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The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan 501 (c)(3) foundation that fosters First Amendment freedoms for all [Americans, presumably].
OUR VISION The First Amendment is the cornerstone of a government by, for and of the people, yet most Americans can’t name the five freedoms it guarantees. Our vision is an America where everyone knows, understands, values and defends the freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. We believe that encouraging the broad understanding and vigorous use of these fundamental freedoms by the people is the best way to preserve and protect the First Amendment for future generations.
For those, like me, who're unfamiliar with the the first amendment:
45 WORDS OF FREEDOM “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Freedom Forum, The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
So far, so boring. Who, outside of the US, gives a crap?
Well, gentle reader, it's interesting that the Freedom Forum's 2021 Free Expression Awards have recognised Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, for her incredible leadership with YouTube
. If you've never heard of the Free Expression Awards, you're not alone. I was also ignorant of their existence until now. And I'm willing to bet that we're not alone; Freedom Forum joined YouTube on 22.08.2006, a full fifteen years ago, and yet has only 13.9k subscribers. Think about that for a moment.
The Free Expression Awards supports the educational work of the Freedom Forum Institute by recognizing individuals for their courageous acts of free and fearless expression.
Freedom Forum, 2021 Free Expression Awards Highlight: Susan Wojcicki
This is truly ironic, given YouTube's disdainful and unfair treatment of its creators; bias and favouritism; stifling wrongthink
; and inconsistent application of its own terms of service. Not to mention viewer censorship, although the downvote count for this video has not been hidden, and currently stands at 8.7k, compared to 27 upvotes, from 23,010 views.
All that I can add, by way of explanation, is that this year's [massive air quotes] Free Expression
Awards were sponsored by…none other than YouTube! I'll leave it to you, gentle reader, to join the dots.
Comments are on!
Alternatively, you can read the comments section, while it's still available, to get a feel for how Wojcicki's recognition has been received by the great unwashed—TL;DR: not well!
"free expression" - spends 90% of time talking about how they "detect" and silence what they dont like
Mehu Muiki, commenting on 2021 Free Expression Awards Highlight: Susan Wojcicki
"How do you make sure everyone has a voice" Everyone except the tens of thousands of creators Susan has deplatformed for wrongthink.
jdg, commenting on 2021 Free Expression Awards Highlight: Susan Wojcicki
Even Stalin had the good taste to turn down a few of the awards he gave himself.
tom bickers, commenting on 2021 Free Expression Awards Highlight: Susan Wojcicki
Et cetera.
And then there's the edgy comment:
The irony of a blind girl giving this award is not lost on me.
Murlynd, commenting on 2021 Free Expression Awards Highlight: Susan Wojcicki
Which is just mean. It's not her fault. She asked for a refreshing soda, and couldn't see that the scheming bastards had handed her a bottle of YouTube koolade instead.
As some commentators have suggested, was this a cynical shield tactic by YouTube? After all, Molly Burke's conversation with Wojcicki was never going to be dangerous and challenging to the purchaser, sorry, awardee. So, what relevance is her disability to the presentation of the award? She led with it, but it was unnecessary within the wider context of the discourse. Why bring it up at all, if not to deflect criticism?
From the thumbnails on her videos, Burke runs what appears to be a fairly run-of-the-mill, me-centric, lifestyle channel.* Consequently, she covers topics that are hardly likely to incur the wrath of YouTube's Minitrue, or provoke its censors. She clearly hasn't had the same negative experiences that others have had. So, perhaps she's just happy enough with the koolade after all.
* I just couldn't be arsed to watch enough of her videos to come up with a better description than that. She doesn't include a channel description herself; so, there may be hidden depths. Whatever.
FWIW, I believe that the reputations of the Freedom Forum and its Free Expression Awards will be forever tarnished by this clearly prejudiced, commercial association. Presumably, they consider the kick-back from YouTube to be worth it. Having said that, trying to understand the relationship and differences between the Freedom Forum Institute and its principal funder, the Freedom Forum
gives an eerie sense of tax efficiency
at best, and some kind of spooky at worst. It may be legit, but it's somewhat vague and I'm not going to take it too seriously.
Holy crap! The video's dislike count has risen to 8.9k in the time that it's taken me to write this post. This is gonna be fun!