Censorship Poses a Much Greater Threat to America than Misinformation
It is time to consider what the consequences are when we ban ideas and individuals from areas of public discourse.
Misinformation. It is now a word we hear every day. According to some, it represents the greatest threat to our democracy. Although, what’s interesting to me is the fact that 10 years ago the word was not used by anyone on any side of any argument. It rose to prominence during Trump’s presidential term and if we take a look at Google Trends, interest in the term “misinformation” exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic. Labeling things as misinformation is a risky game, and so-called “fact checkers” have decided that they get to choose what is allowed to exist online and what information they want to censor.
So what is misinformation? Google defines it as ‘false information deliberately intended to mislead.’ Seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? However, in practical terms, misinformation is usually just something that someone disagrees with. Both sides are constantly accusing each other of telling lies and spreading misinformation. They have always done this, they will continue to do this, but the right of free expression is well protected from interference by the government. Generally speaking, private businesses have been allowed to set in place different rules. For example, religious schools often require professors to be of that religion and live out the values it professes.
Social media sites and tech giants are a different beast since they now preside over the platforms where most interactions between people are happening. During the pandemic, their fact-checkers have assumed the role of gatekeepers, standing watch over a vast ecosystem full of ideas and constantly evolving storylines. This is not what their role should be, and there have already been consequences from it. Steven Mosher’s article from February 2022 was banned from Facebook for violating its misinformation policy. What did the banned article discuss? He argued that Covid-19 did not originate in bats, but was a man-made disease created in a lab. This is now accepted as the most likely theory for how the pandemic began. For his hard work and reasoned argument which turned out to be true, he was suppressed and his theory labeled dangerous.
There are other examples of people being banned for misinformation regarding a variety of subjects. The New York Post had multiple articles restricted by Facebook and Twitter regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop. They claimed the story was completely false and that the laptop never belonged to Hunter. It then came to light that the laptop was his, and the documents on it exposed his family’s ties in China and Ukraine while pictures showed him smoking crack.
Knowing this, it is frightening to see that social media giants still have misinformation policies that will result in the permanent suspension of users. How many people have been banned for giving an opinion or presenting evidence that is not false, but threatens the narrative put forth by the mainstream media? We will likely never have a statistic to help us measure the impact of misinformation policies, but it is clear that it has had a wide-reaching effect so far. How many newsworthy stories have been swept under the rug or suppressed by an emotionally-unhinged fact-checker at Facebook?
This is especially relevant to the situation in Ukraine. There are already plenty of examples of both sides using propaganda on social media and by the talking heads of CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. The story of the Ghost of Kyiv, a Ukrainian fighter pilot who shot down several Russian planes was repeated on several news channels after it was debunked. We were told that all of the soldiers on Snake Island who responded to a Russian Warship with “go f*** yourselves” were killed by strikes on the Island. It has since been revealed that they are alive and ultimately surrendered to the Russians. One only has to spend moments scrolling Twitter to spot the hoards of Russian bots making outrageous claims that justify the violence occurring.
People should be allowed to think for themselves. A free marketplace of ideas cannot and will not occur until we allow people to express their ideas without the fear of being banned from public spaces or canceled. The point of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is not to be regulators of information. The point of these platforms is to give people a new way to communicate and share stories and ideas. It is up to individuals to vet the information they receive and decide what is the truth, and what is misinformation. Not private institutions that only care about profits and collecting data on their users. They are not concerned with the truth, and they should not be. It leads to lazy people who are not able to think critically since everything they believe is a pre-decided narrative selected by media execs, and any points that might challenge their perspective are not allowed to exist. Even untrue stories can force us to reflect on our beliefs in ways not possible when information is controlled.
Fight against censorship. Even if you don’t like the person being censored, or think that the internet would be better off without them, fight against censorship. Once they can decide what is acceptable to believe, it can be used against you, too. Stand for the principles that this country was founded on. Learn how to vet information for yourself instead of asking others to do it for you. It will make you a more critical thinker and allow you to have deeper and more thoughtful conversations with everyone.