Trump’s Censorship Campaign Draws on Decades of Infrastructure Built by Big Tech

Though the use of this machinery of repression is currently particularly glaring in the crackdown against the movement against the genocide in Gaza, the right is also using this same machinery to attack trans people, immigrants, pregnant people, Black people, anti-capitalists and anti-fascists.

The far right went through a long process of trial and error to build up the power necessary to aggressively reshape U.S. society. When right-wing forces were unable to effectively mobilize in the streets due to fierce resistance, the internet — and social media in particular — became their staging ground. Their dominance was aided by right-wing tech billionaires like Elon Musk and right-wing policymakers like Joel Kaplan, and ensured by the opportunism and acquiescence of unscrupulous tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos.

“Every capitulation and act of appeasement only emboldens them more,” Tariq Khan concludes. “The only thing that will stop them is resistance.”