If you want to use state power to control private companies because you don't like the decisions they make, *you* are the greater danger to a free society.
Regulation is a vital element of integrating new technology and corporate power with our free societies, with all the rights and freedoms we have worked so hard for. But it takes time, and is far slower than the impact new tech can have.
I've been writing on this balance between government & business and rights and the public good for years, mostly on my Avast blog. Coming from a totalitarian state, I obviously have a dim view of govt power, which is often abused and never conceded voluntarily.
Govt can regulate in a pro-free market, pro-innovation way, the way Teddy Roosevelt and Taft broke Standard Oil and the trusts. Such efforts must have a place when the public good is clearly at risk.
But today, we mostly see partisan efforts to abuse public power to curtail rights, to threaten and control individuals and companies that have angered one political group or another. If they succeed, it's a vicious cycle.
There are many legitimate debates about Twitter's ban of Trump, for example, and we are lucky to be free to have them. But none of them should include whether they should have the right to do so.
Lastly, if you think what Twitter and other companies did is "censorship," or "like the USSR," you don't know anything about censorship or the USSR. I do, and when the state attacks a company for offending an official is when you're getting closer, not the other way around.

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More from @Kasparov63

8 Jan
The next populist demagogue will be more disciplined and smarter than Trump--not hard to do. Impeachment now is a good vaccine against the Trumpism virus. Me on @Morning_Joe today: msnbc.com/morning-joe/wa…
But that's not enough, and whether it happens or not, Biden, Congress, and the Justice Department must move quickly to strengthen America's democratic immune system.
As for Trump's mob at the Capitol, let the law work without interference. They wanted insurrection and selfies, they can have prison sentences and mug shots.
Read 4 tweets
6 Jan
Let him lie and whine, he'll be gone soon. Let him call our democracy a fraud, nothing will happen. Let him call for violence... Anyone who didn't see this coming was as detached from reality as Trump.
The problem with wishful thinking against autocrats and demagogues is then there's no plan B for when they don't stop, for when they carry out their threats to the logical conclusion.
If today's violence looks like a banana republic, that's what Trump has been trying to do to America all along, to make it over in his corrupt, chaotic, despotic image. The GOP stood by and now reap the whirlwind.
Read 6 tweets
4 Jan
A few notes about the GOP Congressmen supporting Trump's coup attempt. One, the damage doesn't end on Jan 20. Trump won't be president, but he and his supporters will play the victim role forever.
Two, this creation of a permanent anti-democracy wing of a major party is not sustainable. I don't know what Republicanism means now, but if it's attacking legitimate election results, it must be destroyed.
Three, there isn't a Republican in America who knows more about socialism than I do, or who despises it more. The far left is a danger. But leaving the Senate in McConnell's hands is unacceptable after his defense of Trump & Trumpism.
Read 4 tweets
25 Dec 20
With great sorrow I share the news of the passing of my mother, Klara Shagenovna Kasparova. My role model, my greatest champion, my wise counsel, and the strongest person I will ever know. I love you, Mama.
A short tribute to my mother: kasparov.com/a-short-tribut…

Thanks from me and my family for all the kind notes and acknowledgements of condolence here and elsewhere. May we all love and be loved just a little bit more in her memory.
It's all been overwhelming, so apologies for not being able to respond. But we do very much appreciate the kind thoughts. More about Klara Shagenovna Kasparova here: kasparov.com/a-short-tribut…
Read 5 tweets
25 Dec 20
My new CNN.com op-ed on Putin's assassination attempt on Alexei Navalny. From invading neighbors, to hacking, to murder at home and abroad, the thugs are getting bolder. cnn.com/2020/12/25/opi…
We can cheer Navalny's narrow escape from death and the assassins' incompetence, but it's nothing to be happy about when they can keep trying with impunity.
After four years of Trump refusing to even criticize Putin, and boasting of his friendships with despots, we will see if Biden has the will to stand up to dictators.
Read 4 tweets
11 Dec 20
Signing this seditious, anti-democratic, anti-American document should be their political obituary—and the first line of their real obituaries.
History is written by the winners, and it remains to be seen if this becomes a badge of honor of shame. For the success of the American experiment and the world, we must fight to ensure it is the latter.
Republicans signing on to Trump's coup attempt reminds me of the Russian parliament voting to extend Putin's term of office. Loyalty only to a man and hoping to be rewarded, not to the people, the country, or the Constitution.
Read 4 tweets

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