We must rethink free speech

Dear editor,

I enjoyed Mr. Moore’s article, “Big tech companies setting the rules for online discourse” on Jan. 21. However, his claim that ‘a large segment of North American conservatism’ is in danger of losing its freedom of speech through the actions of Big Tech is bogus. I think most can agree the ‘conservatism’ we saw demonstrated on Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C. cannot be defended as ‘freedom of speech’ and deserves to be restricted.

Most would hesitate to label followers of groups like QAnon as conservative. Yes, they attack progressivism of all shades but that does not make them conservative. They are ill-informed, cultish, fuelled by anger and arguably the dangerous result of unregulated social media.

Free speech originated as an ideal in the writings of J.S. Mill who spoke of a “Marketplace of Ideas.” The consumers of news and information were free to listen to, and to accept or reject, the ideas presented. Consumers would judge the validity of each idea and reject the groundless or false, and they would wither and disappear in the light of reason. So no intrusive government agency was required to ‘regulate’ public speech.

Clearly the Marketplace of Ideas requires informed and reasonable consumers possessing the skills of critical thinking.

That 74 million voters believed the repeatedly unproven claims of a rigged election, that many of these people steadfastly continued to support Trump’s megalomanic attempts to abandon the rule of law and erode the democratic institutions of the U.S., and that a Trump-fuelled mob was willing to desecrate the very seat of American democracy, points to the disastrous failure of an unregulated Marketplace of Ideas. We must rethink the meaning of free speech.

Peter Mueller Medicine Hat