America has finally had the definitive test case for a recurring conservative idea: The notion that the “free market” is a solution to the left’s private-sector totalitarianism. And the answer is clear: Under the modern hegemony of globalist progressivism, it is impossible for conservatives to build their own liberty-focused alternatives to left-wing monopolies. All such efforts will be destroyed. The only solution is to tear down the progressive hegemony completely.
For years, censorship has gradually increased on the most important tech platforms. Facebook is throttling “fake news,” Twitter is banning personalities on flimsier and flimsier pretexts, and Google was deciding which websites can have ads and which ones cannot. Now, even the President himself has been silenced, cut off from Twitter, Facebook, and even his own email list:
Trump’s email provider has removed his service, cutting his campaign off from their email list of supporters. https://t.co/yArEXdk1yE
— Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) January 9, 2021
The fix, countless “small-government” conservatives said, is simple: Just build your own alternative companies.
No person is more dogmatically committed to this position than Dispatch editor David French, Bill Kristol’s choice to mount a NeverTrump presidential bid. For French, it is impossible for private-sector censorship to ever be bad, and the solution is simply to go out and found one’s own companies:
I freely admit that I’m out of step with a portion of the base that apparently believes it should have a right to spew hate and lies on private platforms they did not build and do not own. I’m completely untroubled by that fact.
— David French (@DavidAFrench) January 8, 2021
State interference with the speech policies of private corporations is a direct threat to civil liberties. Americans should be able to construct online communities that reflect the culture and ethos of the company’s founders and leaders. /end https://t.co/x7c9xYk6Jn
— David French (@DavidAFrench) May 28, 2020
“Just construct your own online communities,” French says.
Parler, tragically, was foolish enough to take him at his word.
The website launched with a noble purpose: Rather than wait for Twitter to squelch every form of dissent from the platform, genuine backers of free speech should simply create their own, less-censored platform. People who actually want to read what people think could join Parler, while bland idiots who enjoy echo chambers could stick with Twitter. The free market in action!
But the free market was a sham. As soon as Parler began gaining in popularity, the knives came out for it. Well before Wednesday’s incident at the Capitol, it was clear that powerful forces had marked the company for destruction. First came hostile news articles to set the stage:
Since the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Parler has caught on among right-wing politicians and “influencers” – people with large online followings – as a social media platform where they can share and promote ideas without worrying about the company blocking or flagging their posts for being dangerous or misleading. However, the website has become a haven for far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists who are now interacting with the mainstream conservatives flocking to the platform.
As the three highest-profile social media companies – YouTube, Facebook and Twitter – continue to take action to mitigate the spread of extremism and disinformation, Parler has welcomed the ensuing exodus of right-wing users. [PBS]
After the Capitol riot, which Parler’s owners played no role in, the site’s enemies moved immediately to annihilate it. First Google kicked it off its app store, and then Apple followed. On Saturday night, Amazon announced it will kick Parler off Amazon Web Services, meaning the website will be down entirely until it finds a new webhost. The next step is easy to predict: Whatever company decides to work with Parler will itself become a target, so companies will refuse their business. That’s already happening:
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