their campaign ads from the web?
Some of the left-wing “opinion leaders” advocate a regulatory scheme to allow a government agency to censor speech on the Internet. Better if Congress does its job and enacts laws that encourage competition, which will allow the free market to flourish. We must ensure that monopolies do not use their market power to stifle innovation and competition.
Allowing such predatory behavior could harm our society by reducing consumer choice and raising prices.
These monopolies already regulate what is said and seen, read and digested without any input from the American people. They determine what is sold and promoted on their platforms. Their algorithms determine what we see and what we don’t because they give content relevance values. If an article, book, video, or photo has a low relevancy score, you may never know it exists. Such control can be used to curry favor with or harm a person, politician, or party.
Americans remember from their history lessons that the monopolists of the late 19th and early 20th century controlled energy, finance, steel, and commercial transportation. The difference between these monopolies and Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple is that the new corporations own the platforms that control communications. They control the operating systems of our phones and computers. They control the algorithms that analyze and rank search results, thereby controlling who sees what content. They own and analyze the personal data of their users. They control where ads are posted, who can post them, and for how much. This means that big technology monopolies threaten the core of our political system. They have the right to control the information available to the public and shape it in accordance with their commercial interests and political views.
When control over information in a democratic state is in the hands of only a few individuals, these individuals can manipulate the election results. With vast financial resources and ownership of critical digital media, big tech companies can dominate and distort not only the financial and transactional markets, but most importantly the marketplace of ideas.
This threat to free speech is a risk America cannot afford.
Adapted with permission from Crushed: Big Tech’s War on Free Speech by Ken Buck. Now from Humanix Books.
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