Have you ever had the feeling that you were being cancelled by big tech like Facebook or Google but weren’t quite sure? Mostly likely you were. If you weren’t getting the views that you were used to normally getting, then your blog/vlog posts were being cancelled and controlled by the algorithms. Here are five ethical challenges (credit below).
THE FIVE CHALLENGES:
1. Globalist gatekeepers. People are being censored because they espouse or hold a differing opinion from those of the new gatekeepers. They control access to information by manipulating algorithms in order to censor views they do not agree with.
2. Accountability. Journalists are no longer holding to account the news media and big tech. Journalist and editors are powerless to the whims of the globalists who control the media.
3. Propaganda. As a result of this lack of accountability, propaganda is being dressed-up as news. Most media corporations are being told what to say and what not to say. Social media and search engines manipulate algorithms to control the flow of information.
4. Privacy. We no longer have privacy because websites and search engines are subversively gathering our private information, and storing them in big data farms. In effect, we are already living in the big brother totalitarian society similar to that spoken about in George Orwell’s book 1984.
5. Cynicism. Society has taken on a cynical attitude toward information. As a result, we falsely believe we hold the truth and feel that only few people can be trusted. We are lost in a sea of half-truths, lies and conspiracy theories; and naively accept any information without a healthy scepticism of the information we receive.
WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?
1. We need to create new mechanisms and policies to hold gatekeepers accountable. Open-up and turn the tables on globalists in hiding.
2. We need total transparency of algorithms. Stop the manipulation of algorithms used by big tech and mainstream media. (e.g., favoring of Democratic Party political candidates).
3. Do not use Environmental, Social, and Governance screening (ESG) to rate individuals and groups. ESGs prevents the free expression of thought and opinions, and are antithetical to free democratic societies. ESGs are biased, and are opposed to freedom of thought. ESGs will sicken and oppress healthy societies.
4. Stop the surveillance of people who hold different viewpoints or worldviews. Healthy societies need a diversity views and a multiplicity of opinions in order to bring out the best ideas.
5. We need a private sphere in order to freely express our thoughts.
6. We need to encourage free, regional, and independent press/media; and discourage the monopolization and centralization of media/press conglomorates. A balance of powers within the Fourth Estate is essential to free societies; without a free press, societies are never truly free.
CONCLUSION:
Freedoms and liberties are the hallmarks of liberal democracies. These values are universal to both classical conservatives and liberals. We need freedom of religion, of thought and expression, and of the press. These create and foster healthy societies. These values ought to be taught by academics, public institutions and individuals, and fiercely defended in the public marketplace.
As Benjamin Franklin has said in 1722: “Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.”
If we continue on our current track, we are no better than the one-party system of totalitarian regimes. If we do not continue pursuing and defending these values, then our days as a great and free society will be over. It is not too late for us, as we still have a chance to reverse course and preserve our freedoms.
Source/Credit: I have borrowed the above five challenges in the new public sphere from Jonathan Heawood (a senior research fellow, University of Stirling, Scotland). See the Holberg Debate 2017, University Aula in Bergen.
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