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Leftists Can't Stand It When They Can't Control Speech

October 22, 2022
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Because both Musk and West aren’t of the left — I hesitate to call either one of them conservative — leftists are freaking out at the idea of these men taking over social media platforms (even less prominent ones like Parler).

 

A new article over at the Daily Beast does

 

n’t even bother to conceal the left’s disdain for non-wokes buying social media outlets. Jared Holt and Tim Squirrell — we’ll explore who they are in a minute — drip with contempt for anything that isn’t of the far left.

 

A past-his-prime rap star moving to buy a third-tier social media site—run by the husband of his far-right conspiracy theorist friend Candace Owens—is not a sign of tidal change in online influence. But as a slew of red-pilled billionaires with a yen for authoritarianism (Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, former President Donald Trump) chisel their way into the social media market, it’s even more urgent to assess the power and influence that’s consolidated at the top levels of these companies.

 

These private organizations serve, in great part, as our public squares, and yet there is almost no public oversight over how these companies are run.

 

And just as we have little reason to believe Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey are truly acting with the public’s interests in mind, we have no reason to trust that West will use Parler in a way that will make it any less destructive, nor Musk with Twitter, Thiel with Rumble, or Trump with Truth Social. All of them claim to be making these investments, in part, to defend “free speech,” which is the natural conclusion to a false narrative alleging that mainstream platforms are engaging in systemic censorship against the voices of conservatives. To the surprise of no one, this means far-right disinformation-peddling voices will benefit.

 

Nope. No nuance there.

 

Related: NBC ‘Dystopia Beat’ Reporter (No, Really) Loses His Mind Over Elon Musk Buying Twitter

 

But there’s one quote in particular that should really get your attention.

 

“A tech bro billionaire or an unhinged rapper dabbling in antisemitism can make decisions that change history—without democratic oversight,” Holt and Squirrell write (emphasis added). “Researchers of misinformation and extremism have pleaded with the heads of these companies for years to be allowed to access internal data, so that they can more accurately diagnose problems. But they’re most often met with shrugs and silence.”

 

“Democratic oversight.” These two want government regulation and for leftists who traffic in “misinformation and extremism” to get their grubby hands on social media companies. What they want is control and the ability to censor what they don’t like.

 

(By the way, we do need to address Kanye West’s antisemitism, but that’s another topic for another day.)

 

Now, let’s talk about who Holt and Squirrell are. They’re actually the people they think should have their noses in your social media business. In Holt’s Twitter bio, he refers to himself as “Senior research manager @ISDglobal [Institute for Strategic Dialogue] on US hate and extremism, while Squirrell handles communications for ISD and has “Extremism, terrorism, conspiracy, internet horrors” in his Twitter bio.

 

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue sounds like a reasonable organization, doesn’t it? But it ain’t. Glenn Greenwald, no conservative himself, calls Holt, Squirrell, and their organization out in a tweet thread.


 

“There’s a huge number of people like this who present themselves just as nice liberal social media personalities who, in fact, are funded by every establishment center of power and, especially, Western security agencies,” Greenwald continues. “Why? Because their only job is to agitate for censorship.”

 

Source: PJ Media

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