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Government Power Is Not An Obedient Servant

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Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:

Editor:

Ben Domenech and Sean Davis open their op-ed with this claim: “NBC News attempted this week to use the power of Google to cancel our publication, the Federalist. The effort failed, but it should serve as a warning about the unchecked power of big tech companies” (“NBC Tries to Cancel a Conservative Website [2],” June 18).

That the effort failed disproves the assertion that big-tech’s power is “unchecked.”

Even those of us who often disagree vehemently with the content and editorial decisions of private companies should be alarmed by hints, such as appear in Messrs. Domenech’s and Davis’s essay, that the same government that we rightly fear to exercise the power to directly punish people for peaceful expression should have the power to punish private companies for their decisions about peaceful expression.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA  22030

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