This week, Kara Frederick of the conservative Heritage Foundation released a report titled "Combating Big Tech's Totalitarianism." As evidenced by the title, Frederick takes a dim view of the current state of the tech sector, mentioning companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google, and makes suggestions for reforms she feels are necessary. But while some of the suggestions are understandable, even laudable, much of the report comes at the issue from the wrong angle.
Frederick starts by detailing certain censorial actions by "Big Tech" firms, which she defines as the "Big Five" of Alphabet (which owns Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (which owns Facebook), and Microsoft, plus companies like Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and Netflix, "whose cultural and political impacts on public debate are important." Indeed, some of the incidents detailed are troubling: Social media platforms blocking users from sharing a New York Post article about Hunter Biden just weeks before the 2020 election, YouTube suspending videos of politicians for simply discussing public health topics, etc. Obviously, none of these are First Amendment violations, as private companies can allow or disallow any speech they please, but these actions do detract from a culture of free speech.
