For over a year we heard that it was an established and indisputable fact that COVID occurred naturally. Not manmade. Not from any lab. Viruses happen. Accept it. Any questioning of this indisputable fact are dangerous people, spreading misinformation and disinformation, conspiracy theorists, Luddites and, for the safety of everyone else; must be deplatformed, demonized and demonetized.
Now we have the G7 nations supposedly agreeing to investigate the derivation of the virus. Which is kind of curious because the same people a year asserted that they already knew its derivation and that the science was clear. It was IMPOSSIBLE that it was manmade in some lab or anywhere.
I also read the following Article : https://apple.news/AkqrMUS3KTIeCFWjvfIROzA, confirming that the science has never been settled and that any investigation to date has been lacking and inadequate. So what facts, which apparently never existed, were fact-checked. Supposedly fact-checked to the point of an absolute certainty. And challenging that fact was an act of heresy.
Maybe, just possibly, the truth is: China calls any accusation that COVID is manmade a conspiracy theory. So what was the chain of communication. China tells Fauci to dispel any claim that it might be manmade. Fauci tells Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Sundar and Bezos all signal each other to adopt that posture. The tech oligarchs partnering with China and Fauci to intimidate, deplatform, demonetize and demonize anyone who dares to dissent from their narrative. Meanwhile Bezos gets richer selling all the made in China merchandise. Apple caters to China while applying a hypocritical double-standard in the USA. Actually both China and Apple have a lot in common. They like bullying. And their virtue-signaling statements is pure propaganda. IMO.
They all are happy to promote misinformation and disinformation coming from regimes that are considered our greatest existential threat while wielding power against those who dare ask questions and speculate precisely because there are no answers yet. There is no accepted science yet related to the origin of COVID. The tech oligarchs rule the digital domain without contestability. They are absolute rulers over the digital domain. They engage in a digital inquisition. Digital extermination. They do not need facts. Nor reason. Nor reasonableness. The government has seen to that by granting them what has been in practice, blanket immunity. They are Gods of the Digital Realm.
The only remedy is to repeal 230, not reform it. Reform is a slogan. Noise. And those who would sell fear that the repeal of 230 would destroy the internet. That is bullshit. Common law has already established that free speech bulletin boards that do not practice surveillance have already been granted immunity. The truth is they, the tech oligarchs monetize their surveillance activities. That is their business model. Surveillance. And the government likes that they do surveillance. So the government incentivizes them to do surveillance. So they grant them immunity to practice surveillance. A democratized internet cannot coexist with 230. The repeal of 230 would return power and empowerment to the individual and their data. Personal sovereignty. Data sovereignty. Dignity.
We must Repeal 230. Anything else will likely only deter entry and competition. The immunity provides the protection for the inquisition with impunity. The immunity has empowered tech oligarchs to be digital dictators. Their reign is absolute. They are accountable to no one.
They all scaled by marketing themselves as free speech platforms. That they are free. There is an expression, Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. They have all proven to be the Trojan Horse. They operate by stealth. They are not free. We pay in a much more valuable currency, data. And, obviously that data is extremely valuable. It is what has produced trillion dollar market capitalizations.
An another perversion is the use of algorithms to create echo chambers to sort everyone in a way to reinforce their own beliefs and divide us, categorize us; so they can package the data in a way to enhance its monetary value. Monetizing engagement through enragement.
Consider their attributes. Surveillance. Algorithmic manipulation. Psychological dissection. Censorship. Stealth. There is absolutely nothing transparent regarding any of them. They are digital dictators.
They could never scale the way they have if 230 did not exist and they had no immunity given their surveillance. The only way, IMO, for the people to preserve personal sovereignty in the digital domain is to make these companies liable for their actions given the surveillance they perform. Leave immunity only for platforms that do no surveil and do not intervene. Truly user-generated content. Then the liability would appropriately fall on the user. And only the user.
The government, in choosing where to disseminate information have chosen companies that practice surveillance and actively deplatform and demonetize its citizens. The government chose not to use platforms that complied with the First Amendment, have no algorithmic intervention nor practiced any surveillance.
Thus, the government not only subsidized the surveillance companies but also helped monetize while avoiding the use of platforms that are governed by the same principles that our government was founded upon. Their actions reflect their preferences. If FB, Twitter, Google deplatform you and Apple removes you from their devices; then the government has delegated the decision of what citizens should have access to their information since government offices and agencies have chosen only to use the digital dictators platforms. Perversely deciding that if the digital dictators deemed anyone unworthy, then the government also deemed those people unworthy.
Who now will speak on behalf of all those who were maliciously defamed as conspiracy theorists and irresponsible purveyors of misinformation and disinformation for postulating that the COVID might have been manmade and originated in a lab? It never was settled science that it originated naturally. Stating that it was an indisputable fact that it was a naturally occurring virus is and was a lie. All the statements were equally speculative. Saying otherwise was purveying misinformation and disinformation.
Again, should there be any liability for this? Who should bear it? And should there be a remedy to those who have been defamed? And who should be responsible for compensating them? Remember, these surveillance companies did not state that they had an opinion which was speculative in nature. They asserted it is an indisputable fact. I am still seeking scientific confirmation of the Fauci Infallibility Axiom. Fauci said, therefore it is true. We have substituted the scientific method, abandoned it, for the word of Fauci.
Surveillance companies should bear liability and responsibility for all the choices they make. All the labels they put on content. Liability for stating that something that has been fact-checked has later been proven poorly fact-checked. Any algorithmic intervention. Any human intervention. Any throttling. Any distortion of the ledger that alters the timeline or reflects any preferences beyond what a bulletin board would do without surveillance. Without liability, there is an absence of responsibility. It is authority without accountability. An absence of checks and balances. It is this framework that has allowed for the existence of digital dictators.