A Quandary

 This question may be better suited to a scholarly paper than a blog post, but here goes.

Big Tech is banning President Trump on Twitter and other platforms because they don't like his message. He tends to violate "community standards" that they have laid out, and that require a degree in corporate law to understand.  Some say that these policies violate free speech that is regarded as absolutely essential toa free society.

I get it.  Free speech is molecularity tied to the American experience.  So are property rights, and that is where the tension is based.  Jack Dorsey is the big boss in a company called Twitter.  Many Americans (but not me) have an account on Twitter.  Likewise Facebook, although I do have an account on Facebook.  It lets me keep up with the kids and grandkids, and my friends in the Fast Draw community.  Yet, I know folks who have been suspended on Facebook (Facebook jail) because they violated some obscure standard in weird communication.

At one point before the Army, I worked for an outfit called the Bell System.  A huge corporation that controlled the telecommunications industry.  They heartily resisted intrusions on their business model, yet over time, they were broken up by the federal government because their business model was both crucially essential to the national defense, and also an absolute monopoly.  In the '50s and '60s, if you worked in the telephone industry, you worded for the Bell System, or one of it's subsidiaries.  They owned the telephone poles and the wires and the phone in your kitchen.

Now, here in early 2021, we learn that Twitter can control the communication of everyone, including the President of the United States.  If you are going to use their platform, you have to play by their rules.  And, those rules change from week to week.  And, what most people don't realize is that even if you have a Twitter, or Facebook, or Instagram account, you are not a customer.  Customers pay for a service.  These accounts are free.

Twitter gives away a lot of free accounts, yet we learn from Google that Twitter had 2019 revenues in excess of $3 billion.  Whomever is writing those checks is the customer.  Those with free accounts are the product being sold.

Did Twitter do the right thing in banning President Trump?  It's his business.  Is Apple within it's right to ban the startup platform Parler from it's app store?  It's their app store.  At what point do property rights become subservient to free speech?  It's a quandary.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go out to the shop ad set up the range to celebrate another American liberty.  The club is meeting this morning and they will expect coffee.