The New Cronyism: Big Tech Censors Conservatives, Democrats Deliver Crony Policies

For decades, it was awful enough when crony favor seekers gave politicians campaign coin in exchange for crony government policies:

Corrupt politicians used the contributions to win their campaigns for office. But Democrats now seem to have solved the election problem:

It appears elections are going to be under suspicion for the foreseeable future:

If Vote Fraud Wins in 2020, Prepare for Life to Get Ugly.

Perpetual heinousness to follow.

So, corrupt cronies must now find new ways to remunerate Democrats for the cronyism they receive. And no cronies are more able to do more for Democrats than Big Tech—thanks to government cronyism:

How Did Big Tech Get So Big? Massive Government Cronyism.

How now for Big Tech to pay for said cronyism? Acquiesce to the latest Democrat demands:

Democrats Demand Censorship of Conservatives.

That is not a matter of private companies choosing who uses their services. It is government’s destruction of the First Amendment by proxy.

Big Tech is, of course, thrilled to ban conservatives. It’s just the next step in their long march against those of us to the right of Karl Marx:

“Google, YouTube and other tech giants filter, suppress and even directly attack conservatives.”

So now that Joe Biden has won the White House and his Democrats have won control of the U.S. Senate for complete control of the federal government, all the corruptniks feel especially emboldened:

Another defense of Big Tech’s abuse of conservatives has been to pretend that all that is needed is a little inititiave: “If you don’t like Big Tech companies, start your own Big Tech companies.”

Well, Microsoft spent more than $2 billion and many years trying to get its Bing search engine competitive with Google’s search. Bing is currently at 1.2 percent of the search market, and Microsoft sells Google all the data it collects through Bing searches. So much for competition.

Google started Google+ to compete in the social media market. How’d that go? Utter failure:

Google Shuts Down its Failed Google+ Social Network:

“(B)ringing an end to the company’s attempt to directly compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter.”

Big Tech can’t compete with Big Tech. How the heck is anyone else supposed to do so?

Well, Parler attempted to do just that. Its business model includers a pledge not to censor conservatives. And it was working:

Parler Becomes Most-Downloaded App Following Biden Victory.

But of course Big Tech won’t stand for that:

The Apple iPhone and Google Android phone control more than 99 percent of the US cell phone market. If your app ain’t in their stores, it’s nowhere.

Parler is now literally nowhere, thanks to Amazon. The biggest Big Tech web hosting behemoth is doing what Big Tech does:

Parler Is Offline, Social Media Platform Can’t Find Host After Amazon Pulls The Plug:

“John Matze, the founder and CEO of Parler, said in a statement the site would be down ‘longer than expected’ because other cloud hosting companies don’t want to work with them. . . .

“‘Amazon’s, Google’s and Apple’s statements to the press about dropping our access has caused most of our other vendors to drop their support for us as well.’”

Parler CEO Says Even His Lawyers Are Abandoning Him.

The hypocrisy is blatant:

While Violent Dictators Are Allowed to Remain, Big Tech Bans President, Parler, And Purges Countless Conservative Voices.

Here, for example, is the Twitter account of Iran’s murderous Ayatollah Khamenei, the leading sponsor of terrorism on the planet. He isn’t a problem, according to Big Tech, but the president and vice president of the United States are:

Twitter Allows ‘Hang Mike Pence’ to Trend While Banning President Trump.

What will Big Tech get from government and its Democrats in power in exchange for all of this? Mega-doses of ridiculously generous policy cronyism, that’s what.

How about Section 230? This is perhaps the greatest crony government gift ever given to anyone anywhere ever. It renders Big Tech invulnerable to lawsuits resulting from third party content. And Big Tech uses this power to benefit politicians who support its powers and to silence those who oppose big government:

Big Tech Monitors and Pulls ‘Fake News’–So They Don’t Need Section 230:

“When it comes to the titanic cronyism of Section 230–Big Tech claims they receive too much outside content to possibly monitor and control it.

“But when it comes to what Big Tech and their Leftist cohorts deem ‘fake news’–which nigh always ends up being conservative news–Big Tech has no problem monitoring and censoring its outside content. And [it] promises time and again to dedicate all the resources necessary to do so.

“Big Tech can and does monitor and remove ‘fake news’ content. Which means they can monitor and remove content.

