Internet Bill of Rights

Milo Yiannopolus, Roger Stone, Paul Nehlen, Jared Taylor, Baked Alaska, Ricky Vaughn, and thousands of supposed “Russian bots” are just a few of those Twitter has permanently banned, seemingly for expressing unpopular political viewpoints.  Wikipedia chronicles the various prominent accounts Twitter has banned and suspended.  Nearly all belong to right wingers.  Internet viewpoint discrimination goes beyond Twitter. YouTube (Google) routinely deletes accounts and videos of right wingers, particularly in the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting.  The problem of Internet censorship is also not isolated to social media.  Most notably, after featuring a joke about the woman who died at the Charlottesville protests, Andrew Anglin’s popular site The Daily Stormer has had to jump from host to host, prompting concerns among civil libertarians.  Once a last refuge for free speech, the Internet has become increasingly less so.  Perhaps we have reached the breaking point.  Is it time to adopt an Internet Bill of Rights to protect our God-given right of free speech on the web?

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On Charlottesville

A statue honoring Confederate soldiers in Charlottesville, Virginia

After the events in Charlottesville this past month, I had to clear my thoughts.  Discourse had, once again, reached a level of absurdity.  Media of all stripes used the act of one misguided person to vilify the entirety of a group.  It used this act as cover to endorse silencing speakers of unpopular points of view.  It portrayed violent agitators as saints while stripping away the humanity of those who opposed.  The President faced heavy criticism, even from members of his own party, for not fully embracing the media’s moral absolutist narrative.  Lynch mobs were out for blood.  Many inflicted their fury on relics of the past.  Personally, I had much to say, but I needed the inspiration to put it all together.  I visited the resting place for some of those who had become so controversial in recent months; those whose legacy lay at the foundation of the ideological battle of Charlottesville.