The Attempted Monopoly of the Internet by the Five Major Tech Companies
The purge is happening and no it’s not like the movies. This is a purge of ideas and a purge of platforms. Even a blind person can see that the five major tech companies are being run by left-leaning personalities, and I think that they are attempting to monopolize the internet.
This has not been more apparent than in the case of the social media app, Parler. When the censoring of conservative voices on social media started some years ago, many sought refuge at alternative media sources. Parler, for a long time, was a conservative echo chamber. As more mainstream conservatives began to join many leftists followed them to Parler, solely for the purpose to argue.
Then January 6th happened, and it gave Big Tech all the reason they needed to de-platform mainstream conservatives and boy did they de-platform the big one, Donald Trump. They did what the left had been begging for years for.
With the banning of Trump from many social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, we saw many from the right leave those platforms permanently. The ones that stayed saw a massive drop in their subscribers. This was either from them getting banned or from people voluntarily leaving.
Parler was the main home for many of these conservatives. The social media site had a major surge in users during the latter half of 2020, but it saw massive success following the ban of President Trump. It was number one on both the Google Play Store and the App Store.
Now, I can’t really imagine Twitter and Facebook being happy about this, Now, not only is there a home for Trump to be able to connect with the American people, but also Parler is looking like a real threat to them because it’s no longer just an alt-right echo chamber. It’s not far fetched to imagine that Zuckerberg and Dorsey might have connections with people of influence at companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon either.
Promptly after the banning of the President and the surge of users on Parler, Google pulled the app from the Play Store, and then Apple followed suit shortly after. Then Amazon, which hosted Parler’s web service, suspended their contract as well. All three of the companies cited moderation issues for their primary reason for giving Parler the ax.
The full-scale destruction of the social media site seems mutually beneficial for all five of the companies, either for ideological reasons or for eliminating the competition. The site is still down and Parler CEO, John Matze, said he doesn’t know it will ever return. Regardless of the reasoning, this is a blatant attempt at monopolizing the internet, and a coordinated attack on one of the largest alternative social media sites. Actions like this have to be held accountable, but will they? I have my doubts.