Maybe the best way to counter this new vernichtungskrieg is through the courts. See, companies like Cloudflare, PayPal, Squarespace, and GoDaddy have the right to exercise a certain amount of what’s known as “viewpoint discrimination.” They absolutely can have a “no hate speech” policy. But they can’t discriminate based on race or religion. They can’t have a policy that they apply lopsidedly to one particular racial or religious group. Think of it like this: A restaurant can say “No shirt, no service,” but it can’t say “No shirt and you’re white? Fine! No shirt and you’re black? Get out.” In fact, a number of nightclubs have been sued over the past few years by black customers for enforcing their dress-code policies in a way that supposedly favors whites. A nightclub can have a dress code, but it must be applied consistently to patrons regardless of race or religion.
If PayPal only invokes its “no hate sites” policy if the owners of a site are white or Christian, but not if they’re black or Muslim, that’s discrimination. Perhaps it’s time for people on the right, and people who aren’t ideologically on the right but who give a damn about free speech, to take advantage of the antidiscrimination laws we already have on the books. If it can be shown that a tech company treats websites differently based on the race or religion of the owners, or the racial or religious point of view expressed on the site, well, that’s a nice little discrimination suit there.
Is my idea viable? I decided to ask an expert.
