When corporations and government are influencing each other, we don't have a separation of corporate and state power. A corporatist system of government is at play, whereby legalized bribery happens through corporate lobbying and campaign donations. As a result, regular citizens don't have the power that the rich do. The rich can effectively control government policy in many areas, while the rest of the citizenry is left with little to no influence. The power elite rule in many if not most ways, not the people.
When corporate power merges with government power, the censorship of corporations can sometimes be linked or equated with state censorship. The power held by the Silicon Valley tech giants seems to show some connection with governmental power infrastructure. When Google has ties to starting up helping the NSA and CIA with massive surveillance and helping in the development of an AI drone program, it's prudent to look at other megacorporations to see how they are being used or merged with state power structures.
Acting like a private corporation while in bed with the state means you're not separate from state power. A company worth a few million doesn't wield much power compared to one worth billions, as monetary power translates into political power. Yielding political power requires working with the political structures or else they will work with your competitors to help them rise, rather than yourself.
When 3 of the biggest tech giants in the world decide to do something within hours of each other, it's not likely random and "interdependent". When Apple, Google an Facebook removed Alex Jones from their platforms, one must questions whether they just did between themselves, or if there was political pressure coming from somewhere as well. Was one ring of power being used to bend them to the power of a common master?
These private companies weren't doing things in private. They likely marched on the same orders to appease some political power they are connected to. Since they are all hitting hard on the right-leaning conservative type of content and personalities, it would seem that they are left-leaning and influenced by the politicians of the left, i.e. the democrats.
With recent threats of regulation and calling these megacorporations "utilities", some may be appeasing political powers to maintain the status quo to avoid government oversight and keep their billions in check.
In the past US election, the democrats needed a "reason" for why they lost, rather than accept it as possible or likely to have been an honest win. In came political powers to create to blame the whole "fake news" hysteria that they use to discredit alternative and independent media. Then came the Russiagate narrative. They got Facebook to support the mainstream narrative that Russia meddled in the election.
This promoted talk about regulating the social media tech giants "for the good of the nation", as responsibility was imposed upon tech giants to regulate and control the flow of information. Now there is Democrat Chris Murphy who speaks similarly about the "good" of removing Alex Jones for the same reason, that they are resposnbile for the "lies" ("fake news") on their platform:
I know Facebook and Apple and YouTube have gotten so big they sometimes seem like the government.But they aren’t.
They are private companies that shouldn’t knowingly spread lies and hate. They took a good first step today by removing Infowars. (Source)
The democrats weren't happy about losing the election, and blamed the social media content. That's the problem they found. Then that illicit a reaction. Their solution seemed to be either for tech giants to regulate and control the information on their platforms, or the government would do it for them. Seems to fit the problem-reaction-solution dialectic.
When democrats like Senator Mark Warner create memos to threaten social media with regulation if they don't censor undesirable information, it seems to fit. Tech companies have cooperated with the govenrmantal and political structure before, and they will do it again, either willingly or compelled to.
Political powers have reverse the direction of influence this time around. Rather than corporations lobbying and donating to gain power in politics, now the politicians are the ones gaining power over the tech giants to use them as weapons. Censorship is being applied through political bullying along the lines of "do what we say, or we're going to put you in a vice and control you anyways."
The democrats seem to yield more power over tech giants, possibly due to compatible political leaning as favoring the left mindset, or from threats to their autonomy by the left politicians. Whatever the reason is, the left-leaning mindset seems to be winning as popular and large right-leaning groups, people and content are being removed from the tech giants' platforms.
When Trump threatens the mainstream media that put out fake news, nothing happens. But when the democratic politicians threaten the tech giants in the new domain of social media, things seem to change in their favor. Isn't that something...
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
References:
If you appreciate and value the content, please consider: Upvoting, Sharing or Reblogging below.
My goal is to share knowledge, truth and moral understanding in order to help change the world for the better. If you appreciate and value what I do, please consider supporting me as a Steem Witness by voting for me at the bottom of the Witness page.
