I've been thinking of potential measures that corporate-controlled authoritarian governments could use against any kind of left-wing information or organizing, and it seems like an obvious one is a sudden, widespread crackdown on left-wing content. In practice, social media companies would collude with the government to:
- Wipe out all left-wing social media profiles and ban left-wing rhetoric under the justification that it is "terrorism-related content".
- Block access to thousands of left-wing sites at once and de-list them from search engines
- Update content moderation algorithms to prevent more of this content from being published or recommended
- Do all of these on the same day to cause the most disorientation and fear
- Continually go after the hosts of the niche left-wing news and communication channels that still remain, such as small websites, fediverse instances, and encrypted communication channels. Throw their operators in prison and make examples out of them
In effect, due to the centralized nature of social media and news, the online left could instantly be scattered through the collusion of just a few large corporations.
It would:
- Galvanize the populist right-wing base
- Stoke feelings of fear, isolation, and hopelessness among the opposition, deterring action
- Weaken the left's ability to organize
- Make it harder for people to learn about real left-wing ideas and stances
Why wouldn't they take that opportunity?
The bulk of online left-wing activity could instantly be wiped out in a single day. Why am I not hearing more people talking about that? Why do so many left-leaning people think sites like BlueSky will save them? Do they really think they are resisting by using centralized social media platforms? The corporatocracy has complete control over all of the infrastructure...
In my opinion, every influencer on the left should be screaming from the rooftops every single day that the most productive thing you can be doing is talking to people, building connections, and organizing in the real world, because our platform on the Internet could vanish instantaneously.
Anyway, I hope I'm wrong, but it feels like something that could easily happen. What are your thoughts?
Most democratic countries have "rule of law" (its getting eroded in the US, but still...), and people have the expectation of the government not censoring things. Besides, VPN and Tor can bypass restrictions, so its a futile attempt with a huge backlash, and if VPN and Tor are banned too, I'm pretty sure there are people, both left of center and right of center are not gonna be happy about that. Magats might not care about "leftist" sites being banned, but they'll start worrying if they are next, and once you do a VPN and Tor ban too, oh I'm sure they'll be throwing a fit like those anti-mask protests, this time with with both left and right wing people in unity. Yea, maybe its not a good idea to get people united across the spectrum.
Like, many democratic countries (particularly, western democratic countries) can't even get people to wear masks, or vaccinate, or even just stay at home, even when its a reasonable thing to do. Internet censorship is gonna cause riots, this time, with not just right-wing nut jobs, but people across the political spectrum.
I could definitely see them screwing it up and censoring too much. Like for example, if criticizing corporations or corporate greed was censored, I think there could be right-wing backlash too. Complaining about getting ripped off or screwed over is just a part of life, regardless of whether or not people ask deeper questions about the system.
My entire immediate family is far-right, which, aside from being terrifying, allows me to get an idea of how some of these people think. It turns out, they DO have some anti-corporate sentiment, but only for those who fall outside of the perceived right-wing populist umbrella. Apparently, only those billionaires are the evil greedy ones and theirs are the good ones. Nonetheless, that could be a potential hazard for corporations who find themselves on the wrong side of popular support, where they are no longer protected by an anti-establishment perception.