There has never been a better demonstration of Lord Acton’s famous dictum “”Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” than the rise to world wide business dominance of the American Tech corporations (Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft) and their dangerous extension of that wealth into political power over democratic parties, Governments and public discourse.
Apple (Products include iPhone, Apple TV, iPad, Mackintosh, iTunes, Safari etc) has an annual turnover of $274.5bn and is valued at $2 trillion. ONLY 7 COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD HAVE A HIGHER GDP THAN APPLE’S CAPITALISATION!
Apple, like the other US big tech firms, dominates countries, parks profits in tax havens and dictates terms to countries and to its suppliers. It recently exploited its power by forcing its suppliers to:
- accept 60 day payment terms up from 45 days
- payment only if their goods sold – not received by Apple (ie they carry cost of Apple’s stock)
Suppliers when asked by the press said they had no choice but to accept if they wanted their businesses to continue. These terms are little more that corporate slavery.
So it came as no surprise that a free speech platform PARLER became a victim of Apple’s political power and bias when it was taken down from Apple’s App Store. This was despite the fact that the App Store carries Twitter and Facebook, both of which have been used repeatedly by Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and other groups to coordinate acts of violence and lawlessness across the United States. Rose City Antifa, a group which has repeatedly supported acts of violence and disorder in Portland, Oregon, still has an active page on Facebook with over 20,000 “likes.”
The PARLER website itself was taken down altogether by AMAZON, another multinational Tech flexing its political muscle.
In a statement the Parler CEO, John Matze rightly pointed to Apple hypocrisy:
“Anyone who buys an Apple phone is apparently a user … Apparently they believe Parler is responsible for ALL user generated content on Parler. Therefore, by the same logic, Apple must be responsible for ALL actions taken by their phones. Every car bomb, every illegal cell phone conversation, every illegal crime committed on an iPhone……Standards not applied to Twitter, Facebook, or even Apple themselves, apply to Parler,”
The extent of the incitement to far left violence by big Techs is clear from the fact that Matze and his family have had to leave their home and go into hiding.
The blatantly political nature of Apple’s attack on Parler is clear. CEO Matze said Amazon had assured them there was no problem. But then they seemed to worry Trump having been forced off Twitter, would go to Parler….. so they took them down.
AMAZON POSTAL VOTE HYPOCRISY
AMAZON took down websites, like Parler, which exposed electoral fraud, mainly associated with postal voting. But strangely enough that same Amazon won’t tolerate postal voting by its own workforce (as to whether they should unionise!) – because they know it is open to fraud. So Amazon went to court against the National Labor Relations Board to demand the vote be postponed until all workers can vote in person.
“We believe that the best approach to a valid, fair and successful election is one that is conducted manually, in-person,” an Amazon spokesperson told news outlets. “We will continue to insist on measures for a fair election, and we want everyone to vote, so our focus is ensuring that’s possible.”
So the award for political hypocrite of the years goes to? Amazon’s Jeff Bezos one of the richest men in the world.
Twitter removed President Trump from their platform but not of course the corrupt Bidens or Kamala Harris or Nancy Pelosi for encouraging far left violence last year! Equally Twitter apparently has no problems with Iranian religious extremists or Chinese Communism.
Peter Navarro the former Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy noted that:
the former Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is “allowed” to tweet and the “[Chinese] Communist Party official propaganda organs put things up [on Twitter] all the time,”
Apple also told Parler that material “intended to incite violence or other lawless acts has never been acceptable on the App Store,” but on the day Apple censored Parler “Hang Mike Pence” trended on Twitter!!
Twitter is clearly allowing its users to coordinate criminal acts on the platform, with dozens of tweets identifying looting targets still on the platform despite the fact that the site was notified by concerned citizens. “let’s riot and raid Santana Row lol,” said one tweet, which was shared over 100 times. “Next looting stop; SANTANA ROW IN SAN JOSE,” said another. A Twitter search for “Santana Row,” which is the name of a shopping district in San Jose, California, reveals dozens of Twitter users encouraging their followers to target and loot the district.
CENSORSHIP PROGRAMME ADMITTED
During the US Senate enquiry into the power of the US big Techs Senator Ted Cruz rightly asked the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey:
“Mr Dorsey – who the hell elected you?”
Who indeed? That is the point. These imperial corporate dictators are in no way constrained by voters or parliaments. They rule by self appointment, using the collective investment savings of the country to lobby, get favourable tax treatment and buy their political power.
Judit Varga, the Hungarian Minister of Justice, linked to two recordings shared by James O’Keefe and his Project Veritas organisation exposing Twitter’s censorship programme and quoting CEO Jack Dorsey:
BREAKING: @Twitter Insider Secretly Records CEO @jack Detailing Agenda For Further Political Censorship
“We are focused on one account [@realDonaldTrump] right now but this is going to be MUCH BIGGER
than just one account & it’s going to go on for much longer…”#ExposeTwitter
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) January 14, 2021
“One strategy is to shadow ban so that you have ultimate control.”
“It’s going to ban, like, a way of talking.”
“You just delete them, but the problem is there are hundreds of thousands of them, so you got to write algorithms that do it for you.” pic.twitter.com/NQBsSziI2X
Then we have the sickening self righteousness of Dorsey as he admits censorship and how unacceptable it is!
“Having to take these actions fragment [sic] the public conversation. They divide us. (in other words he loses at least half his clients) They limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning. And sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation,”
Unbelievable! But inevitable so long as our “democratic representatives” kowtow to big corporates, taking their donations, accepting their lobbying and tolerating even their obnoxious claims to political power. All we are left with is a new set of dictators as the only ones to condemn dictatorship! but with the fervent hope that “democrats” will do nothing about it.
CHINA AND RUSSIA MOCK US ANTI DEMOCRATIC TECH POWER
This scandalous hold over democratic debate by unaccountable supranational corporate monopolies has even drawn the condemnation of Russia and China (who of course have their own problems with political interference by US Techs). Certainly after the recent US banana Republic election farce and the surrender to big business, who will now accept criticism of Russia and China for their lack of democracy?
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, condemned social media bans of US President Donald Trump’s accounts as a “nuclear explosion” in the cyber sector, and a blow to the democratic values that the West claims to be attached to.
“Recently, all the major US social media platforms banned the US president’s accounts. To do this, no court decision or at least an opinion of some specialized ethics agency was needed. They just disconnected the official accounts with millions of subscribers from the audience. Even the most devoted partners of the United States who certainly have no tender sentiment to Donald Trump could not tolerate this attack on Western values,”
At the World Economic Forum in Davos Vladimir Putin said:
“Where is the line between a successful global business, in-demand services and consolidation of big data – and attempts to harshly and unilaterally govern society, replace legitimate democratic institutions, restrict one’s natural right to decide for themselves how to live, what to choose, what stance to express freely?”
And rightly asserted that “Big Tech companies in some areas have de facto become rivals to the government” . In fact they have supplanted the rule of law itself and become judge, jury and executioner.
China also mocked the USA for its complete abandonment of democracy by the big tech banning of Donald Trump: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1212386.shtml
“All the principles – democracy, freedom and human rights – are placed aside in the midst of domestic political tensions, and so is the high moral ground of the US system. This will do no good to Washington if it wants to continually call itself the “beacon of freedom”.
that Trump cannot express his opinions on social networks and lost the right that every ordinary American enjoys definitely violates the principle of freedom of speech endorsed by US political elites.”
LOWER THAN THIS THE WEST CANNOT GO!
