How the self-anointed powers plan on managing free speech on the internet

This almost reads like a joke. So German Cancellor Angela Merkel was in New York to attend some UN function.  She wound up at a table with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.  She lamented to him the hostility expressed on social media to her immigration policy, especially given that Germany has taken in over 800,000 “refugees” this year alone.  She was not happy with this wrong kind of self-expression, and demanded action.  The CEO was only too happy to oblige:

On the sidelines of a United Nations luncheon on Saturday, Merkel was caught on a hot mic pressing Zuckerberg about social media posts about the wave of Syrian refugees entering Germany, the publication reported.

The Facebook CEO was overheard responding that “we need to do some work” on curtailing anti-immigrant posts about the refugee crisis. “Are you working on this?” Merkel asked in English, to which Zuckerberg replied in the affirmative before the transmission was disrupted.

There’s two standards folks: one for those who hold the “right” opinions, those who hold great leverage in society, and one for the rest of us.  The internet, while also being a serious source of disinformation, has also been a thorn in the side of the powers that be.  As the global consensus towards authoritarianism grows, don’t be surprised to see quite concrete moves to start blocking free speech on the internet.  We can expect comments on various fora not to show, we can expect being banned from various sites, we can even expect being outed as various forms of hate monger.  All in the service of “equality” and “non-discrimination.”  It’s amazing how many other rights, even ones heretofore so sacrosanct (when they were an effective tool of the Revolution), are willingly sacrificed on the altar of expediency once their usefulness is at an end.

OR……it could just be a corrupt politician with a really bad policy seeking aid and cover from the media.  But notice they rarely go to such lengths over things as prosaic as tax policy…..it’s only on the cultural issues that they seek to silence dissent, because culture trumps all.