Matt Kibbe is joined by Katherine Mangu-Ward, editor-in-chief of Reason, to discuss how government and tech companies form an unholy alliance to restrict our speech online. In this libertarian nerd-fest, they also talk sex work, the War on Drugs, and capitalism, and as a bonus, you’ll get an answer to the burning question of whether Mark Zuckerberg is a lizard person.
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Free the People publishes opinion-based articles from contributing writers. The opinions and ideas expressed do not always reflect the opinions and ideas that Free the People endorses. We believe in free speech, and in providing a platform for open dialog. Feel free to leave a comment!
Matt Kibbe is President at Free the People, an educational foundation using video storytelling to turn on the next generation to the values of personal liberty and peaceful cooperation. He is also co-founder and partner at Fight the Power Productions, a video and strategic communications company. Kibbe is the host of BlazeTV’s Kibbe on Liberty, a popular podcast that insists that you think for yourself.
Dubbed “the scribe” by the New York Daily News, Kibbe is the author three books, most recently the #2 New York Times bestseller Don’t Hurt People and Don’t Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto.
He was senior advisor for a Rand Paul Presidential Super PAC in 2016, and later co-founded AlternativePAC to promote libertarian values.
In 2004 Kibbe founded FreedomWorks, a national grassroots advocacy organization, and served as President until his departure in 2015. Steve Forbes said: “Kibbe has been to FreedomWorks what Steve Jobs was to Apple.”
An economist by training, Kibbe did graduate work at George Mason University and received his B.A. from Grove City College. He serves at the whim of his awesome wife Terry, and their three objectivist cats, Roark, Ragnar and Rearden. Kibbe is a fanatical DeadHead, drinker of craft beer and whisky, and collector of obscure books on Austrian economics.
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I lean libertarian, but am not a purist. I think the “private corporation” argument is fallacious for three reasons. 1) the current platforms are monopolies (and false monopolies because they are receiving false government protections under Section 230, which they are abusing) , and 2) essential services are being denied in the current public square (now “owned” by about 5 corporations). So privately owned public spaces cannot limit speech, and 3) no one owns the internet, but any competition to these handful of companies has been systematically de-platformed by these technocrats, whether it be by domain registrars or payment processors, forming a protectionist trust. I don’t know what the answer is, but to rule out an “internet bill of rights” of types is short sighted. The purist libertarians are going to make us all lose our liberties, and that is why I am no longer a libertarian. Oh-and Big Tech and Big Government are already collaborating. Let’s see if we can get rights protected for the average person.