Now, we have the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who claims to be a “Libertarian”, who now has announced that he is willing to purchase “Twitter” for $46 billion with the stated purpose of giving Americans a platform to express themselves without being censored by this company. This is the same company that banned a sitting president, Donald Trump, from using their platform because they didn't like him, his views, and what he tweeted. With Musk's announcement, the left is going crazy, attacking Musk, which is laughable on its merits.
The social media platforms have had a monopoly on the dissemination of political views – only left-wing political views (a/k/a Democrat views) seem to be promoted and right-wing views are the one's being censored. The 2020 election was a perfect example of how these social media platforms used their platforms to censor speech, especially used mainly against Donald Trump and his followers. It was censorship only one way – against conservative views and thoughts. Being private companies, not governed by the government, they had the right to manage their platforms without government intervention. But, since these “free speech” tech giants were supposed to be champions of free speech, when they were created and received certain government benefits, the time might be ripe to rein in their benefits and the right to stifle free speech as they stifle speech only one way – against right-wing views and people who espouse them.
Even entertainment companies, like Disney, have jumped on the “woke” bandwagon by outwardly proclaiming that they will actively move against the State of Florida, as they perceive that recent laws passed by the Florida legislature and signed by Gov. DeSantis, are anti-LGBTQ. To counter this entry by Disney in politics, the State of Florida and Gov. DeSantis, Disney has come up against a governor who feels that they are exceeding their company policies of entertaining the public. Florida has countered this entry by Disney into politics by passing a law depriving Disney the sweetheart deal that was put in place in the 1960s, giving Disney autonomy over the land that their theme park sits on. I guess Disney found someone (Gov. DeSantis) who is willing to stand up to their “woke” statements about how Florida should conduct their business. I'm sure the Disney shareholders are not too happy with the way the Disney executives have handled this situation?
On the downside of the “woke” culture, the company called Netflix, which the aforementioned Elon Musk, has stated has been infected with the “woke mind virus”, the company has lost over 200,000 subscribers between January and March of this year. The public seems to be rebelling against the political views of this high tech company and others who promote the “woke” culture.
Just recently, that virulently anti-Trump cable channel, CNN, attempted to start up a streaming outlet by spending more than $300 million in setting up this outlet. It opened up a streaming service entitled CNN+ at the end of March to much fanfare, but just recently announced that it is shutting down this venture at the end of April because only10,000 people subscribed for their programming services. They have had to let go hundreds of newly hired employees much to their chagrin. Again, the public seems to be telling these “woke” companies that their indoctrination days are over and that free speech should not be censored and that the free and open exchange of ideas should be the rule not the exception. So, the writing is on the wall, if a company gets “woke” they'll most likely go broke.
