Title

Who Should Conservatives Blame for Alex Jones’ Ban From Social Media? Themselves.

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Document Type

Article

Journal Title

Slate

Publication Date

8-24-2018

Abstract

This short piece argues that conservatives have themselves to blame when Alex Jones got banned from social media. The conservative approach to Antitrust is in large part responsible for whatever power social media firms have and are able to exercise, and if they do in fact censor conservative speech for any reason except that it's profitable to do so, it would imply they have market power of the kind that conservative antitrust long denied was often possible. Moreover, the very fact that many conservatives acknowledge that certain large social media companies have social or political power, or power over free speech, should make us all realize that these firms also have the type of economic power whose formation or exercise could violate the Antitrust laws. It should, for example, cause us to block such mergers as the one between AT & T and Time Warner.

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