The backlash from recent social media developments is very concerning. Elon Musk has managed to mismanage his way into a no-win First Amendment fight. Bulling his way in with a shouted vow to protect the freedom of speech he offered Twitter to Trump. Then he realized that “Ye” (O come all ye faithful) couldn’t be controlled without anti-Semitism rants so he took “Ye” down (O ye of little faith). Having fired all the key execs and most of the software engineers he is now at a loss to bale water from a sinking ship. Many advertisers have grabbed a life raft and sailed away. Now he’s $44 billion in an unfamiliar hole and looking for salvation. It won’t come; this will be an open wound for quite a while.
Next we see that TIKTOK is being investigated because the Chinese owner of TIKTOK may be gathering information on its users for some clandestine purpose. (Maybe now that the Chinese know Aunt Mary likes nuts they’ll send her a bag.) We know that India banned TIKTOK for a time for the very same reason.
Our point is: social media platforms are dangerous. All kidding aside–many people believe everything they read so misinformation, reputation-smearing comments, election lies, bomb building info, terrorist organization communications, etc. are dynamite in the wrong hands. And–as we see in the daily news–there are way too many wrong hands. The bad news is there is NO technically effective way to censor inappropriate posts. We said it before “the pen is mightier than the sword” and social media arms EVERY HUMAN BEING ON THE PLANET WITH A HUGE SWORD. Beware!!!!
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