The British Are Coming For Our Companies
Unfortunately, this puts us in a damned-if-we-do and damned-if-we-don’t situation.
Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we discuss what to do with government censorship when it comes for American companies.
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The question on my mind this week is whether we should use the full weight of the federal government to protect U.S. tech companies from other countries’ dystopian laws. Here’s the deal. I don’t like it when people try to crack down on free speech or the free flow of information. Maybe it’s the American in me that hates it, but when I see British citizens being arrested for posting their personal opinion online, it irritates a piece of my soul. But ultimately I know there is very little I can do about it. If they don’t want this to happen to them, they should change the laws in their country.
But what happens when U.S. companies like YouTube, Facebook, and X face oppressive fines and threats from foreign countries? Should we protect them?
In June, the UK government released a green paper outlining its intent to crack down on digital creators to protect establishment media by creating a “prominence regime” for public service media on platforms like YouTube. The UK government will require these platforms to create algorithms that increase discoverability of content from state outlets like the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 in user recommendations.
“These benefits are under pressure in today’s media environment where a limited selection of broadcast channels has given way to an explosion of seemingly unlimited content, accessed primarily via the internet,” the green paper stated. “The digital age has seen audiences move away from traditional linear broadcasting and into the online world where, rather than watching together, we are encouraged to consume content in individually curated feeds, and divisive and inaccurate narratives are more likely to thrive.”
“This green paper sets out a new strategic direction for the government’s media policy to address these challenges,” the government added.
Mike Benz, who worked for the U.S. State Department during the first Trump administration, is arguing that the U.S. put the full weight of the federal government behind protecting YouTube and other platforms from the UK government’s overreach.
“YouTube can’t stop this,” Benz said. “They need the US State Dept & White House to step in and counter with threats to British interests in the US. Threaten you will hit Shell/BP in energy, AstraZeneca/GSK in pharma, BAE in defense, & HSBC/Barclays in finance the second the Brits hit YouTube.”
To some degree I agree with Benz. We cannot allow our companies to be pushed around by the likes of the British. Especially not when it flies in the face of American ideals like freedom of speech. So part of me wants to wage economic warfare on the Brits for even attempting to apply their draconian laws to our platforms.
And wouldn’t it be nice if we were to save independent media and content creators who are helping disseminate information about their corrupt government? The rape gang inquiries were widely ignored by their establishment media, and even if there was a segment about the horrors that occurred, it was to shift blame to supposed white nationalists. There is a growing number of UK citizens attempting to fight back against their government, and it would give me immense pleasure to know that the U.S. helped free them.
But at the same time, I have very little sympathy for U.S. tech companies right now. Not only are they responsible for firing hundreds of thousands of Americans over the last several years, they are replacing those positions with cheap foreign labor through H-1B workers.
They spent a decade meddling in our elections, including in the 2020 election when tech oligarchs spent billions of dollars astroturfing the Biden regime. They kicked Americans off their platforms for speaking their minds about election integrity, the Covid scam, and January 6. They were instrumental in downplaying the Hunter Biden laptop. They removed a sitting president from their websites.
They collect and sell our personal data.
And if all of this wasn’t bad enough, they are currently working on creating AI systems that will wipe out millions of high-paying white-collar jobs. When these jobs go away, it will delay milestones like homeownership and family formation, which are bedrocks of a healthy society.
Understandably, as much as I want to protect American companies from foreign governments, I have very little desire to lift a finger to save YouTube, Facebook, and the like. X, which Elon Musk owns, is the only company I would be willing to fight for because without it I don’t think we could have fought back against the Biden regime the way we did.
There is no other platform that apologized for how conservatives or others who disagreed with the approved narrative on any topic were treated. Did they give restitution to the Daily Caller or the Federalist for hiding their websites and effectively demonetizing their work? Have they reinstituted and provided relief to independent journalists whose livelihoods were ruined simply because they told the truth?
There is no attempt by any of them to make this right or stop hiring H-1B workers in place of Americans.
Unfortunately, this puts us in a damned-if-we-do and damned-if-we-don’t situation. If we help protect YouTube, we are really protecting the freedom fighters in the UK trying to rise up against their corrupt government. But in doing so, we’ve given a handout to a platform that has systematically worked to destroy what makes the US a special place.
I don’t know the exact answer to this problem, but I know that being on the side of protecting free speech is always the right place to be.
Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to goodlife@dailycaller.com
Heard It Through The Grapevine:
Amber Duke wrote about a new missing person case in Mississippi where a black male went missing July 4 while partying with his friends. He went to an island to celebrate the holiday and never returned. They later found a body matching his description. But what followed this tragic incident was not shocking, as the internet devolved into a race war. Read all about that here: Unfit to Print: DON’T BE FRIENDS WITH WYPIPO
In case you missed it, Reagan Reese had the opportunity to ride the Freedom Train as part of the official celebration for America 250. You can read all about her experience traveling on the historic train and everything that went on: Aboard The Freedom Train: America’s Most Underrated 250th Birthday Party
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I mourn for the pending death of England.