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Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
@shellenberger
Jul 10 • 18 tweets • 5 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
YouTube claims to be a social media platform, but it's not. It deplatforms disfavored views. That makes it a normal media company, not subject to Section 230 liability protections. Enough is enough. Congress &/or the courts should strip YouTube of its Section 230 status.
I have repeatedly called on Congress to mandate transparency by social media companies for its censorship decisions, but YouTube's behavior is totally out-of-line, directly interfering in a presidential campaign, and deplatforming and demonitizing disfavored people.
Google/YouTube has shown no real interest in transparency or accountability and so Congress, the Justice Department, and/or the judiciary should respond by taking away the company's Section 230 protections. It's behaving like a normal, biased news media company, not a platform.
Congress' intent behind Section 230 was simple: expand free speech by protecting Internet companies from defamation, copyright, and other liabilities. Without it, Google/YT/FB/Twitter would not exist.

The deal was, "You be a platform, we give you liability protection."
YouTube has violated that deal. It is not a platform. If it were, it wouldn't be deplatforming and demonitizing users.

I feel I have been too nice in this regard, urging transparency.

Forget it. The social media companies are plainly out of control.

They must be reigned in.
Maybe transparency is where all of this ends up, but we have a situation here where YouTube is actively interfering in the presidential campaign of @RobertKennedyJr

That's unconscionable and unconstitutional. We should all be offended by that, regardless of our politics.
@RobertKennedyJr Congressional leaders must speak out and start to act. This is a grotesque abuse of power by a major media monopoly. We've never seen anything comparable to this in the past and this will require simply speaking out in face of a clear & present danger to free speech & democracy.
Three weeks have passed since YouTube engaged in this act of election interference.

Nothing has happened.

This is how censorhip and totalitarianism become normalized.

Big Tech companies are out of control and must be reigned in.
What's more, we have now learned the @FBI has been helping the Ukraine intelligence agency demand censorship by YouTube, Google, Meta and Facebook

judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subs…
@FBI You couldn't make it up:

The "FBI, the federal law enforcement agency responsible for disrupting foreign malign influence, facilitated censorship requests to American social media companies on behalf of a Ukrainian intelligence agency infiltrated by Russian-aligned actors."
@FBI Even @CNN had to cover this
@FBI @CNN It's hard not to get the impression that every major institution in our society is corrupt: law enforcement agencies, mainstream news media, social media platforms, universities, medical associations

We need sweeping reform of our institutions if our civilization is to survive.
"The FBI offered Meta legal cover to remove the SBU’s flagged accounts"

This is grotesque.

You might remember Elvis Chan from the Twitter Files.

https://t.co/FMR4mBYrwb https://t.co/BTbZvztVNljudiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subs…
twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Totalitarianism and stupidity remain tightly coupled:

"The FBI, on behalf of the [Russian-infiltrated Ukraining intel. agency] SBU, requested the removal of a verified U.S. State Department account and an American journalist"
As usual, Mark Zuckerberg bends over backwards to accommodate censorship requests:
Breton said today that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised that he would hire 1,000 more people to implement the EU’s censorship demands.

Many of Meta’s censorship executives worked for NATO, FBI, CIA and other military intelligence organizations

"The FBI continued relaying the SBU’s requests even after the FBI was told it had unconstitutionally flagged American accounts for removal"

SMH. Beyond being a grotesque violation of the US Constitution, this is unAmerican.

Fire Elvis Chan. Fire Laura Dehmlow. Enough's enough. https://t.co/IOamWUaI3Qtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Mark Zuckerberg has made Meta an extension of NATO's military intelligence.

Chilling:

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More from @shellenberger

Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Jul 8
Imagine deciding to disrupt someone's wedding. You'd have to think that it would help your cause, you were entitled to disrupt, and you were good and they were evil. Grandiosity, entitlement, and "splitting" (black & white thinking) define pathological narcissism. https://t.co/mv3X2PE2bstwitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Let's start from the beginning. Emissions have been declining in the UK and around the world. They will continue to decline if @JustStop_Oil & others allow for more natural gas production to replace coal. Instead, they're blocking natural gas production.





