Today, I googled “Jeff Sessions Death Row” looking for evidence related to the NYTimes article on his track record regarding inmates on death row. Having recently finished reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, I was aware that this was a real concern in Alabama recently and currently.
Instead, I was met with 5 pages of the same headline/content: “In Alabama, Jeff Sessions Desegregated Schools and Got the Death Penalty for KKK.”
It took until page 5 to find some diversity in the search results:
Look, this is not me saying aye or nay for Jeff Sessions. I recognize that there is always nuance and grey areas, especially in law. Law does not always match moral inclinations, and criminals get off on technicalities as much as innocents get condemned due to them. Law is not perfect — it is equally man-made as everything else in our lives and is interpreted by men.
What I’m pointing out is how terrifyingly well conservatives have figured out how to make the internet and social media work for their agenda. By having a multitude of real and fake news sites to promulgate the exact same headline, they trick search engine results. They flood the internet with one singular message, drowning out all other voices.
Why is this terrifying? Under International Human Rights Law, we have the right to freedom of expression, which is included under the 1st Amendment.
The First Amendment guarantees freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. It forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others and also restricting an individual’s religious practices. It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely. It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government.
Article 19 states that “everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference” and “everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice”.
But what happens when our voices aren’t heard anymore? What if we try to speak and we are drowned by a deluge of sites posting the same thing over and over. Is that considered propaganda? Is it a form of censorship?
What is more insidious? Are we living in an era of censorship? Are we better or worse than China in regards to human rights then?
Diversity is a founding value of America, and is what has differentiated us from other countries and helped us achieve milestones in a short period of time. Diversity of opinion, diversity in thought — and when we lose appreciation of that, we will have truly regressed.
