Josh's Book

[Jolly]

Why You Need to Read Josh Hawley’s The Tyranny of Big Tech - Jessie Baumgartner

After the corporate media firestorm following the events at Capitol Hill on January 6th, Missouri senator Josh Hawley had a wakeup call. His publisher, Simon & Schuster, dropped his book, The Tyranny of Big Tech. They blamed him for taking part in a “disturbing, deadly insurrection,” and decided to punish him accordingly.

Within days, Hawley’s book had a new publisher. Conservative house Regnery Publishing is dedicated to “building strong minds and fostering rigorous debate.” It saw value in the hefty topic which Hawley has taken on for the majority of his career: reigning in big tech monopolies.

This book is a crash course in the history of monopolies and corporate liberalism which led to the rise of big tech. From the birth of the railway industry to the current state of online censorship, Hawley offers readers the information they need to take back control of their privacy and communications.

Big Tech corporations have already paid numerous fines for violating antitrust laws across the globe. They are constantly under investigation for suppressing information and potentially did so to sway the 2020 election. Facebook and Twitter are especially noted for suppressing important information in the last Presidential election regarding Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s potentially illegal business dealings with Ukraine.

Facebook actively censored the story and Twitter went even further. It disconnected users’ ability to retweet, link, or DM the story. Only after the election, in December, did federal prosecutors confirm that Biden’s son was under investigation for the alleged crimes.

Hawley lays out factual evidence of privacy abuses by the major online corporate monopolies, some from the beginning of their creation. From day one, Google was designed to follow users’ online movements and collect data. With this came the tech boom that led to the rise of Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter. These companies used data mining, like Google, to surveillance unsuspecting individuals who created accounts. They were basically giant computers made to watch our every move, despite hosting some privacy functions for users.

Hawley writes about a whistleblower from Facebook who reported that the social media site was not only working to spy on its users but even conducted experiments on them to see if they could control individuals’ moods by manipulating what was shown on their feeds.

These experiments dated back to 2012, and concluded that Facebook did possess the ability to alter moods. The company continued to perform these kinds of experiments without the consent of those utilizing their platform.

The Tyranny of Big Tech goes on to explore concerns about social media and other tech giants’ role in making their platforms as addictive as possible. Social media itself was “enhanced” and “improved” over the years, but these tweaks in the systems have been especially designed to keep users checking their devices as often as possible to keep them engaged online for maximum periods of time. YouTube’s autoplay function, Facebook’s tagging system for photos, notifications, likes, and so on are all designed to be as addictive as possible.

A direct decline in attention spans has been measured not only in adults, but especially children. With schools moving from paper and pencils to laptops, concerns over screen time and the role big tech plays in the rise of teen depression, suicide, and sleep deprivation is highly alarming. Hawley discusses this as a concerned father who recognizes the need to limit the screen time in his household.

The main points in this book all circle around the issues of corporate monopolies -- which have intruded on individual liberties.

The problem lies in the fact that so many people cannot, or will not, challenge these companies. Officials have allowed these corporate giants to use the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against the Department of Justice to further their own agenda of elitism. Big tech and big government are highly connected and have led manipulation of individuals and information to normalize cancel culture and other political attacks on anyone who speaks up or speaks out.

Josh Hawley offers a list of actions that can be taken to break up big tech which allow our systems to serve us instead of making us bow down to them. First and foremost, how individuals and families consider tech and utilize it is at the heart of taking on big tech. Neighborhood and community efforts to re-engage people in real life activities with real life connections can also allow us to balance the tyranny wrought by big tech.

Going further, Hawley suggests revisions to the infamous Section 230 which protects these tech giants. If revised, redefining social media platforms as publishers will hold them accountable for censoring factual information and political bias. There is also suggestion to end the FTC -- which has little to no regulation and is easily corrupted -- and give oversight of anti-trust laws to the Department of Justice.

All in all, The Tyranny of Big Tech goes through the complex history of big tech and corporate liberalism -- which is highly tied to the political issues of today. It is a crucial resource in today’s fight for freedom and liberty over elitism and control.

[Doctor Phibes]

[Copper]

@jolly said in Josh's Book:

big tech and corporate liberalism

In the beginning IBM was big tech - all by themselves. And they were, without question, conservative.

Then we (EDS) were big tech services, and for a while we ruled that world. And we were definitely very conservative.

Then the hippie stereotype caught on.

Too bad.