In what is a “getaway show” for Inside the Eye – Live!, with the show moving back to Riyadh for an extended spell, we were graced with a two hour appearance by John Kaminski in hours 2 and 3, while hour 1 was filled with details of Hurricane Irma as Irma steamrolled through the Caribbean.  In addition, we discussed the ongoing war against knowledge by Google/Alphabet as this “information monopoly” continues to wage war on its consumers and content producer base through its selective censorship and restrictions on content favoring the right of the political spectrum.

Regulate Google/Alphabet?

Should Google/Alphabet and other “information monopolies” be regulated?  A case is often said, “But Google/Alphabet is a private company and they should be free to censor and delete any accounts they wish as well as set the tone of what they allow on their servers.”  But is this really a sound and rational assessment?

It needs to be said that Google and its properties (aka Youtube) currently enjoy essential monopoly status.  When Google/Alphabet/Youtube participate openly in the political process, by favoring one political message over another, Google is involving itself in issue that go way beyond that of simply providing platforms for people to distribute news and views of importance to those utilizing the platform.  Further, the the process of demonetizing content, Google is preventing one side of the political spectrum to fairly capitalize on the value of the audience, while providing full means of opposing political views and opinions to monetarily benefit from their constituency.

What ensues is a company willfully injecting itself into the political environment and doing so in a way that harms the direction and health of political discourse.

Further, when Google/Alphabet/Youtube (GAY) “demonetizes” content, GAY is not itself decoupling itself from its ability to monetize the content it is preventing content producers from fairly being compensated.  This is due to the reality that content continues to produce views and billions of bits of metadata that are being collected from targeted demographics.  This information, is should be presumed, remains a commodity and hence is commoditized and sold to advertisers.

Hence, on one hand, we are told that content is “inappropriate” for advertisers, yet at the same time, advertising are being sold data from a user base whose content and interests have been deemed “inappropriate”.  GAY is still making money from the content and advertisers are still interested in the demographic, but the demographic is being unfairly targeted and denied fair compensation for the content being produced.

This is an abuse of a GAY’s dominant market position and, plain and simple, and owing to the expansive and expanding nature of GAY’s market position, as well as a recognition of the realities of modern communication to rely on digital means of transportation, the idea that GAY, or any other company, should be able to impose ideological preferences on the common people results in a form of technocratic tyranny.

The first hour speaks to this issue, while much discussion revolved around Hurricane Irma, the evacuation of southern Florida, as well as two hours of guest John Kaminski.

You can hear the entire show here:

ITEL Radio Full Show – 9.9.17

Additional Links

John Kaminski