If Google, Apple or Meta feel like what you're saying is not in their interest for the public to hear it, you just... can't say it. Apple can remotely disable your iPhone. Google can remove you from search results. Meta can nuke your social media presence from orbit.
This is by no means an endorsement of the guy because he's a complete piece of shit, but the one thing Alex Jones got right during his temper tantrum when he got deplatformed is that getting deplatformed is not a thing that only happens to people you don't like; theoretically, and in fact quite regularly, large multinationals can simply decide that someone should cease to exist in the public sphere, and they can legally disappear people more effectively than the CIA. Today it's anti vax loonies and racist conspiracy theorists, tomorrow it's folks reporting on Apple's Foxconn factories in China or Meta's content moderation staff or Google's spying on people's private communications.
We live in a world where we've created the marketplace of ideas, which necessarily means that those who hold the marketplace have to give everyone a stall, almost regardless of how vile their ideas are. Not doing so is a great way for large corporations to silence their critics on a scale never before imagined. I'm not exaggerating when I say these three companies can erase you from existence. Losing your Google account, Apple ID, and Meta accounts all at once would be an excellent way to prevent a corporate dissident from accessing the info they need to keep these companies accountable. It's terrifying, and it's also a mundane kind of terrifying that requires what might seem like overly aggressive government regulation, but I really don't see another way forward.
And before someone comes in and says something to the effect of "well, isn't all of the above still true if you replace Google, Apple and Meta with $COUNTRY?" and of course the answer is yes, but at the very very least, countries are theoretically accountable to their citizens. Corporations are effectively accountable to no one, which is certainly worse.
"De-platformed" and "cancel culture" seem to be the names given when the it's done by a left-associated corporations or governments.
"Black-listed", "not renewed for another season", "banned from VISA/PayPal etc. payment providers due to ToS violations", and "violating public decency" seem to be the names for the same actions when taken by right-associated corporations or governments.
(${team}-associated because this is about perceptions rather than any actual political preference).
> in fact quite regularly, large multinationals can simply decide that someone should cease to exist in the public sphere, and they can legally disappear people more effectively than the CIA
This also happens jointly, I think. E.g. Russell Brand after sexual assault allegations came out was demonetised on YouTube following a letter from the House of Commons media committee to YouTube. I can't be bothered to find an exact article, but Rumble got the same letter, but didn't comply, in this BBC article[0].
The answer here is not necessarily for the govts to force big $$ platforms to act like neutral carriers, but for govt to enact and encourage policies to stop/slow the centralization and monopolization of information and entertainment around centralized $$ platforms, and to prevent such behemoths from sucking all the air out of the room in the first place.
(Which, frankly, includes not using said platforms for their own communications. Not sure why Twitter is treated like a generic newswire and announcement system by schools, community groups, governments, etc ... after everything that's happened.)
That's the vision we had of the Internet in the 90s: decentralized, publish your own content and link-out to other's. Not sure why we let that get derailed into the closed boxes we have today.
Asshats like Alex Jones or Russel Brand wouldn't even be a concern and we wouldn't be talking about "deplatforming" as a thing really if the "platform" hadn't grown so unreasonably big and powerful in the first place. The Age Of Narcissism is entirely our own fault.
If you build a huge giant megaphone and leave it lying in the middle of the playground, inevitably some jerk is going to "misuse" it.
If Google, Apple or Meta feel like what you're saying is not in their interest for the public to hear it, you just... can't say it. Apple can remotely disable your iPhone. Google can remove you from search results. Meta can nuke your social media presence from orbit.
This is by no means an endorsement of the guy because he's a complete piece of shit, but the one thing Alex Jones got right during his temper tantrum when he got deplatformed is that getting deplatformed is not a thing that only happens to people you don't like; theoretically, and in fact quite regularly, large multinationals can simply decide that someone should cease to exist in the public sphere, and they can legally disappear people more effectively than the CIA. Today it's anti vax loonies and racist conspiracy theorists, tomorrow it's folks reporting on Apple's Foxconn factories in China or Meta's content moderation staff or Google's spying on people's private communications.
We live in a world where we've created the marketplace of ideas, which necessarily means that those who hold the marketplace have to give everyone a stall, almost regardless of how vile their ideas are. Not doing so is a great way for large corporations to silence their critics on a scale never before imagined. I'm not exaggerating when I say these three companies can erase you from existence. Losing your Google account, Apple ID, and Meta accounts all at once would be an excellent way to prevent a corporate dissident from accessing the info they need to keep these companies accountable. It's terrifying, and it's also a mundane kind of terrifying that requires what might seem like overly aggressive government regulation, but I really don't see another way forward.
And before someone comes in and says something to the effect of "well, isn't all of the above still true if you replace Google, Apple and Meta with $COUNTRY?" and of course the answer is yes, but at the very very least, countries are theoretically accountable to their citizens. Corporations are effectively accountable to no one, which is certainly worse.