josiahi l Williams wrote:
To sum it up:
The Left approves of this because hurts the other team.
The Right disapproves of it because it hurts their team.
Yes, and there you are, objective, above-the-fray, and way smarter than everyone else.
People approve of this because they can see very clearly that last week was not just civil unrest. It was violent sedition and it will continue to happen this week. Armed protests will occur at every capitol. More people will die. These were necessary steps and it is the height of hypocrisy for long-time "free market" conservatives to express outrage over private businesses making decisions on their own about who to do business with and on what terms.
Look, almost nobody likes the amount of power the tech companies have over us. But that is the reality, due in no small part to conservative efforts to stifle any sort of regulation of the tech sector. Given their immense power, I am glad these tech companies have chosen to exercise a modicum of responsibility at the final hour. That doesn't change my opinion that they need a dramatic regulatory intervention and that we need to update our tax code to get at the massive amounts of wealth they are accumulating through digital advertising.
Facebook and Youtube have been two of the primary means of disseminating the most toxic Qanon BS. They are only now taking action against Trump, Qanon freaks, and Parler because they know good and well that, thanks to their complicity, an extended period of far-right terrorism is essentially inevitable at this point and they don't want to be held directly responsible for it. It is their right to do that and it will be our responsibility to strip their power from them after the coming period of Trumper terrorism has been put down.