What a world we live in.
We, humans, have at our fingertips all of the information in the history of the world stored in clouds all over the globe. We can access information about events that happened years before we were born and learn from eyewitness accounts of the people who were there.
We can check the weather in an instant.
Watch our favorite shows or sporting events at any time.
All from the convenience of our phones, tablets, or laptops and even project that onto our big screen TV’s anytime, day or night. Our ancestors must be looking down on us with awe and some envy at all the luxuries we have in today’s world. Yet what do we do with it?
We have the overlords at Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites run us over by banning speech that they find offensive. The once cherished notion of actually debating ideas in any arena is now limited to what a few people who control the stage determine can be uttered.
My colleague Jeff Charles has written a couple of pieces recently on how Facebook both internally and externally is being pushed to limit speech that the select few do not agree with.
Facebook Oversight Board Members’ Comments on Free Speech Are a Disturbing Harbinger
US Surgeon General Doubles Down on Demand That Facebook Step up Its Censorship Efforts
From Jeff’s post above…
The Biden administration is going full steam ahead on its effort to pressure Facebook and other social media companies to censor content that they deem to be “misinformation.” After a week of controversy over the White House’s admission that it is pressuring Big Tech to suppress opinions on the COVID-19 outbreak and the vaccine, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Sunday doubled down on his contention that certain opinions on the pandemic are placing American lives in danger.
During a conversation on CNN’s “State of the Union” this morning, Murthy doubled down on his contention that Facebook should be doing more to silence opinions on the coronavirus that are not in line with the left’s approved narrative. The social media company has become embroiled in a tete a tete with the Biden administration over its moderation of content.
A Facebook executive recently implied that Murthy was being duplicitous, blasting the company public after having told them they were doing a good job privately. On Sunday, he responded to the accusation:
“Well, I have been very consistent in what I have said to the technology companies that I have spoken with, a number of them, over the last many months, and my team has as well.
“And what I have effectively said is, when we see steps that are good, that are being taken, we should acknowledge those. And there have been some positive steps taken by the technology companies. Some of them have worked to try to up-promote accurate sources, like the CDC and other medical sources. Others have tried to reduce the prevalence of false sources in search results.”
The administration of the current President of the United States is pressuring a private company to restrict the right of people to discuss beliefs of any kind in a public forum. The founders of this country are not rolling in their graves over this, they have crawled out of them and taken a slow boat back to England and France.
What good is having this ability to communicate ideas if we can not communicate ideas that some are going to find hurtful to their delicate sensibilities?
After giving this some thought, I have determined that the only really good thing that Facebook is for anymore is just posting prayer requests. I do use Facebook and Twitter for other things, but the Jack Dorsey site is just a constant dumpster fire of humanity and, quite frankly, tiring to follow. Facebook, however, is a little bit different.
The way it is set up is perfect for spreading the Word of God and for prayer requests that people post for any number of reasons. How awesome would it be if people just started posting any type of prayer request on the Zuck platform and dare them to censor it? Of course, they might, but the messages of violating the terms of service would be a riot to read and share on other sites, showing how absolutely out of touch Zuckerberg & Company are.
So, while the battle is waged over whether or not this country continues in some of its most cherished traditions like free speech, maybe it would be a really good idea to do a bit more praying and encouraging others on Facebook to do so.
Asking God to continue covering this nation with His grace and mercy is never a bad thing and great things happen when we pray.
Just imagine the world we would live in then.
