Stupid machines

It’s 2020 and England is befouled by a raging pandemic.

Millions of citizens are locked down in their homes, banned from meeting their neighbors or traveling any further than their local supermarket.

One of the chief architects of the UK’s strict Covid-19 lockdown was Dominic Cummings who, as if often the case by the ruling class, completely defied his own orders and took a 500-mile trip in breach of the rules he wrote.

Enraged by such hypocrisy, everyone took to social media. But despite dominating the national conversation, the word ‘Cummings’ did not appear on Twitter’s trending topics. Or Facebook. Or Instagram. Or any of the platforms. It was as if the issue was being hidden from public sight.

Nefarious hackers? Political favors? Obedient technologists? It had nothing to do with high politics. ‘Cummings’ was censored because the word “cumming” was on Twitter’s roster of forbidden pornographic terms.

Dominic got a free pass because technology is essentially stupid. It’s binary. On or off. And nothing in between.

Free speech is now regulated by private firms who have the power to censor, block and boost.

They now decide who is seen and who is heard. What is made public and what is hidden.

They now determine the public discourse and ideas that shape our humanity.

Can we be surprised that society is becoming so senseless?