Alongside its Big Tech brethren at the Ministry of Truth, Twitter went on a rampage against President Donald Trump and MAGA Country. The microblogging website deleted the president’s account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” following the chaos at the U.S. Capitol, prompting the social media outlet to purge thousands of conservative users, from high-profile names to unknowns. But while Jack Dorsey may be applauded by the Red Guard cartel – Democrats, the establishment press, and Antifa activists – Wall Street investors are not as ebullient over censoring half the voting population.
Tweeting Past the Graveyard
Twitter stock slumped to a five-week low on Jan. 11, plummeting as much as 12% to around $45. Is this a permanent downward trend for a company that has endured a five-session losing streak, or is it a blip on the radar? It will all depend on the next several quarterly reports when shareholders learn the extent of Trump’s influence on Twitter’s bottom line. Indeed, what other reason is there to participate on Twitter than to watch users with Trump Derangement Syndrome have their web-based Two Minutes of Hate, flooding his tweets with thousands of replies in moments?
Let Them Tweet!
The left is enthusiastic over the blatant censorship of alternative viewpoints, claiming that treason, sedition, and insurrection are unacceptable in the U.S. political system. How convenient that leftists have forgotten the 2020 riots that destroyed federal buildings, abortion advocates who stormed Capitol Hill, millions who petitioned to overturn the 2016 election, and the various progressive-led demonstrations that targeted statehouses across the country. Progressives also ironically champion free-market principles by asserting that Twitter is a private corporation and can do what it pleases. It is too bad that these mini-Maos did not afford a Colorado baker the same latitude a few years ago when they demanded that the store bake the cake for a gay wedding.
But two things can be true simultaneously: Twitter is a private company and, thus, can censor whomever it wishes. Targeting and censoring users for speech the digital Brown Shirts disapprove of is odious and intellectual indolence for leftists who have reduced political discourse to -isms and -phobes.
Millions have been forced under house arrest and cannot engage with their friends and family. Digital apparatuses, like Twitter and Parler, served as venues for like-minded folks to share memes, satirize elected officials, and discuss current events. Social media may emit intellectual pollution, but tens of millions of people utilize these networks every day. Plus, many of them act as alternative news sources that violate the fake news industrial complex’s orthodoxy.
Censoring the Competition
For years, conservatives and libertarians have been told by modern-day digital Red Guard servants that if they do not appreciate being shut down or gagged, they should launch competing platforms. Entrepreneurs called their bluff and launched multiple online venues, including Gab, Parler, Rumble, and many other internet properties. In a short period, these web portals blossomed and allowed those on the right to communicate with each other without fear of being blacklisted.
Big Tech was not satisfied, choosing to bully these websites or cancel the accounts of people it disagrees with on politics. From an email subscription service to social networks, President Trump’s many different services were suspended amid manufactured and disingenuous outrage. Amazon took down the Parler website, while Apple and Google removed Parler’s mobile application from their app stores.
In a potential celebration of his censorship efforts, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey posted a screenshot of Signal, an encrypted messaging service, rising to the top of app charts. Was he boasting that he removed his main competition Parler? Let the tin foil be applied to the minds of conspiracy theorists.
Go Woke and Go Broke?
Common sense would dictate that Twitter reverse course and end its censorship blitzkrieg if only to appease shareholders. Indeed, going woke and broke is not a sustainable business model, particularly when your top user has been given the big boot. Yet common sense is not so common in today’s world, as the great philosopher Voltaire quipped. Corporations and executives desire to spotlight their wokeness and be awarded honorary degrees in wokeology. But they will eventually learn that the militant left is perpetually out for blood for the tiniest of infractions. Dorsey may be a hero to leftists today for giving Democrats and the mainstream media a shield from scandals, but he will inevitably slip up and be cast as the next villain in this digital war.
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Read more from Andrew Moran.
