Sunday, January 17, 2021

What AL can do about Big Tech

While you are waiting for Big Tech to change, are you open to exploring strategies and programs in Alabama that have the potential of reducing the power and influence of Big Tech in Alabama?


The political problems associated with Big Tech are censorship; facilitation of violence and hate; and disinformation and Fake News.

[to be continued] 

4/20/21 Resuming
The political problems with Big Tech are censorship; facilitation of violence and hate; and disinformation and Fake News.

Those problems are very large. 

Possible solutions to one problem may be inconsistent with or worsen another of the problems, or be violative of First Amendment rights of Big Tech. For example, imposing liabilities on Big Tech for  content which contributes to violence or hate or is disinformation or Fake News necessitates greater censorship  by Big Tech to protect itself. Apart from imposing liabilities, regulating how Big Tech censors content may violate First Amendment rights of Big Tech.

Big Tech is politically powerful, and may be an obstacle to Congress providing solutions that a consensus of the citizens desire but that Big Tech object to.

State legislatures may try to address the problems of Big Tech, such as is being attempted by an Alabama bill that seeks to punish Big Tech companies if they engage in censorship.

There is a veritable conundrum for Congress (or a state legislature) to fix the problems of Big Tech, and a veritable political mountain to climb to do so. 

Sen. Phil Williams' article suggest dissatisfaction with waiting on Congress to fix satisfactorily the problems of Big Tech.

If you are a citizen who feels strongly about the problems of Big Tech, in the face of the very little power you have, you need to decide whether to curse the darkness or to light a candle, and, if the latter, what candle or candles you will light or try to light.

My candles
I think the generic candle that citizens can light is in your own actions, conduct and words, and wherever those interface with other citizens, you endeavor to apply your own brain and your own reason to try to determine what is truth and facts. This includes ample engagement with other citizens who are endeavoring to do the same, with a view to reaching agreement about what is truth and facts.

I have tried to light numerous candles to the foregoing end, which included urging others to join with me in lighting the similar candles. See, e.g., Appeal to AL news directors, October 1, 2019, AL Project Veritas - Impeachment, October 6, 2019,  WVTM13 GOP Senate debate, February 27, 2020, Dear Aunie,  May 8, 2020, Open reply to Susana Schuler, January 24, 2021.

Perhaps these other persons think similarly as I do, and they are trying to light their own candles. If so, I wish they would tell me, and maybe we could light candles together.

Others may not believe in lighting candles like the ones I think should be lit, and in fact obstruct the goal I seek in the candles I try to light. Read, for example, Dear Aunie, and judge for yourself.


See also
Alabamians battling QAnon, Sept. 7,2021

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