This Little Piggy Went "Weeeee"

Earlier this week, free-speech advocates across the political spectrum started raising alarm bells at the news that Google had cut right wing magazine The Federalist from its online ad revenue. Google later clarified that no, they didn't do that, they just threatened to do so if The Federalist didn't shape up their content around the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests. 

To be honest, I have complicated feelings about this. On the one hand, I agree that the threat to demonetize an entire site gives Google de facto editorial control over not just the content the website produces, but also how it moderates their commentators as well. That is a massive cudgel to have on hand and naturally looms over every decision every content creator makes while they're using Google's platform.

On the other hand, though, this whole thing is hysterical and I think The Federalist deserves everything that's happening to them.

Like most rightwing outlets, The Federalist is a rag who's only purpose is to push the Republican political agenda at any cost. It was cofounded by Meghan McCain's husband and is funded by... nobody knows who. Given that its brethren The Daily Caller, Breitbart, and the YouTube channel Prager University are all funded by billionaires who have no problem operating at a loss, it stands to reason that a similar situation brought The Federalist into existence. That their response to "Where does your money come from?" is nearly always a riff on "We aren't legally required to disclose that," is nothing but a vote of confidence in the editorial and journalistic independence from that fundings source. 

The reason I find all of this so funny is that like any rightwing rag worth their salt, The Federalist is all in on the power and sanctity of the free market. In their minds, all government regulation is a jackboot on the neck of free entrepreneurs who would be usher in a Galtian paradise if only the resentful, freedom hating government bureaucrats weren't standing in the way. 

As far as the tech world is concerned, the deregulators have gotten their wish. There are very little rules or pressures on tech companies which have allowed Google, Facebook, and Amazon to grow to monopolistic proportions. What these companies couldn't compete with, they bought and now it's virtually impossible to go anywhere or do anything on the internet that doesn't involve one of those three companies. (Think about it- how many things have you skipped a sign up process for and just tied it to your gmail or Facebook account?)

Because of all this, the internet is an unregulated hellscape that is more and more being brought under heel by an ever diminishing board of directors. And The Federalist was fine with this. Domains and ad sharing programs are essentially private property which the owners can do with as they please. 

At least, until they became victims of their own ideology, that is. See, once Google threatened to cut The Federalist off, they suddenly gave a shit about whether or not it was a good idea to give ultimate discretion of what or what is not publicly acceptable expression. Google isn't bound by the 1st amendment so it has no obligation to allow speech it doesn't approve of to make money off their platforms if they deem it bad for their business. 

Furthermore, this episode should be an example of The Federalist's ideology in action. To elaborate, The Federalist engages in speech that its fellow market participants find objectionable and no longer wish to associate themselves if The Federalist continues behaving that way. At this point, The Federalist can change its behavior to conform to the market's demands or, it can continue as it currently is and risk losing out on their revenue streams. 

As the market giveth, so it taketh away. For other people, not them, obviously. 

All snark aside, this is something I worry about all the time. The adpocalypse on YouTube sent most historical, political, and current events channels scrambling for revenue as YouTube demonetized their channels in an effort to make sure the advertisers only had their products associated with "noncontroversial" content. 

Likewise, the amount of control Google exerts on its search result algorithm is staggering. It gives the company the ability to eliminate all but the most mainstream information and entertainment sources so if you want to find something off the beaten path, you're going to already know where to look because Google sure as fuck won't tell you. 

People have this idea that, because social media is so prevalent and makes us so publicly available, that all the content on the internet exists in some kind of public square with all the inherent constitutional protections that implies. That's wrong, on every possible level. 

Every where you go on the internet is proprietary in some way. Think of it like walking into a store- you're on private property with the understanding that being there obligates you to buy or at least pretend you want to buy whatever's on sale. And just like a private business can throw you out of you get unruly, so too can Google, Facebook, Twitter et al. put you in the corner until you learn to behave. 

Who could stop such runaway behavior? Who could lay out rules that provide user protections to the denizens of the internet. But with how hollowed out our regulatory agencies have become, the FCC couldn't come up with or enforce the kind of comprehensive rules we need even if it wanted to. 

As one of my favorite sites likes to say, if your business depends on a platform, you don't have a business. But how to you survive that when literally every step of internet transactions pass through someone else's platform? Amazon can ban you from selling products on their site, YouTube can demonitize or delete your channel at will, and Google can adjust its algorithm so even if you get ad revenue, your site will be so pitifully low that you won't be able to generate any revenue for yourself. 

Even if you try to get paid "directly" by donation or subscription, Patreon and PayPal can freeze your account or again, lock you out of it entirely. No matter where you go, someone has to let you through the door which means every step of the way, someone has the power to cripple or end your flow of income. 

Like I said, I don't care what happens to The Federalist- that they're getting churned up in the libertarian market dystopia they want everyone else to suffer through but remain exempt from is nothing to cry about. They're scum, propagandists who, if they're lucky, might one day rise up to the level of dog shit they obviously aspire to. That we all risk getting dragged down with them into that corporate hellscape though, is something to worry about and we should work to save the internet from that fate before it's too late.