"Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason of righteousness, temperance, and of a judgment to come in their presence. Slavery cannot tolerate free speech." - Frederick Douglass, in his Plea for Free Speech in Boston
"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties." - John Milton, in Areopagitica
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell, in his original preface to Animal Farm
"Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; in order that every man may present his views without penalty, there must be a spirit of tolerance in the entire population." - Albert Einstein, in Ideas and Opinions
"If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." - George Washington, to Officers of the Army
"Strange it is that men should admit the validity of the arguments for free speech but object to their being 'pushed to an extreme,' not seeing that unless the reasons are good for an extreme case, they are not good for any case." - John Stuart Mill, in On Liberty
"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us." - Justice William O. Douglass, in The One Un-American Act
"Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech; which is the right of every man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or control the right of another. And this is the only check it ought to suffer, and the only bounds it ought to know. This sacred privilege is essential to free governments, that the security of property, and the freedom of speech always go together; and in those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything else his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation, must begin by subduing the freeness of speech." - John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon in Cato’s Letters
The suppression of free speech, in whatever guise it appears, is an attempt to replace the individual with the collective. It extinguishes our inalienable rights and replaces it with a Robespierre-like mob and the formation of a collective. With the requirement that each and every individual subjugates themselves to the collective. Erasing the individual.
And it imposes a zero-sum game. There is no win. Only win/lose. Disagreement is not tolerated. People, in their arrogance, imposing their views as universal truths and they are vengeful Gods. If you do not obey their language rules, adopt their thoughts, state allegiance to their worldview and beliefs; they will not burn you at the stake or put you in a concentration camp. What they will do is digitally exterminate you, deplatform you, demonetize you, demonize you and dehumanize you.
Adopting similar tactics as taught by Bernays and Alinsky. And employed throughout the centuries against groups deemed undesirable.
Suppressing free speech, free expression and free thought is not progressive but regressive. There is only one way, IMO, in preserving the internet as a virtual town square; REPEAL 230. That would permit platforms that acted as true bulletin boards, and without surveillance, to proliferate and prosper. Those are the only platforms should be entitled to immunity as common law already deemed.
The government should not intrude on private property and enact further legislation that will likely provide another example of the law of unintended consequences. It should simply repeal 230. Respect our common law system. Subsidizing surveillance companies with algorithms that promote engagement by enragement is perverse.
Repeal 230. Embrace data sovereignty. We do not need to break-up big tech. We do not need to further regulate big tech. We do need to repeal 230 and the huge subsidy provided by that immunity. An immunity granted as a special privilege. And respect that people’s data is their property. Doing both will end the perverse subsidy of surveillance companies and, put the individual in charge of targeting advertising with their consent, knowledge, authorization and revenue sharing. Greater transparency. More trust.
I choose to quote our founders so we remember the ideals which are the foundational principles. The words used to convince people to replace the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution amended by The Bill of Rights.
I conclude with two quotes from Patrick Henry:
“Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason toward my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly things”
And
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government-lest it comes to dominate our lives and interests.”