Social Media Banning the Right-Wing is Just Business

WTF is it with all the Anti-Semitism and crude racial comments on the American alt- / Far Right? And the European Right for that matter? Then complaining that they get de-platformed, un-monetised, shadow-banned and generally shut down.

Their explanation is to do with conspiracies.

It’s business. Everything is business, especially when they tell you it isn’t.

The alt-Right think that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube are the media equivalent of a common carrier, which is, to quote Wikipedia:

...distinguished from a contract carrier, which is a carrier that transports goods for only a certain number of clients and that can refuse to transport goods for anyone else... A common carrier holds itself out to provide service to the general public without discrimination... A common carrier must further demonstrate to the [government] that it is "fit, willing, and able" to provide those services for which it is granted authority. Common carriers typically transport persons or goods according to defined and published routes, time schedules, and rate tables upon the approval of regulators. Public airlines, railroads, bus lines, taxicab companies, phone companies, internet service providers, cruise ships, motor carriers (i.e., canal operating companies, trucking companies), and other freight companies generally operate as common carriers.

That is, social media should carry on its website anything any member of the public wishes to put there, provided that the content is not illegal.

However, social media are not common carriers. They are advertising billboards. Not advertisers. Not advertising agencies. Not publishers. Not even printers. You Tube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter: all they do is own the billboards by the roadside. Different billboards for different media types, but still billboards.

The advertiser is the user. The billboards are used by the user, who posts content: look at my small business / product / brand / band / body / fabulous lifestyle / whatever.

Advertising is wasted on men. Men buy via word-of-mouth, reviews, and trial. We simply don’t see most advertisements, and when we do, it’s only to ask ourselves how dumb the agency and client must have been to run the campaign.

Advertising is aimed at women. Women are not gullible, but they are pervious to advertising.

It’s about more than chocolate, shoes, make-up and YOLO holidays. An attractive woman whose looks and upbeat presentation gets her a product sponsorship deal is advertising herself and gets a useful response. A photographer who is hired on the basis of his Instagram portfolio is advertising and getting a useful response. A woman who posts holiday pictures and gets complimentary comments is advertising herself and getting feel-good responses.

Anything that threatens to alienate that female audience gets banned. This is business. Anything that keeps that female audience engaged gets to stay. So a male-run account that gets the right level of OMG fake-outrage from women may actually stay. OMG fake-outrage is a little hormone hit all its own and some people love it.

The alt- and far- Right and their conspiracies and bad language alienate large chunks of the female audience. That’s not allowed: the horses must not be frightened.

The far-Left extremists say extreme and often violent things, but these delight a large chunk of the social media audience. Hence they don’t get banned.

Banning the creepy, foul-mouthed Right wing is just business. Not a socio-political programme or conspiracy.