After being asked by MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski about the alleged misinformation spread by the popular “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast and Facebook users, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy responded with a homily about how “we” must “root out” misleading speech.
“We” don’t have to do any such thing.
Government officials have no role in dictating appropriate speech or lecturing us on what we can or can’t say. They have a duty not too.
Murthy’s comments wouldn’t be as grating if it weren’t so obvious that the Biden administration has been pressuring Big Tech companies, who oversee huge swaths of our daily digital interactions, to limit speech and set acceptable standards.
You might remember that last summer, White House press secretary Jen Psaki casually informed the press that the White House was “flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.” Can you imagine the explosive reaction from the establishment media if they had learned that the Trump White House was keeping a list of speech crimes?
White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield also argued that social media companies “should be held accountable” for the ideas of those who use their platforms. President Joe Biden, who previously accused Facebook of “killing people,” this week made a “special appeal to social media companies and media outlets: Please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that’s on your shows. It has to stop.”
It doesn’t.
I believe tech companies should have unencumbered freedom of association rights and be able to keep or kickoff anyone they wish from their product. This position is not sustainable if the same corporations that spend millions each year in Washington rent-seeking or lobbying for favorable regulations also receive orders from state officials regarding permissible speech.
A true journalist would not seek guidance from a government official. @[email protected]_General
It’s bad enough that media outlets have abandoned any commitment to upholding liberal ideals of open discourse—as they not only act as hall monitors who hound tech companies into self-censorship, as virtually all of them did when The New York Post broke the Hunter Biden story before the 2020 presidential election.
Self-censorship is just as dangerous as any other form of self-censorship.
Allowing the state to participate in rooting out “misinformation,” however, sets a dangerous precedent that can be easily abused by those in power, even if we were to concede that Murthy was acting in good faith. As we’ve unfortunately learned during the coronavirus pandemic, health officials will often pass on bad information or politically motivated information.
Moreover, the definition of “misinformation” is also conveniently expansive. What was once a “conspiracy theory” can quickly become a plausible possibility, as we recently learned when evidence emerged that our government may have helped hide and suppress news about the Chinese origins of COVID.
Facebook had banned such talk for a whole year. Alleged “misinformation” is often perfectly reasonable inquiry or theorizing. Even if it isn’t, the state is not the final adjudicator of the veracity of speech. And anyway, we’re free to discuss every harebrained idea we desire.
The media and health officials have done more than any conspiracy theorists on social media to undermine trust and science during the COVID period. Americans aren’t sure where to turn, so they often turn to unreliable sources.
However, Murthy can only fight the spread unreliable information by restoring the credibility of his institution. What we say, or don’t, is none of his business.
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