@JustStop_Oil Humans and ecosystems are doing pretty well adapting to higher temperatures, despite the hysterical disinformation from regime media, which refuse to publish basic data like these.





Read 26 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Jul 8
Mark Zuckerberg & Meta say deamplyifying "anger" on Threads is a recipe for a more "public" platform, but it's not. It's a recipe for censorship, repression, and totalitarianism. Truly free speech isn't harmless. It's dangerous. And it always will be.
I already wrote one introduction to this incredible Brendan O'Neill essay, below, in defense of truly free speech. I need to write an additional one here.

First, please read this essay. All of it. It's vital to our freedom as our species that you do.
Second, O'Neill's essay is essential to read because it's a reminder that "reducing harm" must not become the over-riding goal of social media platforms.

Protecting free speech and being transparent about censorship should be the highest goals.
Read 9 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Jul 7
Around the world, politicians say we must protect vulnerable communities through censorship and warrantless spying, but that's a grotesque lie. No movement for human liberation or progress has ever succeeded by censoring its opponents. Never. Oppressors censor, not liberators.
Censorship For “Vulnerable Communities”

Think of some of the last century’s most iconic movements for human liberation and progress. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking of his dream at the March on Washington in 1964. Gays and lesbians standing up against police brutality at… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Cluster Bombs For Kids

The White House has floated what appears to be a trial balloon to see how open the public might be to giving Ukraine cluster bombs, which are famous for maiming and killing children. And quite a trial balloon it was.

The “widely banned weapons,” reported… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Read 4 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Jul 6
Experts said yesterday's anti-censorship court ruling was too badly written to be implemented, but it's already working. The State Department today canceled its regular Wednesday meeting with Facebook, and all future meetings, "pending further guidance.”

washingtonpost.com/technology/202…
This is a huge victory, but Congress must go further.

1. It must defund and dismantle the censorship industry

2. It must demand Big Tech transparency

3. And it must fire @CISAJen, the Director of DHS' criminal and unconstitutional @CISAgov

@elonmusk “This often-true content” about vaccines, a Facebook exec. told the White House, "... can be framed as sensation[al], alarmist, or shocking.”

And so, "We'll remove these Groups, Pages, and Accounts when they are disproportionately promoting this sensationalized content."
Read 4 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Jul 5
Yesterday, a federal judge blocked the government from demanding censorship by social media companies. Now, U.S. Sen. @Eric_Schmitt, who initiated the lawsuit when he was A.G. of Missouri, is calling on Department of Homeland Security's top cyber official, @CISAJen, to resign.
Over the last few weeks, we have documented the global crackdown on freedom around the world. Members of the UK parliament want to read your text messages without a warrant. The Irish government wants to be able to enter homes and read phones and computers without a warrant. The… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
The Department of Homeland Security's @CISAgov is a rogue agency.

Congress must de-fund and dismantle it immediately.

If it has worthwhile cyber responsibilities, they should be transferred to a government agency that respects the First Amendment.

Read 4 tweets
Michael Shellenberger Profile picture
Jul 4
Everyone should understand how dangerous the situation is

People tied to the national security state are trying to create a "back door" to read your private text messages.

This would set a precedent and put global surveillance & repression on steroids.

Please watch & share
This is what it used to mean to be liberal:

"I wanted to protect people from the kind of surveillance that big tech perpetrates every day.

"I want to protect the teens in Uganda where they just passed a law that makes being gay punishable by murder.

"I want to protect the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
It's important that @RishiSunak @Keir_Starmer and everybody else in UK Parliament watch the above video.

There is no excuse now for this law to go forward now that @mer__edith has utterly demolished it.

MP @DamianCollins did not respond to her arguments.

He knows he's wrong.
Read 20 tweets

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