In a blog post written 8 Jan 2021 by Mitchell Baker, Mozilla has officially condoned the actions of Twitter to remove the U.S. President from their platform and says “we need more than deplatforming”.
Baker’s statement, “Changing these dangerous dynamics requires more than just the temporary silencing or permanent removal of bad actors from social media platforms” clearly communicates Mozilla’s belief that censoring free speech is a viable solution.
Put aside political party for a moment; once someone supports silencing opposing voices, they are giving power to an evil ideology that ultimately leads down the “Road to Serfdom”. Silencing opposition is a shortsighted view by Baker and Mozilla. What happens when Baker’s own beliefs and opinions aren’t accepted by the algorithms and “tools to amplify factual voices” that she’s calling for? Simple. She will be deleted too.
Although it’s easy to tell Mozilla “keep your politics to yourself and stick to making software”, it’s good that we now see their true colors.
If you’re motivated to replace the Firefox browser, my recommendation is Tor Browser. I’ve used Firefox off and on since it was forked from the Mozilla browser in 2004, and have kept it hardened (despite some shortfalls) with extensions. Today will be the last GET and POST requests by a Firefox browser from me. I’ll use Tor Browser mostly and test other privacy-focused browsers.
Also, check out Sven Taylor’s article “Secure Browsers that Protect your Privacy“. His Restore Privacy website is an excellent source of information for those concerned with protecting themselves online.
Also, for users of the Thunderbird mail client, there are many great mail client alternatives as well.