Tuesday, August 06, 2019

BLOGGER, YouTube and the Second Amendment


The Internet is not as free today as it was last week.
Why?

Major Internet websites have decided to bowlderize their content by dissuading Second Amendment websites from publishing on their internet access mechanisms.

YouTube is tightening its restrictions for content about guns and now forbids videos about the selling and making of firearms, ammunition and accessories.The Google-owned video sharing site recently banned videos about how to convert firearms to make them fire more quickly, such as bump stocks. The Justice Department recently took action to ban the devices that speed up the pace of gunfire and allow semi-automatic guns to fire at a rate that mimics a fully automatic firearm. 

I DON'T KNOW how you feel about this, but as far as I'm concerned this is the equivalent of denying individuals the right to exercise their first amendment rights on the most popular means of public expression on the internet.

It's not just about the second amendment, although that's the way it reads on the surface.

Instead, it's "This is MY Website and *_I_* get to decide what I allow you to say here!"

Oh, well, we can't argue with that.  Although, one would think that the most visible website in the WORLD would make an effort to remain neutral about the content it hosts.

Unfortunately, the consequence of this corporate decision is to equate the Constitutional rights of Americans (2nd amendment, remember that?)  as the equivalent of hard pornography.

So the "most visible" website in the world has now assumed the position of the "most powerful".

I'm pretty sure there's a "back story" to this decision, and I would love to learn what it is.
I'm equally certain that you and I will never learn about the discussions which lead to this corporate decision.