I’ve been saying this for many years, certainly for at least five, but the most ready example I can find on my blog was from August 2024:
we have seen repeatedly how dishonest Big Tech conduct, which is often left unchecked, festers into something appalling, whether it’s anticompetitive conduct or the genocide of Rohingya Muslims and Palestinians. How many more examples do we need?
The UK riots are but a tiny sliver of the dangers Big Tech—especially US Big Tech—wreaks on societies, and without a balance, democracy is wounded.
We had our terrifying moment on March 15, 2019 when a worthless nutter live-streamed the slaughter of 51 innocent people.
Many of these countries—the UK, or us here in New Zealand—have laws that we all accept and understand; and, frankly, if these sites cannot play by our laws, why on earth are we kowtowing to them? (Facebook had eight copies of the March 15 video a year after the massacre, yet they were permitted to operate on our shores during that time.)
Make them inaccessible till they clean up their act. And if they don’t, let them stay inaccessible. Those who really want to read the drivel on there will find a way through VPNs and proxies; the gullible who might have fascist tendencies can return to the safety of the pub and moan to the limited audience they find there.
Even as late as August 2024, I can bet there were people thinking, ‘How ridiculous. You can’t just shut off the tech sites.’
Now, like so many things, others are calling for the same. This, too, is becoming mainstream.
Paris Marx devotes his latest newsletter to it. One notable part:
Instead of giving in to US pressure, governments need to become far more ambitious with tech regulation of many forms. Countries don’t need to buy into the disingenuous framing of “free speech” being pushed by Silicon Valley and the extreme right and should adopt stronger regulations to limit the deceptive information and conspiracy theories distorting the public’s understanding of the world around them. If US platforms won’t comply, they should face the consequences—as they are more frequently in Europe—but if they continue to refuse, they should face outright bans. Tech companies need to know they will be held accountable, and that means they must respect the rules and laws in the places they operate.
Marx is one of the most insightful commentators out there, and he has advanced plenty of warnings over the years. But for so many others, the penny is dropping. Here’s one from Canada. Meanwhile, I had warned people about Google since 2009, and Facebook bots since 2014, and the way it has all played out has been hardly surprising—you need only look at some old entries here to see what my thinking was. Now the horse has bolted, but the warnings were there long ago.
It’s not too late, and nations should play it tough. Treat these Big Tech outfits the same way you would treat a small local operation, or, even worse, someone receiving a slither more of a benefit than they might be entitled to. You’d happily go after them. Why should Big Tech be immune?
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