This brief article is inspired by the following statement posted by a right-wing activist. My own politics, as I repeatedly emphasize, center around supporting freedom of speech from a Left-Wing point of view. I think the issue of media censorship is a fantastic argument for the Left and Right joining forces.
Let's start with the Right, since I assume most of the people reading this are probably right-leaning, based on the sites I tend to post on. For you all this should be pretty obvious - these monopolies, especially as they talk to each other, end up shutting down right-wing voices on a regular basis. Look at the number of Conservatives who have been suddenly banned on every social media platform within days of each other. Alex Jones, despite how absurd I think he is, comes to mind, but there have been dozens of Conservatives banned that I've heard about, but I assume there are hundreds I haven't heard about. Clearly the competition that is supposed to exist in a free market just isn't working in this case. I'd add Twitch to that list of monopolies. That is the key issue with monopolies, especially when they work together for political reasons. The only options you all have left are basically Steemit, Hive, Minds, DTube, Gab, DLive, and Publish0x. Some of those sites, like Gab and to a degree Minds, take on a much further right-wing character than most Conservatives. None of them are true replacements for the sites listed above.
For some on the Left this issue seems less serious, but there are a few reasons we should care too. First off, let's not pretend that corporations are on our side. Right now Left-wingers aren't censored as much as the Right, but it is starting to happen. Here is an article about dozens of Occupy activists who were banned suddenly by Twitter, but there are many other examples. Anybody who is a Socialist or left of that (ie. anyone who might want to nationalize certain corporations) will be targeted by corporations. Why would Twitter or Facebook want to allow voices that say that Twitter and Facebook should be nationalized, or broken up? They all rely on corporate advertising, so it is also bad for them if banks, industry, health insurance, and/or other industries are nationalized. It is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to them. Corporations have no love for the true left, and will censor them as soon as they finish with the Right. Actually, they have started already.
In addition, most left-leaning (and even some right-leaning) individuals realize that monopolies break the market system and allow corporations to take advantage of customers. I see no reason that same logic shouldn't apply here. In fact, some left-leaning to Left-Wing commentators like Kyle Kulinski have advocated many of these views already.
Breaking up major social media monopolies is the best way to address these issues. The ones that appeal to a broad base, including people of diverse political views, will succeed by having a whole user base that wont consider other options. That will lead to a resurgence in significant social media sites where we can have real political debates without fear of censorship. Let's all work together on this issue!
Thanks for sharing