Vince Bzdek: Is Big Tech A Big Threat To Free Speech?

January 30. Remember the early days of the Internet when tech companies told us how their inventions would bring freedom of speech to the planet? Facebook, Twitter and Google promise a great connected world wide web that will forever ensure the free flow of information and illuminate the darkest corners of the world.

Now, in a new book from Crusader, Colorado, U.S. Rep. Ken Buck says the circle has come full circle, and the tech titans who promise to bring free speech to every corner of the globe ... pose the biggest threat to free speech on the planet. . .

Undoubtedly, the Internet has transformed public space, replacing real public spaces with vast virtual spaces. The problem, according to Buck, is that our collective communications are controlled not by us, but by tech companies such as Twitter, Meta, Google and Amazon. They dictate who speaks and how they speak.

“Today, the marketplace of ideas is a closed community in the digital space. For 200 years this market controls itself. that's it".

So if Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk don't like certain people and don't like what they're saying, very powerful and controlled platforms can actually limit those people's freedom of speech because they're used by so many people.

And Buck fears that this will give tech giants an opportunity to effectively deny constitutionally protected liberties. What good is a government-guaranteed right to free speech if the government has no real control over the public space?

"Big Tech dominates ideas and markets in an uncontrollable way," Buck says.

Ken Buck is a conservative, and many of his arguments are based on the claim that tech companies are unfairly silencing conservative voices. But liberals shouldn't be distracted by the ax he swings in the book: Buck's wake in Crushed should put free speech advocates on guard.

Let's take a closer look at Buck's argument to see why.

In the "marketplace of ideas" - a fancy term coined by English philosopher John Stuart Mill - ideas are accepted competitively without government interference and censorship. For Mill, Buck wrote in his book, "Ensuring free flow was a means of protecting individual liberty and preventing social control by oppressive government or popular opinion." At its core, good journalism involves the same thing: a compelling story that brings together the best arguments from both sides, allowing those ideas to collide, allowing readers to decide which argument is stronger.

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes expressed Mill's idea in a different opinion: "The last desirable good is that best attained by free trade and ideas." The best test of truth is whether the ability to think is acceptable in the face of market competition. "

But Big Tech approved, Buck said. They are now the arbiter of the market and can choose and publish information they believe violates truth-checking.

Are their good intentions and promises not enough to protect our sacred right to free speech? You are good Americans, aren't you?

Buck says that no one can be trusted to do the right thing all the time, no matter how good they seem. This gives them a lot of first amendment power.

According to the constitution, they have full freedom to speak on the platform and do whatever they want. After all, these are private companies. The First Amendment prohibits government agencies from restricting free speech, and Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter are not government agencies.

Therefore, technologists are protected from the protections that governments have against violating the right to free speech.

So what do we do? If free speech is truly at risk, how can we protect America's most valuable product?

Buck thinks it's time to seriously weaken the faith. Like the great monopolies of the early 20th century, Standard Oil Co. John D. Rockefeller and Northern Securities Co. JP Morgan - Buck believes today's tech companies are doomed.

He believes that big tech companies have expanded their power through self-interest, mergers and acquisitions, limiting competition and censorship.

According to the introduction: "Never in human history has there been such a concentration of power as it is today, with the help of money, monopoly power and technology wielded by Big Tech." Pride comes from uncontrolled exercise of power.

Exercising that power would require new legislation from Congress, antitrust lawsuits to curb their anti-competitive behavior and concerted individual action against Big Tech, Buck said.

On Tuesday, Colorado entered the fight with two legs. A group of eight states, including Colorado, are suing Google for illegally monopolizing the technology behind online advertising. This is the fifth antitrust lawsuit filed against Google by US authorities since 2020 as lawmakers and regulators seek to limit the big tech's power over data and business.

Another Buck-sponsored amendment to encourage free speech is now languishing in Congress. This is critical to the future of journalism in this country and is therefore very close to my heart. A group representing publishers has asked Congress to allow news sites to jointly negotiate advertising deals with Google and other online platforms. Google is much bigger and more powerful than all of these editors, but coordination is now illegal under antitrust laws. Combined. The efforts of the publishers have so far been in vain.

Buck has some practical advice for us humans in this struggle. Below:

Look for alternatives to big tech products so that competition can reduce their dominance. Buck himself went cold and stopped using all Amazon, Apple, Meta and Google products.

- Change settings on your websites to transmit less Big Tech data.

- Ask elected officials and popular political organizations if they receive donations from Big Tech. And then ask them to take the "America Pledge," which Buck has made by pledging not to accept donations from Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

- Spread the word, donate to free speech campaigns and elect politicians who fight for it.

Buck believes that the future of free speech depends on what we do now. He admits it's a big, uphill battle as big tech companies try to raise millions of dollars to maintain their monopoly. Indeed, on Friday, Buck was rejected by his own party in his bid to chair the congressional antitrust subcommittee. His efforts to increase the federal government's role in curbing the power of big tech companies have made enemies among pro-business Republicans.

But America was born out of the battle between David and Goliath.

“As I have put it, the United States of America was founded to oppose cruel and oppressive monopoly. We must learn this lesson as we move forward.

"This threat to free speech is a risk America cannot afford."

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