This week’s shooting at Youtube was certainly a very tragic and sad event. Curiously, the media has not talked about it a lot, for reasons that are still unclear. Personally, to the contrary, I think that this very sad event presents us with a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the ways to take back control of the steering wheel of our numerous electronic platforms and devices.

So let me plunge right in by saying that Big Tech companies have gone way too far in the way they handle our personal information, in the way they are tracking us 24/7 and in the way they treat their «users». Since these companies are american ones, it is the responsibility of the U.S. government to make sure that they comply with the most basic values and principles of the United States. That is why I think that the time has come to give these Big Tech companies the status of public utilities, in the same category as the phone, the gas and the electricity. Electronic services have become so entrenched in our lives that now it is impossible for anyone to live and function without them. I know that President Trump is not keen on regulation. However, there are circumstances where regulation is the only solution. Social media and internet companies are absolutely incapable of minding their own stores. They don’t have the discipline, the clear-eye that is necessary to do that and most especially, until now, they had a de facto carte blanche to do whatever they wanted. This has got to stop. Presently, this is the far west in the world of electronics. Anything goes. Regulation seems to me like the only solution because, if we wait for these companies to come with some sort of arrangement, they never will.

There are two things absolutely essential for me that are in order to rule this problem. First of all, Big Tech companies would have to be obliged, by law, to conform their policies, behavior, contracts, platforms to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Their «Terms of Use» and «Privacy Policy» documents would have to say that explicitly. Presently, with the current arrangement, we have lost all privacy and our data is shared with anybody without our knowledge. Their documents, in their current form, could easily be renamed «Terms of Misuse» and «Invasion of your Privacy Policy». To start with, these documents are written in a legal language that is evasive for most people. It is gibberish for the common man so even if we actually read them, there is nothing we can understand. Most of the terms present in these contracts are vague, undefined and the language used in general remains meaningless for most of us who are not used to legal writing. What the common man needs is a document that can be read easily with precise terms and formulated in a way that make sure that the person understands what he/she agrees to. In the current situation, most of internet users have absolutely no idea to what they have agreed to by accepting the «Terms of Use» and «Privacy Policy». If they had understood what these contracts were really implying legally, maybe they would have decided not to use one or several of these platforms. To give just an example, there is always a paragraph in these documents that says that the company may share some information with «third parties». Well…could we have the list of these «third parties»? They are not mentioned by name, so how the hell are we supposed to agree on «terms of use» if we don’t know who will handle our information?

The other thing is what I would call the burden of proof. Presently, the burden of proof is on the shoulders or the «users». Users have to behave in a way that is more and more in line with political correctness, diversity and the agenda of the Left in general. Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google/Youtube, Apple can terminate your account or your monetization at any time arbitrarily for any reason and you can’t appeal their decision. They have the absolute power over you…because their services are free. Users don’t pay for the service so they are at the complete mercy of these companies and their will. In a normal business relationship, the burden of proof is on the shoulders of the service provider, the company, and it has to please its clientele, which are called not «users» but «customers». The words we use are important. If you are a customer a service provider will have no other choice but to respect your rights and give you satisfaction if the company wants to keep your monthly fee coming in every month. That’s why it is imperative that we start paying for the use of these platforms. It is only this way that we will ever be respected. If millions of people give, let’s say, 25 dollars a month each for their Facebook, Google, Twitter or Apple accounts, it is unlikely that these corporations would suspend or terminate any accounts because there is language used that is not politically correct or opinions that are not approved. They would simply keep going and let the police handle the very heavy cases. Also, the status of public utilities given to these companies would also protect customers against arbitrary decisions to cancel or suspend accounts. Of course, they could still terminate accounts for non-payment but in order to terminate accounts for other reasons, it is reasonable to envision that would be required by law to present their case before a judge in a court of law in order to protect the rights of the customers. And obviously, everything that I have said above also apply to smartphones, since they connect to the internet and record a great quantity of information on theirs users.

You must have heard many times the popular expression that says that «he who pays calls the shots». It was true ten thousand years and it is still true today. Since a couple of years, we have seen a number of conservative voices, bloggers and activists being censored, de-platformed, demonetized, etc. It would never have happened if they had been customers instead of just «users» and, on top of that, it would never have been possible in the first place if the companies had been required, by law, to abide by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as I have said above. How the protections granted by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights could be extended to citizens living outside the U.S. will certainly be a very difficult and long legal challenge. Because, in the current situation, it is too easy for the totalitarian states of the world to use our Big Tech companies against us. We are defenseless since these corporations have adopted a business model that makes them perfect tools to attack and undermine our societies. Why should these Big Tech companies do dirty tricks on behalf of China, Russia, North Korea while they could defend and uphold our values and civilization instead? It is not the communists and the terrorists who are kicked out of social media. It is the conservatives and right-wingers. Don’t you see what is going on? I will leave you will a short video of Project Veritas, the fourth part of the Twitter series. It last only two minutes but it says it all.