BETWEEN THE LINES
OPEN LETTER TO TRUMP ON GOOGLE-FACEBOOK-AMAZON THREAT
Exclusive: Joseph Farah lays out case for presidential action against Digital Cartel
Published: 2 hours agoimage: http://www.wnd.com/files/2016/09/Joseph-Farah_avatar.jpg
Dear President Trump:
I want to commend you on calling out the anti-trust practices of Amazon.com, which is threatening the very existence of other smaller, independent shippers across the nation.
While Americans obviously like the convenience and innovation Amazon has demonstrated as a company, it has far exceeded the threshold of becoming a monopoly that will eventually, once all vestiges of competition in e-commerce and fulfillment are effectively squashed, demand from consumers extortionist prices while exploiting its own workers beyond any acceptable American standards.
Though government action of this kind should always be circumspect and restrained, Amazon’s unfair business practices have been ignored by Washington for too long.
But the problem is much bigger than Amazon when it comes to the new cartel emerging among online mega-giants.
That two companies – Google and Facebook – now control 75 percent or more of the digital advertising marketplace is of even greater concern because it threatens the very spirit of the First Amendment in an increasingly nationalized media environment.
Not that long ago, the federal government routinely reviewed media cross-ownership efforts in individual local and regional markets to ensure that news and opinions were not controlled by a single company and a single political and cultural point of view. Yet, today, Google, its wholly owned subsidiary YouTube, and Facebook have become the principal source of news distribution – a powerful gatekeeper, with a common leftist worldview, that actively shows contempt for dissenting voices, especially those on the right as well as faithful Christians and Jews.
If not checked during your administration, America may never regain its diversity of media voices as many independent efforts like my own pioneering effort in the online world will be strangled by these entities’ systemic, organized campaign to destroy us.
As you know, the independent media played a significant role in the 2016 election in bringing forth viewpoints that were scarcely heard elsewhere among the din of Hillary-mania. Since your election, Google, YouTube and Facebook have waged an unrelenting war of unfair trade practices against the independent media that threatens its very existence.
Congress and regulatory agencies have shown little understanding and awareness of just how serious this threat has become. With dissenting media voices out of the picture, America’s heritage of free speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion will be reduced to little more than well-intended but meaningless words on parchment.
At least two of these giant corporations have decided recently to employ the leftist extremist organization called the Southern Poverty Law Center to serve as a kind of speech and content police force to set standards for online searches, algorithms and visibility on the internet – what has become the new national and international public square.
While some other nations welcome this control and even encourage it to stamp out viewpoints with which they disagree, that is not the American way.
I call on you today to set up a presidential commission to investigate these giants for these business practices that are not just unfair but detrimental – and even lethal – to the interests of a free and open society.
The hour is late.
If not you, who? If not now, when?
With great appreciation for your efforts to Make American Great Again, please do not overlook the increasingly dark influence exerted by speech codes on the national and international level by these powerful mega-corporations that threaten to transform the American ideal of free and open society into something resembling the Stalinist-style model of the average U.S. university campus.
I am at your disposal, along with my independent media colleagues, all of whom face the same existential threat at the hands of this politically motivated cartel, to brief you or your representatives.
Sincerely,
Joseph Farah
founder and chief executive officer of WND.com, WND Books, WND Films
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2018/05/open-letter-to-trump-on-google-facebook-amazon-threat/#5lmdzCTSJow0JpJY.99
