I think history will be quite harsh on the censors in the west once we regain our footing, but not only the activists who pushed for these ideas through various means, but also to technicians (looking at a lot of people who might be reading this comment) who enabled their arguably obviously ill behavior.
Naturally, one can only demand so much of the average citizen in terms of civil courage to say no when tyrants try to dictate the direction of society, but for the sake of your own clean conscience I ask you humbly to simply quit your job if you work for and enable people who push policies like this. It would be honorable to make a fuss, whistleblow etcetera, but there are clear drawbacks to your private life in general to this. But you can choose to not enable their ill activism, by not working for them.
And if you decide not to, how will you argue that you did the right thing when all the chips fall down, as they do for all of us eventually. In the end not everything in our lives is an economic calculation. Are you happy with what you've accomplished, proud even?
> urging the major social media platforms to remove misleading or false content about the Covid-19 pandemic
They didn’t tell them what they had to do, and didn’t censor anything specifically from these companies, so can you explain what exactly you mean by “censors in the west”?
I am afraid a too candid discussion about what is being censored on these plattforms is a discussion that easily leads to flames. I also certainly don't mean to just talk about censorship performed at the request of governments. (a request without explicit threat of coercion, but a request nonetheless) I also highlight the censorship which these same social media companies perform on society at large on a variety of contentious political topics.
I hold the belief that these social media companies have become new types of a public square, and the freedom of expression must be guaranteed on these platforms just as well as freedom of expression is guaranteed on a irl public square in most western countries. They should be required to carry and broadcast ideas which they themselves do not subscribe to, just as well as telecom companies are required to transmit phonecalls between people they dislike.
No I mean the west in the traditional usage of that word, countries in Europe just as well. I am sorry, but at the moment I don't feel like writing something comprehensive up about the situation in Europe, or my country Sweden.
But it should suffice to say that policy on a multinational platforms such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter also effects our political discourse in our countries as well as the US. Censorship policy on Facebook and Youtube, arguably effects the entire world.
Naturally, one can only demand so much of the average citizen in terms of civil courage to say no when tyrants try to dictate the direction of society, but for the sake of your own clean conscience I ask you humbly to simply quit your job if you work for and enable people who push policies like this. It would be honorable to make a fuss, whistleblow etcetera, but there are clear drawbacks to your private life in general to this. But you can choose to not enable their ill activism, by not working for them.
And if you decide not to, how will you argue that you did the right thing when all the chips fall down, as they do for all of us eventually. In the end not everything in our lives is an economic calculation. Are you happy with what you've accomplished, proud even?