I missed it at first, but I think I see what this guy is doing. He phrases everything very carefully, so that none of it sounds scary, but he’s actually calling for government to regulate speech, which is what I’ve been saying is the endgame of all this. https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1347765245406679040

I think this is going to be a big part of the strategy (as far as laying the PR foundation for government censorship is concerned). Instead of waxing ominous about the dangers of “misinformation” and “divisive content,” some will pretend to be concerned about free speech, only...

...to then subtly argue that putting government in charge of content moderation (i.e., government censorship) is the solution.

This is one reason why the “Omg, ‘Big Tech’ is threatening free speech!” narrative is so pernicious.

Aside from simply being inaccurate (Jack Dorsey has no interest in regulating public discourse), it can easily be co-opted by voices who aren’t worried about free speech at all, as a way of manipulating people who are.

They will argue (as Fareed Zakaria does in this clip) that the real problem here is a lack of “accountability,” and that putting the state in charge of deciding what qualifies as legitimate speech is the “democratic” solution.

I would strongly urge people to be wary of that argument. The issue is not that Twitter and Facebook are “unaccountable”; the issue is that censorship, in and of itself, no matter who’s doing it, is bad.

There is no “process” or set of checks and balances that make censorship a safe and effective thing to do. It’s always dangerous. Don’t let crypto-authoritarians convince you otherwise.