Big Tech Aggressively Undermining Freedom

In his 1835 treatise "Democracy In America," French historian Alexis de Tocqueville observed that tyranny in democratic republics manifests itself differently from tyranny in monarchies. But tyranny in the free world exists nonetheless, and it takes on a specific character---one not altogether unfamiliar to what Christians and conservatives are beginning to experience today.

That is why Paul warned Christians, "Be not conformed to this world."

Be informed, not misled.

Big tech companies are doing the bidding of the U.S. government in actions that mirror China’s social credit system, and Americans must recognize what’s happening and take action according to Kara Frederick, a former Facebook intel analyst and a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Kara has written an in-depth, revealing report that shows "Too many gatekeepers of information for the American public---elite media, academia, government institutions, and various organs of the culture---are captured by leftist ideology." As this past year has shown," she writes, "Big Tech companies are not afraid to exercise their power in the service of this ideology."

Her report is titled, "Combating Big Tech's Totalitarianism: A Road Map." 

And she says, "Given their positions as global oligopolies, the ability of Big Tech companies to manipulate the flow of information renders their actions transformative."

Continuing, she writes: "Every American should be concerned about Big Tech's willingness to shut off direct access to digital information, their demonstrated pattern of information manipulation, and their impact on America's culture of free speech."  

How "conforming to the world" works.

"Big tech companies are doing the bidding of the U.S. government in actions that mirror China’s social credit system," Frederick says, and "Americans must recognize what’s happening and take action."

The Heritage report gives a detailed, sourced account of how social media and other organs of public information are working to change the minds and thinking of Americans---none-the-least, our children.

I'll get to our children in a moment.

Big Tech has a monopoly on the dissemination of information.

For example tech corporations actively insert themselves between "the user and content" in their increasingly ideological ways.

Frederick gives these examples with multiple sources:

• An October 2021 poll by research firm McLaughlin and Associates found that 52 percent of Americans believe Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites’ censorship of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden story constituted interference in the election.
• A November 2020 study by the Media Research Center (MRC) found that one in six Biden voters claimed they would have changed their vote had they been aware of information such as the Hunter Biden laptop story that was actively suppressed by tech companies.
• More than 17 platforms muzzled the then-sitting President of the United States within two weeks in January 2021. At the same time, three tech companies acted in concert (within approximately 48 hours of each other) to eliminate a conservative-friendly competitor as it sat atop the Apple store.
• In July 2021, a consortium of companies and organizations revealed plans to expand an industry-wide terrorism database to include “right-wing” content.

Using a dataset of prominent, politically active users suspended from Twitter since its inception, a Columbia University researcher discovered in 2019 that Twitter suspended users in the "conservative" category at a ratio of 21-1 compared to liberals or progressives. 

• YouTube now censors content that contradicts left-wing orthodoxy.
• Facebook suppresses access to information critical of Democrat politicians.
• Christian commentators, preachers, and even mothers are penalized for posting "misinformation."

She gives a detailed rundown on each category of censorship.

Targeting children and its abusive effect. 

This is from her report:

 In addition to their political impacts, Big Tech’s practices result in measurable, deleterious effects on young citizens. As companies compete for younger and younger portions of the market, the “race to the bottom” is in full swing.

Newer companies are vying for footholds as others hemorrhage users in this demographic. For instance, Wall Street Journal reporting on Facebook’s internal research suggests that in the United States, the number of teens who use Facebook every day has fallen by 19 percent in the past two years and is projected to fall an additional 45 percent by 2023.

In a similar period, Facebook set a multi-year goal to create products specifically for preteens, considering them a “valuable but untapped audience. 

Later, in March 2021, Facebook revealed that it intended to create an Instagram for children younger than 13 years old.

YouTube Kids invoked children as young as three years old in its rollout in 2015.

 Up-and-comers like TikTok, which is owned by a Beijing-based parent company, are deliberately courting younger markets. According to Statista, 37.3 million out of 78.7 million total TikTok users in the United States in 2021 belonged to Generation Z (those born after 1997) and were skewing younger.

Further research indicates that as of early 2021, 25 percent of TikTok users in America were teenagers or younger.

 A July 2020 Pew Research Center survey found that among children from nine to 11 years old, 30 percent of their parents claim that their child uses TikTok, 22 percent of parents estimate that their children use Snapchat, 11 percent say that their children use Instagram, and 6 percent assess that their children are on Facebook.

This is significant because of the toxic effects of these platforms on American youth. According to Facebook’s own research from 2019 to 2020, 32 percent of teenage girls said that “when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.” Six percent of teen Instagram users who reported suicidal thoughts traced their emergence directly to Instagram, and one in three teen girls said that Instagram made their body image issues worse.

This report is the best and most current report I've seen on the subject. I encourage you to look at it and inform yourself of all the content and the sources.

Conclusion.

Alexis de Tocqueville observed presciently in his 1835 treatise Democracy in America that "tyranny in democratic republics manifests differently from tyranny in monarchies. But tyranny in the free world exists nonetheless, and it takes on a specific character—one not altogether unfamiliar to what conservatives are beginning to experience today. Despotism in the United States,"  he wrote. 

It ignores the body and goes straight for the soul. The master no longer says: You will think as I do or die. He says: You are free not to think as I do…. You will retain your civic privileges, but they will be of no use to you…. You will remain among men, but you will forfeit your rights to humanity…. Go in peace, I will not take your life, but the life I leave you with is worse than death. 

Frederick says, "To avoid this fate, conservatives should act now—to fight, to build, and to restore the principles of free expression and the democratic promise of technology."

I couldn't agree more.

However, the looming cultural impact by the imposition of this social credit system---designed to re-educate, that is being thrust on our culture must also be recognized as a direct attack on our freedom of religion---our freedom to live out our faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul wrote to the Roman Christians---and to you and me; Romans 12:2: 

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Be Informed. Be Discerning Be Faithful. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.