The rhetoric and legal instruments used by activists and politicians in the United States have been borrowed by illiberal authorities.
Nigerians enraged by their government’s recent ban on Twitter Inc. have justifiably targeted President Muhammadu Buhari: the crackdown was sparked by Twitter’s decision to remove his post tacitly warning separatists that they may face the same terrible end as previous Biafran insurgents.
However, the Nigerian ban should serve as a wake-up call to US politicians and campaigners. Their efforts to rein in US-based social media behemoths like Twitter and Facebook Inc. risk limiting democratic freedoms across the world.
Across the political spectrum in the United States, there is growing hostility for the major platforms.
Democrats accuse them of enabling disinformation to grow, while Republicans accuse them of supposedly suppressing right-wing views. Both believe that they should be trimmed down to size: According to the Democratic head of the House Consumer Protection & Commerce subcommittee, “there is a bipartisan understanding that the current quo is just not working.”
The US consensus has now begun to link digital firms’ efforts to protect the integrity of their platforms through content moderation with infringements on state power by large corporate monopolies. Congress has passed severe new antitrust legislation, which is the first step toward applying antitrust rules against internet corporations.
This response is a boon to authoritarian regimes all over the world, who have been seeking for a rod to hit Twitter and Facebook with, among other things. The rhetoric and legal instruments used by activists and politicians in the United States have been borrowed by illiberal authorities.
According to Nigeria’s information minister, “Twitter’s objective in Nigeria is highly dubious; they have an agenda.”
The US consensus has now begun to link digital firms’ efforts to protect the integrity of their platforms through content moderation with infringements on state power by large corporate monopolies. Congress has passed severe new antitrust legislation, which is the first step toward applying antitrust rules against internet corporations.
This response is a boon to authoritarian regimes all over the world, who have been seeking for a rod to hit Twitter and Facebook with, among other things. The rhetoric and legal instruments used by activists and politicians in the United States have been borrowed by illiberal authorities.
According to Nigeria’s information minister, “Twitter’s objective in Nigeria is highly dubious; they have an agenda”
