Steve Bannon boasts that the incoming Trump administration has tamed the social media sites. The ex-prisoner uses typically intemperate language and remains an important instigator of far-right virtual organisation. Questions remain about the power relationship between Trump and Musk, as we are unsure as to who is in the driving seat, so whether the right Republicans have actually tamed the social media sites is an outstanding question.
Concurrently with this story, the US Supreme Court have refused to block legislation forcing Bytedance to sell it’s US interest in TikTok to a US buyer. The law and many commentators focus on the national security implications of Chinese ownership of such a major social media site. The US government Is particularly concerned that the Chinese government have the ability to direct the affairs of Bytedance’s owner, a Chinese corporation.
Despite the US claiming the strongest free press rights in the world, rights granted in the US constitution belong to its citizens alone and are only enforceable within the United States. The US’s historic regulation of foreign media, much of which remains in place today, includes the licencing of foreign journalists and the statutory requirements the significant media organisations are owned by U.S. citizens.
In fact, U.S. politics confuses the freedom of the press, with the right to platform. U.S. law acknowledges now the rights to freedom of speech is restricted by safety, conspiracy, anti-corruption and defamation laws. Little discourse in the US recognises that the United Nations declaration of human rights criminalises hate speech and that the US legal system has a duty to suppress it.
If the US can claim that the Chinese owned company Bytedance is a threat to national security, then it is clear that other democracies have the right to take similar decisions with respect to the privately owned US social media companies. It is clear the individuals and states have been misusing the social media companies to influence the political governance of the democracies. Some are taking this action already such as Brazil and at a much slower pace the European Union, it’s not as if these states don’t have the laws they need, what’s missing is will.
The oligarchic capture of the US government has never been more obvious. It’s time to organise.