Online Censorship's Institutional Power - by Joshua Moon
A person’s most valuable asset is their reputation, and there’s no better place to build one’s cachet than online. For this reason, there is a convergence of extreme wealth, power, and influence building up around the backbone of the Internet like a cancer. Without immediate organization and reaction from the atomized groups considering themselves “anti-censorship”, we will soon live in a less free world with a less open Internet where rich and influential people can dictate their own trustworthiness and slander their opposition with impunity.
In the 11 years I have managed my forum, the Kiwi Farms, I have seen firsthand the power in allowing people to talk about people. Anyone who is permitted to freely share what they’d like about another is enabled to punch far above their own weight. When a forum organized like the Kiwi Farms hosts stories, media, and documents that never go away, it can become a permanent blight on a diligently manicured reputation belonging to surprisingly important people. When that demerit is made on someone rich and well-connected, they may dedicate years of their life to trying to erase it.
Liz Fong-Jones is a transgender multi-millionaire, formerly employed by Google, but now involved in at least two San Francisco tech startups: Honeycomb and Tall Poppy. 1 His résumé and portfolio has been leveraged to try and deplatform the Kiwi Farms since 2017. What started with a single email has expanded over seven years into a conspiracy targeting the most sensitive and important components of what makes up the Internet.
