Sleepwalking into a very subtle form of totalitarianism

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-networking-sites-are-gagging-free-speech/279714052057549?sk=info


Networking sites are being abused more and more as a channel for controlling, rather than expanding freedom of expression. We're sleepwalking into a very silent and insidious form of oppression.
   
If you subscribe to groups or pages of interest on your favourite social network provider, you will more than likely find that any posting that deviates from the orthodoxy of the group will more than likely be deleted, with the poster getting blocked. What's wrong with that? you might say. If the poster is being inciteful, defamatory or abusive, not very much. However if a poster is challenging statements or opinions that deviate from the orthodoxy of the group founder, and being suppressed simply for this, then this is an abomination and a lamentable commentary upon how little genuine freedom of speech there is in our so called democracy. The fact that such a practice is so mainstream is somewhat chilling. The world wide web has always offered the opportunity of emancipation to a new generation of users around the world. However with the advent of the social networking culture, we are sleepwalking into a very subtle form of totalitarianism. You will see more and more of this wherever you step within this virtual world. Social networking can be a fantastic gateway to a world of people one would never ordinarily meet, but it has the potential to be our enslaver as well. We must avoid sleepwalking into this abstract cage.