“Which means they do not need the titanic government cronyism of Section 230.”

Why Ban of @realDonaldTrump Proves Twitter Not ‘Just a Platform’.

“Fake news?” Big Tech spent four years watching everyone use its massive platforms to lie incessantly about Trump-Russia collusion, and nary a post was removed.

But when some actual news, unhelpful to Democrats, appears on the horizon, suddenly the censors are out in force:

Hunter Biden Confirms the Story Big Tech Censored for Months.

Big Tech is a terrible arbiter of the truth or falsity of information. These multinational giants are in fact spectacular spreaders of false information and stupendous censors of real information.

If you think Democrats are going to repeal Section 230, I have a bridge over the River Kwai to sell you.

As for the talking point about the value of Section 230—”Section 230 Created the Internet as We Know It“—that’s just more fake news. Trillions of dollars of Internet commerce would continue to take place without Section 230.

And there are all sorts of things we should change “as we know them.” Government schools, for example.

Section 230 did create the Internet “comment section” as we know it. Which is the Internet’s sewer. Social media, for its part, is nothing more than glorified comment sections.

“But social media and user ratings will go away without Section 230,” Big Tech proponents claim.

If social media companies require this much cronyism in order to exist—and they have become trillion-dollar-corporations through this gigantic government favor—then they should definitely be allowed to wither and die as soon as possible.

Big Tech social media are not a free-market success story. They are a government cronyism prop-up story.

Or are all Big Tech-Section 230 defenders—libertarians and conservatives included—now for government cronyism? Do they all now also support fake energy wind and solar subsides—without which fake energy would all go away?

So it would seem.

No, these favors are entirely unjustified. Instead of being a prospect for disaster, a world without social media would be a much better place:

“‘The Social Dilemma’ is a 2020 American docudrama film directed by Jeff Orlowski and written by Orlowski, Davis Coombe, and Vickie Curtis. It explores the rise of social media and the damage it has caused to society, focusing on its exploitation and manipulation of its users for financial gain through surveillance capitalism and data mining.

“It goes into depth on how social media’s design is meant to nurture an addiction, manipulate its use in politics, and spread conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and aiding groups such as flat-earthers. The film also examines the serious issue of social media’s effect on mental health (including the mental health of adolescents and rising teen suicide rates).

“The film features interviews with many former employees, executives, and other professionals from top tech companies and social media platforms such as Facebook, Google, and Apple. These interviewees provide their first-hand experiences of working in and around the tech industry.”

And just how badly do we need online reviews? Humans purchased products from one another for thousands of years without online user ratings. What’s more, these online user reviews are just as corrupt as the rest of Big Tech’s internet dystopia:

Buyer Beware: Scourge of Fake Reviews Hitting Amazon, Walmart and Other Major Retailers.

Will the Big Tech cronyism policy of Net Neutrality make a comeback under Biden? Did the Sun rise this morning?

Net Neutrality Push Coming Under Biden.

Because of course. Biden’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will almost certainly illegally, unilaterally impose it, just as the Barack Obama-Joe Biden FCC did:

Don’t Be Fooled: Net Neutrality Movement is Big Tech at Work:

“The regulation only applied to internet service providers and was not surprisingly favored by Big Tech companies seeking to gain a competitive advantage over ISPs, lock in their market power, and pad their bottom lines.”

Will Biden bring antitrust laws to bear against the Big Tech cartel? Don’t count on it:

Big Tech’s Assault on Parler Proves It’s Gone Full Cartel.

Big Media is pretending Biden will drop the hammer:

Biden Seen Cracking Down on Big Tech

But is that even remotely plausible, given all the campaign assistance Big Tech gives Democrats?

Given all the escalating anti-conservative work Big Tech does at Democrats’ behest?

Given all the Big Tech executives that are becoming Biden administration executives?

I wouldn’t bet on Biden or any Democrats doing anything at all except continuing and expanding the massive government cronyism that has bloated Big Tech into ever-greater power which it expends for the benefit of its government cronies.

Optimism for us less-government types is decidedly difficult to obtain these days.

I have a feeling the slide down history’s razor blade only accelerates ever-more rapidly from here on out.

At this point, we are the mice the Big Tech and big government cats are playing with prior to eating us.

[Originally posted at RedState. Republished with permission.]