TDS, the Social Media world and what's next So, to my surprise, today in one of Netherlands major newspapers:  headline:  Everyone should be behind Trump's fight Yes you read that right.  Everybody, including the TDS nervous nancies, who despise his tweeting behavior. Whether or not they agree with his policies or not. This is about freedom om speech, freedom to express.  Here's the article in a quick and dirty translation of google (on purpose) Amsterdam - Donald Trump, the democratically elected president of the United States, should not announce that he will send the military to Minneapolis if the mayor does not control the riots in his city. When he tweeted that this morning, Twitter made his message invisible because his announcement violates the Twitter rules for glorifying violence. The next bizarre step in the tech dictatorship, where internet companies put themselves above democracy. For example, the free market in America suddenly passed North Korea on the left. With companies like Twitter you no longer need a dictator. It is terrifying. Politicians can be voted out, but the position of social media companies is starting to become untouchable. Own truth No, you don't have to be on Twitter, but even Donald Trump can't do without social media as a defense mechanism. Without a direct channel to the world, he would have to turn his back on everything that is said about him in the newspapers and TV news. He can express his own truth on Twitter. Alternative facts if you want. Let's not forget that in January RIVM (That is the Dutch CDC of sorts, red) tweeted that corona was not so contagious and not easily transmitted from person to person. The truth is not so clear. Companies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have benefited from the twilight zone in which they operate for years. They don't want to be a media company, because then they have a responsibility, also in a legal sense, for the content of everything that happens on their platforms. They want to rake in all the advertising money that previously came in to newspapers and was used to finance editorial teams, but do not want to make the investment to create good content themselves. We, the users, can do this for them for free. They pretend to be "neutral" platforms, but they are not. You are one or the other: either a kind of utility where people can communicate freely, or a media company that decides for itself what is or is not to be published under your brand name. Weird thought Suppose that the postman first opens the envelope before it is delivered to your mailbox to see, whether PostNL(Dutch Federal Mail, red) agrees with the contents of the letter. Let's say Vodafone breaks into your phone call because their eavesdropping fact checker hears you say something that may not be true. Strange thought, isn't it, we don't want to live in such a world. But we do live in that now. We no longer send letters to each other and you only call your elderly mother, who does not understand that she can also check on Instagram how the grandchildren are doing. The utility that the PTT provided when grandma was still full of life has been taken over by social media. We take it for granted that Mark Zuckerberg can read your private messages and Google is listening in your emails. Stepped across a line But Twitter goes even further now. When the tech company, on its own initiative, added a link in a Trump tweet earlier this week to information that called into question the president's message, it crossed the line. Twitter is now actively interfering with the content of tweets and can no longer continue to be just a neutral platform. Yesterday, Trump signed a decree that makes social media companies responsible for their content. They may wet the chest for an avalanche of claims from people who suffered reputation damage, the biggest nightmare in Silicon Valley. And Trump's biggest nightmare, he cannot do without free platforms (she does not know about the presidential emergency system). So bluff poker, which hopefully works out well for free speech. Anyone who believes in democracy should back Trump's fight. Let's stand up to the tech dictatorship.