Popular leftist YouTube channel “The Serfs” were back online with the platform after an asinine ban stemming from some old video they made “about how Paul Joseph Watson is obsessed with eggs and targeted ShoeOnHead”.
To make matters worse for the The Serfs, YouTube deleted the entirety of the channel so they couldn’t actually log into their account and appeal the decision.
Luckily there was enough outcry from social media that YouTube reinstated the account and as of earlier this morning The Serfs were back on the platform.
Even Paul Joseph Watson chimed in on the ridiculousness of the ban…
The Left needs to have a serious discussion about big tech social media censorship and Second 230
Big tech censorship recently came once again to the forefront of civil liberty discourse these past couple of weeks when the likes of Twitter and Facebook began to purge prominent far-right accounts which included the President of the United States Donald Trump.
Now although a vast majority of leftists won’t miss reading Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric on Twitter or the way it emboldens racists and bigots to take action, we as leftists still need to have a serious discussion regarding big tech social media censorship.
The Serfs short ban was proof positive that leftist will most certainly feel the effects of big tech censorship — even more so considering it’s going to be leftist channels challenging the hegemony so to speak of big tech and the unfortunate emergence of privatized speech.
That’s not to say Nazi’s, white supremacists, and other far-right chuds whose idea of freedom is their ability to suppress others shouldn’t be deplatformed because they most certainly should. For the same reasons they’re confronted in the streets of our cities and communities and driven out they should be confronted on social media and prevented from trying to warp the minds of individuals and recruited into their shitty cause.
However, the decision to deplatform shouldn’t be left up to a big tech CEO when you take into account they’re doing it for all the wrong reasons.
Twitter’s decision to ban Donald Trump and YouTube’s decision to suspend The Serfs — although temporary was done on a completely arbitrary basis. I mean, did Donald Trump just all of a sudden start tweeting and posting incendiary things on Twitter last week?
No, Donald Trump has been posting that shit for a long time now. You can directly attribute Donald Trump’s xenophobia and bigotry to the violence experienced by black and brown people in this country. That’s not to say that is started with Donald Trump because the United States has always had a problem with bigotry and racism, however, it was Donald Trump’s dangerous rhetoric that again gave a sick legitimacy xenophobes and bigots to repeat his words and bring action to the streets.
Once more though, whether it’s completely arbitrary or done to protect their own bottom line, @Jack, Mark Zuckerberg, or whomever big tech CEO is at the helm of a big tech platform, they shouldn’t be making these decisions to ban individuals. It should be up to the people the bigoted rhetoric effects.
It’s also why Section 230 needs to continue to be protected so big tech isn’t given any other incentive to further privatize free speech.