In a blog post, Hungarian political scientist Tamás Lánczi shared his thoughts on Facebook and the future of digital freedom of expression.
By now more than 300 companies joined the boycott of Facebook, Adidas, Starbucks, Coca-cola and Verizon among them. The campaign’s goal is to turn Facebook into a veritable liberal safe-space, where there’s only space for far-leftist content, completely excluding reality.
This years-long process to turn social media into a bastion of oppression has more far-reaching consequences than the type of ads and posts we see on Facebook. What we see on a global level is the dismantling of representative democracy, in favor of a system where big companies are the citizens, have civil rights and write the rules. This brave new world will have no need for the state to punish those who go against the rules: this will be done through condemnation and boycott – and if these don’t work there’s looting, arson and physical aggression to turn to.
The “extortion-coalition” of big companies and civil rights organisations will likely reach its goal since Facebook is dependent on ad revenue. Up to this point all that mattered to them was increasing their revenue, no matter what sort of ad generated it. This profit-oriented approach is under attack now. If Facebook gives up and gives in to these ideological demands, it will create a scenario as though there was only one TV channel to watch: the liberal channel.
Of course China won’t let this opportunity pass by: they can’t wait for the people disillusioned with the tyranny of opinion on Facebook et al to turn to the services offered by up-and-coming Chinese companies. One example: the star application of the quarantine, Zoom, although registered in the U.S. is developed in China and owned by a Chinese individual, Mr. Eric Yuan.
Author: Lánczi Tamás