Twitter’s New Rules Worse Than Their Old Rules

A Twitter app icon on a cell phone in a file photo. (Matt Rourke/AP Photo)

Commentary

The GOP has only itself to blame. Andrew Breitbart warned us years ago, “Politics is downstream of culture.”

Few listened—or did anything about it anyway.

The result: Twitter, Facebook, Google, Netflix, YouTube, and on and on, now rule the world.

Everyone, or almost everyone, crumbles before them, from your kindergarten teacher to major U.S. corporations scared of being accused of racism, sexism, or whatever new “-ism” pops out of the mouth of Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii).

You have to survive, after all.

“Better ‘woke’ than broke” has become today’s version of “Better red than dead.” Indeed, they are much the same thing.

We live in the world according to Twitter, Facebook, and Google. A deceased Brit gave us the name for it. Welcome, as Tucker Carlson noted the other night, to the Ministry of Truth.

So when Twitter announces—via Vijaya Gadde, its “Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead”—their two new principles in the wake of the Hunter/Joe Biden email censorship scandal, caveat emptor.

The first, about hacked content, is so much eyewash. The second is extremely dangerous and, yes, Orwellian:

“2. We will label Tweets to provide context instead of blocking links from being shared on Twitter.”

I see. They will “provide context.”

This is actually more sinister than their previous approach—censorship. At least that was obvious.

This is, in essence, thought control.

You, the great unwashed, aren’t capable of analyzing for yourself. You need guidance—the same guidance they provided when publishing ad infinitum obvious disinformation about non-existent Trump–Russia collusion or propaganda from Javad Zarif, foreign minister of a country whose citizens aren’t allowed access to the internet but just happens to have 1.5 million Twitter followers.

I wrote “publishing” above because that’s what Twitter does, despite their denials and insistence that they only link to other publishers, supposedly giving them a firewall against lawsuits.

This appears all the more ludicrous given their new rule No. 2, which indicates that not only are they curating, they are editorializing (i.e., publishing ... Congress take note).

So, in the words of V.I. Lenin, what is to be done?

1. Support Congressional attempts by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and others to change Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides a liability shield for Twitter, Facebook, et al.
2. Honor the memory of the extraordinary Andrew Breitbart and start building institutions of our own in the arts (such as conservative/libertarian film and television companies), technology, and education. Spend real money on them. Stop wasting money on traditional but actually useless causes. (As Mark Steyn noted today, $1 billion was blown on the candidacy of Mitt Romney.)
3. Join Parler.
4. #Twexit ... I’m planning on doing so the day after the election. Stop feeding the monster, and he will go away. Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds was smart enough to do this more than a year ago. Follow his lead.
5. Counter the “poetic truth” (Shelby Steele’s words) being promulgated by the media by telling the real truth, personally, any way you can. You don’t have to own a website to do it. Everybody has a role. Be a “super spreader”... of the truth.
6. Keep reading and subscribing to (i.e., supporting) The Epoch Times and similar outlets.
7. Avoid Google and use DuckDuckGo.
8. Pay close attention to what’s happening in your children’s schools, all the way through doctoral programs. Participate actively in changing them. (This is of paramount importance in the long term.)
9. “Don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.” (OK, kidding on that one.)

There’s undoubtedly more you can think of. Please feel free to add them in the comments.

Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, co-founder of PJMedia, and now, a columnist for The Epoch Times. His most recent books are “The GOAT” (fiction) and “I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already” (non-fiction). He’s on Parler and Twitter (for now) @rogerlsimon.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.