Podcast: Big Tech’s Great Leap Forward: Towards a Chinese Style Internet

Where we’re going, is to towards a censored, sanitized, corporate, Internet where the Party comes first, and any questioning of the new great leader will be cracked down upon. There is already a good example of what this looks like: China.

According to the Chinese government, what it does is to protect “the safe flow of internet information and actively guides people to manage websites under the law and use the internet in a wholesome and correct way”. Jack Dorsey made an eerily similar statement in the latest senate hearing on Big Tech where he proclaimed that Twitter is seeking to ‘ensure civic integrity’ and ‘prevent the undermining confidence in government’. (Apparently, that suddenly became an issue post-Trump).

Looking to China, where the merger of corporate and state powers in nearly complete, the censorship is more advanced and widespread. Streaming companies need to set up censorship departments and vet all uploaded songs before they can be posted online. They also need to set up systems to punish uploaders of unapproved or illegal content, and blacklist repeat offenders. Come to think of it, YouTube already does that, with their three-strike policy, and with their de-platforming threats. Twitter also frequently demands users delete offending posts so they can resume their activity. So, we’re halfway there!

Chinese obviously censor out unfavorable information, such as documentaries on their grave problems of air pollution — even any discussion around such issues is scrubbed out. This is very similar to the Soviet response to Chernobyl. There could not even be any recognition of there being a problem. Because as we all know all issues go away if you just stop talking about them. Expect similar speech controls to come to a social network and a search engine near you. 

So, what’s so dangerous about a little bit of stifling of free speech, redacting unpalatable truths, stifling conversation, etc? ‘Enabling social unity’ is exactly what the dems say they want to do these days. Let’s look at what happened when the Coronavirus broke out in China. Nobody trusted the Chinese media, or the the narrative that was being told and curated online. You could not even freely communicate about the virus — conversations on messaging apps were being stomped out. Nobody bought the data around cases and deaths, fatality rates, etc. People trusted the organic social media clips more; the ones showing Chinese authorities welding buildings shut or people falling dead in the streets. People suspected that the real truth was being suppressed and trusted the unredacted, anecdotal information much more. 

And, we panicked. The Chinese, as well as the Europeans, and the Americans, and the Asians. I would posit that this would not have happened, had you had an open, honest Internet and a free media in China. Instead, you got a Streisand effect on steroids and complete mistrust, and panic spread like wildfire. Similarly, in the US, because of the stifling of conversation about election fraud, more people will probably believe it. And they will be even more infuriated when they are shadow banned and de-platformed on social media. So, prepare for more conspiracy theories, more distrust and more rage on all fronts. We’re going to need a lot of popcorn.

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