The ACLU in NYT on why the union of Silicon Valley monopolies -- Apple, Google and Amazon -- to remove Parler from the internet is so problematic. While ACLU is largely just a liberal pressure group now, they still have some real civil liberties lawyers:
Tech monopolies -- FB, Google, Apple, Amazon -- have more concentrated wealth & power than any in history. They have used brute force 3 times in 3 months to manipulate US politics: censoring NY Post, banning Trump, destroying Parler.
And liberals are overwhelmingly supportive.
That these Silicon Valley monopolies are grave menaces to political freedom & economic well-being is *not* a right-wing view.
The most comprehensive report warning of these dangers was issued 3 months ago by a Democratic House Sub-Committee. Read this:
Authoritarians never believe they're authoritarians, no matter how much censorship, surveillance, jingoism, & imprisonment they demand.
They tell themselves their enemies are so uniquely evil and dangerous - terrorists - that anything done in the name of fighting them is noble.
Do you know how many of the people arrested in connection with the Capitol invasion were active users of Parler?
Zero.
The planning was largely done on Facebook. This is all a bullshit pretext for silencing competitors on ideological grounds: just the start.
For those asking the basis for that last claim: I spent the weekend reporting on the removal of Parler from the internet, including reviewing lots of documents and interviewing people associated with the companies involved, including Parler.
The article will be up shortly.
Silicon Valley defenders: If you don't like Big Tech's censorship, just start your own social media platform with rules you want.
Parler: OK, we did. We're the country's most popular app!
Amazon/Apple/Google: We're uniting to take you off the internet with our monopoly power.
I wonder how many people subserviently cheering Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Google billionaires for destroying Parler a) have ever been on Parler, b) know anything about it besides what CNN & NBC censors have shown them, & c) compared the hate speech there to what's on FB & YouTube.
Amazon -- which already has a $600 million contract to provide services to the CIA, and is desperately bidding to make that far more -- is deeply opposed to violence and fascism.
Jeff Bezos will use his monopoly power to make the world better:
Inacreditável que Alexandre de Moraes esteja constantemente concentrando em si próprio a figura de suposta vítima, investigador policial, promotor e o juiz - em seus próprios interesses.
Não há democracia onde uma pessoa pode investigar criminalmente o jornalismo que a reporta.
@lf_ponde @folha Aqui também: um ótimo artigo de @lygia_maria sobre a visão perturbada e perigosa de Moraes, a marca registrada de uma mentalidade tirana:
Que qualquer crítica ou questionamento feita ele é em si "um ataque à democracia" e, portanto, um crime.
There are few people in the democratic world more powerful or tyrannical than Moraes. He believes he is Brazilian democracy itself, and thus any criticisms of him are a criminal attack on the state.
Brazil's left views him as a deity, since he censors/imprisons their opponents.
On Tuesday, we began reporting in @Folha on a massive archive of data we obtained from his chambers between his top aides (6gb).
After the first day, the left united to defend him because they see him as infallible, and he called our reporting a plot to destroy democracy.
It's hard to explain the cult-like adoration the left has for him. No matter what he does - ban people from the internet or imprison them with no due process or trial - they go online and type "Eu autorizo, Xandão!" (we support you, Great Alexandre!).
Not even herd animals are this flagrant about it. You tell me how and why corporate media constantly speaks from the same exact script this way, verbatim. #KamalaIsJOY
I find it so interesting when long-obvious truths suddenly are acknowledged in mainstream circles.
Here, in the WPost, even @TaylorLorenz (!!) admits that the hordes of #Resistance freaks and anti-Trump obsessives are as conspiratorial and deranged as what they claim QAnon is:
Here's @SohrabAhmari in the @NewStatesman on how many prominent liberals -- not anonymous Twitter trolls but major DNC donors and academics -- are deranged and drowning in moronic conspiracy theories.
@SohrabAhmari @NewStatesman Just by the way: a non-trivial sector of the Brazilian left still believes the 2018 stabbing attack on Jair Bolsonaro was fake -- despite doctor testimony, his multiple surgeries, etc. -- and now believes the same about the attack on Trump.🇧🇷
Also: US corporate media always tries to deny "journalist" status to anyone who actually does real adversarial reporting against the US Govt, rather than just doing a Natasha Bertrand of writing down what CIA orders.
Assange won multiple journalism awards around the world:👇