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The following is an opinion contribution and reflects the author’s views alone.
POCC affirms its stance as an apolitical organization. We call no shots between political parties, and have members with a great assortment of political affiliations, religions, gender-identities, races, and socio-economic statuses. We will not comment on the protests turned violent in DC by Trump supporters, just as we have not commented as a group on the protests turned violent by BLM supporters. That is not our mandate, nor our concern.
Instead, our calling is to act as the Socratic ‘gadfly’ to both parties, incessantly insisting that free speech rights be protected for all groups. As such we, as a group have voted to condemn efforts by Google, Apple, and now Amazon to “marginalize” and attack the free speech alternative social media app Parler. We are not alone in condemning the recent unilateral actions by these Tech giants, including social media removals, and the Parler incident. ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Kate Ruane stated on the removal of Trump’s social media accounts that this “should concern everyone.”
Not long ago there was uproar from the ACLU and Instagram CEO about the proposed ban of WeChat and TikTok. In that instance Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project said “This order violates the First Amendment rights of people in the United States by restricting their ability to communicate and conduct important transactions on the two social media platforms. “ We recognize the right of companies to use their platforms in a way they see fit, to enforce the law, and regulate content. However, there are limits to every right, and the right of one company to regulate itself should not impose upon the rights of the millions on Parler to do the same. Additionally, we would like to draw attention to the fact that Google, Apple, Twitter, and Facebook seem to selectively enforce their regulations. We can point to countless instances of regulatory hypocrisy seemingly linked to political and religious affiliations. This must not happen. If there is to be regulation, it must be equally enforced, or the right to free speech is severely endangered.
As we stated to the Heterodox Academy when we received their Outstanding Student Group Award: “An environment with increased viewpoint diversity highlights that each person is unique in their humanity. Lack of an opposing viewpoint deprives others of the potential to learn and understand nuances of various topics or experiences that they may not have. Engaging with those we disagree with requires humility, compassion and a common understanding of the inherent worth of each party and not assuming the worst out of them.”
Parler, as a social media app, is particularly formatted to allow for free expression, while also remaining within legal constraints on advocacy for violence, etc. Parler allows for “self moderation” in that you do not limit the reach of others, but you can block yourself from seeing individuals, content, or posts with keywords if you so desire. All information is kept private, and is “never sold to 3rd parties.” Additionally, Parler does regulate violent and illegal content in a fair and equitable manner “Our concise Community Guidelines are based on fair and just legal precedent, and are enforced by a Community Jury.” In their Community Guidelines, they state that “our mission is to create a social platform in the spirit of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” For that we commend them. Perhaps tech companies are afraid of the competition Parler poses to Google’s Youtube & Currents, and Amazon’s Twitch & Spark, using the Capital events as pretext for economic gain. That would be an abuse of free speech, a monopolistic attitude.
As such we condemn these actions by Google, Apple, and Amazon.
Signed,
The Princeton Open Campus Coalition
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