I am taking another Facebook break, so I do not know how my politically conservative friends responded to the news that Judge Terry Doughty ruled in favor of right-wing plaintiffs chagrined by their treatment on social media. But I can tell you that they've been mad for a long time about the treatment they perceive as unjust if not outright tyrannical.
When I first learned about the option to report problematic posts, I thought, "Oh, good, this will help people to know when they've been taken in by false information! Hurray for helping people!" I did not foresee the actual outcome-- the bitter complaints and the doubling down, the growing certainty that conservatives were being silenced unfairly.
Back in 2020 I posted about our epistemological crisis and its impact on the Church. I guess even then I thought cooler heads would prevail. Obviously, I thought, no one could argue in favor of a purported right to propagate false information. Little did I know! In a National Review article quoting from his ruling, Judge Doughty appears to say that he is concerned about social media crackdowns on demonstrably false conservative claims about the 2020 election.
I should be clear that I have only read articles about the ruling, rather than the ruling itself, and I can certainly imagine problematic forms of government interference in social media channels. Still, I have to think that when Stephen Colbert joked in 2006 about reality's well-known liberal bias, he did not foresee this particular future.
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