These are scary times to live through as a journalist or even just as an American citizen. We pride ourselves on being the land of the free and the first amendment. However, is this nation going down a dark path where freedom of speech is no longer a valued right?
Just recently, Twitter banned President Trump from using their app. They completely dismantled his account and he was silenced from talking to the people of the United States. When Trump moved on to Parler, Amazon and the App Store took the steps to shut the app down completely. One can make the argument that Twitter and Amazon are private companies so they can do what they want. However, silencing the most powerful person in the country is a dangerous precedent to set. Essentially these businessmen are telling the world that they single-handedly have the power to influence politics and public opinion on any issue. Nobody should have this much power and use it to influence politics in this nation. There is a reason checks and balances are a thing in the government. It seems like there was a checks and balances law conveniently left out for these oligarchic businesses.
The sad fact is that a lot of people consume their daily news from Social Media sites. How can anyone trust what is being said when it is a known fact that they censor opinions and viewpoints that they don't like or disagree with? They may have the advantage of controlling the political dialogue but they might be doing the country a greater disservice. People are smart enough to be weary of the information being thrown at them. Twitter and other companies have blatantly silenced the voices of so many people, censoring half the country. Citizens living in a free country hate nothing more than being silenced and fill fight to have their voices heard. What will happen when eventually, nobody trusts the mainstream media at all?
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