Very little federal regulation relates to matters that are supposed to be within the sphere of the central government, yet federal agencies eager to exercise control abound. One (the Consumer Product Safety Commission) declares that it wants to keep Americans safe from the menace of gas stoves; another (the Securities and Exchange Commission) demands that publicly traded companies commit themselves to a green agenda. This is detrimental to individual liberty.
In this AIER article, Robert Wright looks at the hazards this poses, particularly for free speech.
Digging back into the nasty history of the New Deal, Wright points to the way FDR’s minions used their regulatory power to silence unwanted voices:
One particularly stunning example of government censorship via corporate proxy occurred in February 1934, when the nation’s radio spectrum was still under the control of the FCC’s bureaucratic precursor, the Federal Radio Commission. Like more recent censorship-by-proxy, it led to death and destruction.
The example concerned famed pilot Eddie Rickenbacker, who was going to criticize the administration for its decision to use the U.S. Army Air Corps, instead of private airlines, to deliver airmail. Many military pilots had crashed doing so, and the government didn’t want that news to be spread. The newly established Federal Communications Commission could yank the licenses of radio stations that didn’t cooperate, and so Rickenbacker’s message never made it on radio.
Today, the government’s target is the internet. According to Wright:
The subsequent emergence of a few social media megasites like Facebook, Tik Tok, Twitter, and YouTube created the weak links that the government wanted. Their corporate owners are huge, and hence have much to protect from incursions by the IRS, the FBI, the FCC, the DOJ, and perhaps even the most potent regulator of all, the National Archives and Records Administration.
The statists never stop looking for ways to expand their power. The ability control what may be said and written is key to that. Our rights under the Constitution are being regulated away.