What would a state-run social network like Twitter look like and what would the left want it?

@ElentirENG ES 8·16·2024 · 19:33 0

Socialism has a very clear goal: to put all areas of society in the hands of the State (that is, a handful of politicians).

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Socialist politician calls for “a public service Twitter run by the EU”

Socialism does not love freedom: it loves to control everything to subject it to its interests, with the disastrous effects that history has shown us repeatedly. In this ideological framework we must place messages such as the one launched today by the socialist Odón Elorza: "We need a public service Twitter managed by the EU". In that message, he links to an article published on his blog in which he states:

"As a democrat, I call for the need to work on a proposal that defines a European Twitter model, configured as a public service, regulated with criteria of democratic ethics and managed by an independent body. A model that arises from an alliance of entities and sectors with a public vocation and at the service of the general interests of the population. It is the only way to help preserve our informational, technological and political sovereignty within the framework of the EU and stop the advance of technofascism."

Twitter is now the most effective tool against fake news

In his article, Elorza also states: "Democratic states should act and punish the practice of fake news and the strategy of viral disinformation by those who act from cyber-populism." He also calls for "mechanisms for verifying news in real time." This is pure fantasy. Real-time verification is impossible. However, today Twitter, as it is, has become the most effective means of revealing fake news, many of which are spread by traditional media (many of them left-wing) and also by socialist politicians. Is that one of the things that bothers you about this social network?

By far the best way to compare with other similar networks, Twitter has disrupted a communication scheme in which a fake news story published by a traditional media outlet could be spread for days without being dismantled, or in which a politician's lies could be spread without anyone, except other politicians or traditional media (many of them subsidized), dismantling them. Twitter has given citizens the opportunity to have communication flow in two directions, and not only from the media to their audiences. This was not done by a public institution, but by a private company.

A state social network whose main characteristic would be censorship

Basically, if Elorza's idea were to materialize, what we would have would be a state Twitter in which bureaucrats can censor whatever makes the left uncomfortable, starting with the right to disagree with their ideological dogmas, dogmas that the left considers untouchable, to the point of demonizing any disagreement with them by labeling it with words like "hate," "xenophobia," "racism," "fascism," and now, also, "technofascism." The left does not accept being contradicted.

Thus, a state social network like Twitter would have censorship as its first characteristic. A censorship exercised outside of Justice, which is the body in charge of sanctioning any excess in the exercise of a fundamental right in democratic countries. Elorza claims that this social network would be managed by an "independent body", something that sounds like a joke, if we take into account that the socialists have colonized a multitude of public institutions in Spain, even those that should be independent, such as the Constitutional Court, the Court of Auditors or the Attorney General's Office. To seriously believe that the socialists would ensure this independence in a state social network is not to know the socialists.

Lying politicians punished by creating a 'ministry of truth': what could go wrong?

On the other hand, the idea of ​​politicians "sanctioning" fake news is much more dangerous than the existence of such news, because it implies creating a kind of "ministry of truth" in the style of the totalitarian regime in George Orwell's novel "1984", a state body that decides what is true and what is false and punishes those who contradict its claims: what could go wrong?

The answer is not far away. In Spain we have a socialist government that has been systematically resorting to lies in the most shameless way, even uttering very obvious lies in both chambers of the Spanish Parliament, an area in which a lie uttered by a ruler should lead to his immediate resignation. What would happen to a "ministry of truth" in the hands of such lying and unscrupulous politicians? It is not hard to imagine.

The disaster of Spanish public companies controlled by the socialists

Furthermore, and taking into account the waste of money that is usually associated with public companies, we can also get an idea of ​​how much a state social network like Twitter would end up costing and how some could take advantage of it to make a fortune at the expense of taxpayers, as has happened numerous times in Spanish public companies, some of which are a real ruin.

To give some examples, Correos has multiplied its debt by 18 under the government of socialist Pedro Sánchez, leaving a huge hole of 600 million euros that we Spaniards will have to fill with our money. In the same period, the Efe agency was on the verge of bankruptcy twice and recently the government had to inject 40 million euros to compensate for its huge losses. In total, Spanish public companies have accumulated a total debt of 41,408 million euros, an astronomical figure that demonstrates their inefficiency. But the socialists still want more.

What the State tolerates on the largest social network: our streets

Elorza also says that this state social network would be a network "with no room for insults, hate speech or incitement to violence." Just look at what happens on the largest social network, which is under state control: our streets. Let's look at some examples of public events authorized by Sánchez's socialist government:

• A neo-Nazi march in Madrid in September 2021, during which chants such as "sieg heil" and "get faggots out of our neighborhoods" were heard.
• Several marches in Madrid with portraits of communist dictators and genocidaires such as Lenin and Stalin, displayed as if they were heroes.
• A march formally called for by a far-left Palestinian group on the EU's list of terrorist groups, held in January 2024 in Madrid.
• Hundreds of tributes to ETA terrorists, a criminal gang that murdered 853 people, including 22 children and babies.

Are these the socialists who claim to create a social network without "hate" and without incitements to violence? Rather, it seems that under these excuses they intend to exercise censorship on social networks outside the courts, in an undemocratic manner and at the same time that they allow all these barbarities in the streets. Honestly, I prefer Twitter a thousand times, with its great advantages and also its defects, to a social network run by bureaucrats who love censorship.

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Photo: Camilo Jiménez.