In the summer of 2019, I wrote a parody of Henry V. It featured Adam Schiff as a royal looking to conquer perception territory via social media manipulation.
It co-starred Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest executives as the less-than-principled French princes who let him have his way.
The plot of Shakespeare’s Henry V revolves around the English king’s decision to try to conquer some territory in France. The play is often celebrated for its rousing “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers” speech given by Henry to his outnumbered soldiers before the Battle of Agincourt. It always struck me as the speech of a master manipulator, hype-master, and propagandist, rather than that of a hero, not least because the stakes for the soldiers couldn’t have been higher—he potential loss of their lives; and the value of a victory lower—a bigger kingdom for Henry and the ruling class to enjoy.
The parody was titled, “Hank”. I wrote it for a competition sponsored by the American Shakespeare Theatre. The grand prize? A chance to have the winning play staged. "Hank" did not win in 2019, but given recent #TwitterFiles disclosures and lawsuit discoveries, it seems we all won the booby prize of a real-life version of its imaginary premise.
Yes, Virginia, elected and appointed officials within our government have been running a massive, almost certainly first-amendment-violating, censorship-by-proxy operation, in cooperation with social media platforms.
Intelligence “community” activity has been rampant, as reported here.
Then Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff seems to have been aware and involved. As Reclaim The Net reported:
The plot of “Hank” revolves around Senator Hank Chaff’s decision to try to conquer information-age territory in the form of social media platforms. As in Henry V, self-interest (presidential ambition) is presented as selfless virtue. The effort by Hank to successfully suppress certain revelations which would reduce the power and profits of those who might support his eventual campaign, are represented as efforts to protect the populace from dangerous “misinformation”. Hank’s efforts to break social media platform’s milquetoast resistance to doing proxy censorship work for the government and its private partners, culminates in a battle with the one social media platform which offers just a wee bit of resistance.
So, I present to you for shits, giggles and/or tears, two scenes from “Hank”. In Act 3, Scene 3, Schiff—I mean our title character Hank—parleys with his first target, Pinterest Executives, to get them on board.
ACT 3, SCENE 3
(Pinterest executives sit at a table. Hank and his aides enter)
HANK
This is the last meeting I'm doing, and then I'm going ahead with a public campaign to hold a full investigation by the intelligence committee on whether your way of managing content poses a national risk. I advise you to work with us, rather than against. Cufflinks aside, when my nation's security is at stake, I'm a soldier willing to spit a naked infant on a pike if that's what it takes to secure the win. You want me out of your hair? I suggest Pinterest voluntarily move to a policy of banning anti-Rabbitist misinformation posts.
(Executive tries to get a word in edgewise)
HANK
What is it to me if Congress has its way with you with its foul hand? And once the hearing is called for, I won't be able to call it off. So, think of your shareholders. Think of your employees, think about what a very little bit of content control we're asking you to give up. For the public good.
(Executive again tries to speak)
HANK
If you’re going to bring up noncy concepts like intellectual freedom, save your breath. There are limits to that, and there always have been. We can't have people running around crying fire in a crowded theatre, and you can obviously see how dangerous it would be to have faith in protective Rabbit Ears undermined. I get it. You're a business and you don't want trouble with a public that might wander off to a new competitor, or boycott you. But trust me when I say that, thankfully, like you, most of the public understands that sometimes the safety of citizens requires that free speech not be absolute. Loose lips sink ships. Misinforming ones lead to broken hips. Cooperation will be a cakewalk next to going against me. The public is going to embrace your decision. You'll see. So yield and survive fat and happy, or guilty in defence, be thus destroyed.
PINTEREST EXECUTIVE
I begged the Platform Consortium for a meeting about this. For guidance. Radio silence. What choice do we have?
HANK
Let me tell you what I have in mind.
In the real drama, we all now know quite a bit about what Schiff had in mind. Even if in the mass media sphere, most outlets will still only allow revelations to be shared in the context of “opinion” pieces, such as this one which appeared in The Hill.
In “Hank”, the one platform which expresses any desire to resist is, ironically, Twitter. In Act 2, Scene 5, “Jack Prince” modeled on Twitter’s Jack Dorsey faces Schiff’s emissary during a meeting of the “Platform Consortium”.
