AI and Social Media

🇺🇸 “Banning online platforms and other forms of internet shutdowns are never a proportionate measure and impose disastrous consequences for people’s safety.” That's just not true. Many of these non-profit organizations are intentionally trying to confuse the public on these issues.

Some online platforms are being used to spread false narratives, lies, disinformation, and foreign propaganda from adversaries such as Russia and China. Allowing these platforms to spread foreign propaganda is disastrous for people's safety. Ultimately, banning social media platforms that are owned and controlled by foreign adversaries and authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China is the right thing to do, and the best thing we can do for people's safety.

But even American social media apps are being used to control and manipulate public opinion in nondemocratic ways. My account was suspended on Twitter for no valid reason, simply because I was becoming popular and influential, and someone apparently did not like what I have to say and wanted to silence me. No company should have the right or power to silence individuals, and prevent them from participating in the conversation. That is a violation of my right to free speech, and my right to participate in our democratic society. As the digital world becomes ever more integrated with the physical world, we must ensure that our fundamental freedoms are not challenged or violated by those in control of our digital technologies.

Shortly after my account was suspended on Twitter, I was then locked out of my other social media accounts, both Instagram and Facebook, and locked out of my Google account, which includes my email, my web domain registrations, and my software deployments on Google cloud, essentially destroying all of my businesses that were built on Google systems. My web domains that were registered with Google were hijacked, allowing the hijacker to take complete control of my online identity, access my emails, access my data, and access my personal files, such as legal contracts between me and my clients. It is absurd that a company like Google would allow such a thing to happen, yet they refused to resolve the problem or help me in any way despite repeated pleas for them to do so.

What we propose is that all AI technology and online platforms will have to be regulated by a new government organization created specifically for that purpose so that we can inspect, monitor, and approve the algorithms of these technologies before they are allowed to go into production. We will simply create a new quality control phase - an inspection phase - of the software development life cycle, similar to the inspection processes required of physical structures in the physical world. We will require all technology companies to give the newly formed government agency access to their code repositories. Once tech companies have completed their internal quality control tests, which all tech companies complete as part of the software development life cycle, the code will then be passed to the inspection phase, and the tech companies will not be able to deploy the code until it has passed the inspection phase carried out by the government agency created for that purpose.

We are absolutely not allowing Russia or China or any other foreign adversary of the USA to own or control any of these technologies, at least not the ones used in the USA. Nor will we allow a few tech bros in San Francisco, many of whom are foreign nationals by the way, to decide who may or may not have an online presence or dictate what we can or can not do online. We will not tolerate AI technology or online platforms being used as systems of control. These systems will be thoroughly tested by a US government agency to ensure that they do not violate the fundamental human rights that we cherish, especially our economic freedom, which is the most important freedom of all.

xo