The industrialization of the information age and the cauterization of procedural complexities illustrates that on a certain level, the tycoon-powered robust monopolistic entities of big tech, can actually alter the laws of physics by shear billion dollar brute force. As multitudes of smaller firms are forced to conglomerate or perish, the third law of Thermodynamics dictating the reality that energy and heat dissipate over time in a closed system as chaos increases, the fast shrinking ledger of mom and pop business in the shadow of the ultra-efficient and popular tidal wave of the Amazon’s, Google’s and F***book’s of the universe, is actually an indication that at least from a commerce perspective, order is growing. Congress has now stepped into the battle for the survival of independent media companies in throwing a possible lifeline to the 20th century premise of an industry staring death down a twin barrel of a digital laser rail gun, conveniently available on Jeff Bezos’s decadently extensive empire possessing the subtlety of a volcanized rogue planet.
At the pinnacle of the informational pyramid, the mainstream media has long embraced the role as the preeminent custodian directing the flow of data through a series of dynamic nodes in brining news to the population. To a lesser extent, at least in a geographic sense, local journalistic outlets, shared in the critical duties of informing the regional populace, however the lesser constraints due to a lack in the steady inventory of breaking news, or front page deserving incidents pushed community-oriented fluff pieces, such as a community bake sale to the foreground of the news hierarchy. With the unmatched distribution capabilities and 24-7 engagement to users, the innovation and strong armed tactics of Google, F***book, and Twitter, simply made local print and radio almost instantly obsolete, and television severely limited through unprecedented practices that social justice mercenaries and anti-capitalists qualify as “unfair”. The simplicity, power, and compelling nature of social media posts first and foremost universally satisfying the human condition of instant gratification, almost instantaneously altered the news cycle and easily replaced the importance and intrigue of day beginning with the paper with breakfast, and culminated by the nightly news television broadcast.
Once again, the infamously repugnant Facebook News, is at the center of a scandal.
The bold campaign by the House panel to grant comprehensive leniency to select media outlets in opening a sanctimonious four-year window and twisting anti-trust measures to an unrecognizable Warhol like study capturing the antithesis to the free market is as recklessly supercilious as the grandfathered Wall Street firms crying wolf, after newbie investors orchestrated the Gamestop run on a second tier social network. Concern over the influence and boundless resources of Google and F***book is a genuine issue for government for public watchdogs, especially when debating the Big Brother presence and heavily one-sided political ideology that emanates throughout tech culture, and is responsible for deliberate and onerous “Terms and Conditions” that equates to the banishment of Conservative content. However, both corporations, as well as the entire roster of offending digital communities are publicly traded private companies, and the First Amendment does not need to apply, making an already heated and divisive series of issues slathered in a ghost kitchen grease layer of munificent complexities.
Regardless of the content provider, the social media bots and algorithms disingenuously labeled as moderation infrastructure, are nefariously programmed to limit or ban information that does not support the leftist agenda perpetuated by the collected billionaire tycoons of internet fame and fortune. What throws gasoline on the self-driving vehicle conundrum of a fire, is that quite a few of the media businesses in support of the bill are Left leaning, and the savage act of vast online ventures consuming revenue is in actuality, a brutal example of cannibalism.
Disallowing the organic Natural Selection properties of the business world to succumb to the whim of the consumer, and invasively inducing artificial life-extending measures to entities that have clearly reached an evolutionary cul-de-sac is clearly out of bounds, and will ultimately lead to more harm than good, as the optics at the Capitol are clearly skewed by “old friend relationships” and the resounding echoes of campaign contributions.
Lost in the haze and ambiguity of unleashing leaders of the foundational news industries in a comical tirade of Armani suit clad power brokers charging the daunting wall of Mark Zuckerberg’s empire, next to the brusque rolled-up sleeves living meme of a small town news director, are the talented members of the longform era who stand to lose the most, when Silicon Valley retaliates with mass banishments to virtual reality Chinese prison camps. Respectable and informative publications such as the Wall Street Journal, which still at least attempts to strive to be objective in a world where the moderate and reasonable are sacrificial lambs to the inquisition of extremism, faces the double edged sword of perpetual ingenuity, and society quickly losing the affinity and ability to consume an article that more than 280 characters, with the unsettling mean at merely 33. Ironically, the news organizations supporting the legislation, rely on the existence of Social media to maintain their bottom lines, and though the relationship is not by any means symbiotic, the majority of print consortiums have been rescued from the shadow of their own obscurity by the vapid, yet eloquent, and overperforming savviness of the smartphone.
The flailing experiment of attempting the force the hand of social media to play fair finally reached a stunning fruition, as the Australian government passed groundbreaking legislation in February targeting Google, and social networks. The “News Media Bargaining Code” requires that big tech content providers negotiate with preferred news businesses, and furnish algorithm insights to trending news feeds. F***book immediately fired back at the bill, and blocked its news service to all account holders in Australia. The ingrained and adverse reaction not only blacked out news providers, but government and emergency agencies, in creating logistical nightmares. While Zuckerberg’s shocking backlash to the new restrictions was not entirely wrong in the premise to keep federal powers in their place, the capacity of the corporation to impose all facets of life with the click of a button is sobering. Pravda was not built in one day.
As horrible as the tech leadership performs in unveiling a blueprint representing the future pecking order of substantiation, elected officials equally lack an affinity towards properly comprehending the basis of Capitalism crashing violently against objectivity. The resulting mess only tests the will of the people and the limited resources of a court system tainted by preferential rhetoric, set by foisted propaganda. While Australia has validated the the founding tenets of a nanny state, the US cannot make the same mistake twice.
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