JACK PRINCE
Chaff is a vain shallow putz. If he wants to try and thumbscrew us into doing his censorship for him, let him. It's an excuse for us to test our position with Congress. But please, let's not pretend there's any chance in hell he'd be successful.
CONSORTIUM PRESIDENT
You're underestimating him. Mark's people met with him a few months ago, and he's built up quite the machine. He's connected, and he wants to be President. Ambition's made him ruthless.
JACK PRINCE
He's a ruthless putz, then. Still hot happening. But whatever. We might as well imagine he's a real threat.
CONSORTIUM PRESIDENT
Oh, we are. He knows how to pick a stalking horse. This anti-Rabbit thing is perfect. "They're gonna kill us with their dangerous ideology!
JACK PRINCE
If there's one amendment Americans know by heart it's the--
CONSORTIUM PRESIDENT
Second!
JACK PRINCE
First!
SECRETARY
Representative Chaff's Chief of Staff is here.
CONSORTIUM PRESIDENT
Invite him in.
(to Jack Prince)
He's gonna chase us down.
JACK PRINCE
Well, then let's stop running and bring him up short. Show him our strength. Tell him "Hell, no" before this goes any further.
(Lex, Chaff’s Chief of Staff enters)
CONSORTIUM PRESIDENT
How you doing, Lex. If we'd known you were coming, we'd have baked a cake.
LEX
Hank sends his regards. Let me get right to it. Hank wanted me to convey to you the strong suggestion that you put aside the self-serving claim that your private platforms can be a free for all of any and all brands of information and misinformation, and any and all viewpoints, with no state involvement. Insofar as misinformation can undermine the ability of our defense infrastructure to defend our citizenry, the right to manage the flow of information and the expression of opinion, belongs naturally to the duly elected government, which the public has put in place to make decisions with more care and expertise than a mob would. Wars can be won or lost with, or for want of, guns, germs and steel. But loose lips can also sink ships. The state has a legitimate interest in the defense of the people against viewpoints and misinformation that if believed and acted upon could undermine our security. Hank intends to make sure the state can exercise it efficiently and pre-emptively. Within the week he expects you to suspend accounts of anyone claiming the rabbit is a duck. He expects you to change search algorithms so as to suppress "It's a duck" claims. He expects you to drop any subscribers who create "it could be a rabbit or a duck" content.
JACK PRINCE
Or what?
LEX
Bloody constraint. If you resist us explicitly or even implicitly, Chaff will cut all the deeper into your position. He's committed, and will break you to get the job done. Take my word, he's got the backing for an anti-trust push against you larger players, and every kind of sticky, profit-sucking regulation in the wings for the smaller. So you can deliver up the little bit of control we're asking for on this and avoid a lot of unhappy investors, laid off employees, and tapped IRA accounts, or go with righteous indignation.
CONSORTIUM PRESIDENT
Obviously, we can't give you an answer now. We need time to consider.
JACK PRINCE
Righteous indignation? That's all intellectual freedom principles are to Chaff? There's a reason we talk about the necessity of a marketplace of ideas.
LEX
Let me tell you something, Prince. Only a fool thinks those are anything but unaffordable luxuries when anything big is at stake. Representative Chaff wants what he wants for the good reasons I've shared. You think we don't know you've been boosting criticism of Chaff? Your next choice better sweeten the bitter mock of painting him as a violator of the First Amendment.
JACK PRINCE
If the others go for this, I'm not with them. Chaff deserves a resounding "No" on this. U.S. Citizens deserve it!
LEX
Loo, you can cooperate or by this time next, your Wikipedia entry is going to look a whole lot different. Capiche?
CONSORTIUM PRESIDENT
Everyone calm down. Like I said, give us a day to think through what you've said.
LEX
Don't delay. If I don't get back to him tomorrow with your answer, expect him to get back directly to you.
CONSORTIUM PRESIDENT
This is a major ask. One small breath of a day ain't going to make a difference.
(Exit Lex, enter chorus)
How could I have possibly imagined such an exchange in 2019 before Twitter censored the New York Post article about Hunter Biden’s laptop, or so obviously suppressed the reach of anyone challenging any aspect of the approved Covid narrative? Because in 2019 Adam Schiff was already testing out his social media control battle tactics on a target widely regarded as unsympathetic, and therefore not likely to inspire objection from fair-weather friends of the right to free expression: So-called “Anti-vaxxers”
As reported by the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons in January of 2020: