Mozilla encourages laws censoring ideas
Because of course they did.
Mozilla — the mega corporation behind Firefox — has been working, at high speed, to restrict speech across the Internet. Specifically of people that do not share their political afiliation.
On January 8th, 2021, the Mozilla CEO, Mitchell Baker, wrote an article entitled “We need more than deplatforming.”
“as reprehensible as the actions of Donald Trump are, the rampant use of the internet to foment violence and hate, and reinforce white supremacy is about more than any one personality. Donald Trump is certainly not the first politician to exploit the architecture of the internet in this way, and he won’t be the last. We need solutions that don’t start after untold damage has been done.”
Baker goes on to explain some of the ways Internet services should not only completely deplatform (read: ban and censor) specific political leaders… but also silence and restrict statements or ideas that Mozilla disagrees with politically.
More recently, Mozilla has become actively critical of the YouTube video recommendation system. And not for the reasons that so many — myself included — dislike it (such as irrelevant video recommendations, shadowbanning of many creators, etc.).
Mozilla’s objection seems to be primarily that some recommended videos might contain ideas that don’t agree with the (highly political) worldview of Mozilla leadership.
Mozilla repeatedly equates “Right Wing” politics with “hate”. As on their “YouTube Regrets” page they have set up. Quote: “Any search for positive LGBT content results in a barrage of homophobic, right-wing recommendations.”
But Mozilla is not stopping with simply expressing their opinion that Conservative (or “Right Wing”) voices should be silence…
On June 8th, 2021, Mozilla posted an official blog post entitled, “Mozilla Explains: Why Does YouTube Recommend Conspiracy Theory Videos?“
In that post, Mozilla fellow, Guillaume Chaslot, “recommends regulators step in and issue laws that begin to curb this.”
That’s right. Mozilla Corporation (the mega corporation owned by Mozilla Foundation — both run by Mitchell Baker) is seeking actual legislation to make showing “Right Wing” content go away.
To be clear: This is horrific. Not because Mozilla seeks to silence Conservative ideas or voices. But because Mozilla seeks to silence any political voices at all. This would be equally as disturbing if Mozilla were to make statements against “Left Wing” ideas or voices.