Twitter exodus for Digital Gestapo?

As most people of a Conservative bent already know — it’s certainly no secret — the social media giants love Leftists because they are Leftists. They are the first to quash the accounts of Conservatives whilst tolerating the same precise activity by Leftists. The hypocrisy is unabashed, obvious, clear, flaunted and entirely unacknowledged by the social media giants themselves. With one slight adjunct exception. Later.

This has been documented hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times. Twitter has “shadow-banning.” And NO social media site will tell you precisely why you were “suspended” or had your account removed wholesale — instead providing a paragraph or two of mushy non-descript weasel words.

For fuck’s sake, people have told me I’ve been shadow-banned for a time. And I have about two followers.

There is an alternative social media site called Gab.ai, which takes pride in the fact that it doesn’t remove people for political reasons simply due to disagreement. I am a member of Gab but have been a shadow of my former self at that site because, well, I find it kinda clunky and the interface — to me — is less than intuitive. I say that predicated upon the fact that I am in my 7th decade. And oh yeah: a TechnoLuddite.

At one time, however, Gab.ai was so popular that it took me well over a month before I was approved. I don’t know why that is, I simply know that it was. Backlog? Lack of technicians due to a massive flood of converts? I truly do not know.

But I am a full member of Gab.ai now and I submit: perhaps you should be too. Quickly.

I received an email from Gab.ai on December 11th, and it read as follows:

GAB.

Hello everyone,

We’ve made some incredible progress this month on the product in preparation for Twitter’s strict new enforcement rules that will be going live on December 18th. Twitter will be judging user behavior both on and OFF of their website. Meaning if you visit another website that they don’t like or show “support” for groups they don’t like, you can get banned. This unprecedented level of censorship and blacklisting of groups from the public square is unlike anything in history and will be a huge opportunity for Gab.

Of course, on Leftist sites it goes something like this. From Mashable.com:

Twitter to neo-Nazis: you have until December 18

by Kerry Flynn

Twitter is cracking down on hate speech and not just by looking at its own site. 

Oh really. Do tell. Wait for it.  .  .

In what amounts to a major shift in Twitter policy, the company announced on Friday that it will be monitoring user’s behavior “on and off the platform” and will suspend a user’s account if they affiliate with violent organizations, according to an update to Twitter’s Help Center on Friday. 

Certainly Twitter will be as responsive and clear and transparent as it’s been with every other Conservative issue to date. Of course. History meet lies.

“You also may not affiliate with organizations that — whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform — use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes,” the update reads.

The Dec. 18 deadline also applies to using “hateful images or symbols” in profile images or profile headers. Twitter will also monitor for hate speech in usernames, display names, and profile bios.

 This new rule closes a loophole that Twitter’s critics had long pointed out: That known white supremacists and others affiliated with hate groups could still use the platform to send a sanitized version of their message and use their followers to bolster their overall profile.

 

Let me break it down for the uninitiated. Signing up for Twitter or Facebook will be similar to submitting to chipping. And that’s not so far off.

In the same article:

Twitter’s decision to monitor users off site sparked concern from free speech advocates such as Andrew Torba, founder of social network Gab. “This is a scary precedent to set,” he wrote in an email to Mashable. “Rules like this will only force dissidents and those who are speaking truth to power to silence themselves or risk being silenced by Twitter.”

There were actions and reactions, this being Monday, December 18th. Two articles from incidents that occurred immediately.

Twitter Bans Account Retweeted by President Trump

by Chris Tomlinson

Twitter began its “purge” of right-wing accounts Monday and has terminated the account of Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen, who reached global attention after she was retweeted three times by U.S. President Donald Trump last month.

Ms. Fransen, along with the official Britain First Twitter account and the account of leader Paul Golding, was suspended Monday afternoon. The banning comes after Fransen posted three videos purporting to show Muslim violence which were retweeted by President Trump and caused outrage among the establishment class who labelled the videos racist.

Odd, since the official mission of Britain First is this:

Britain First is a patriotic political party and street movement that opposes and fights the many injustices that are routinely inflicted on the British people.

Our policies are pro-British, our approach is no-nonsense and our principles are not open to compromise.

We love our people, our nation, our heritage and culture and will defend them at all times and no matter what odds we face.

The Britain First movement is not just a normal political group, we are a patriotic resistance and “frontline” for our long suffering people.

We require only the most stern, dedicated, loyal, steadfast and incorruptible men and women to help us build a future for our nation.

We want a Britain that is strong, proud, free, sovereign and independent, in which our people live in a healthy, moral and ethical society.

We want our people to come first, before foreigners, asylum seekers or migrants and we are overtly proud of this stance.

We will not stand back and watch as our people are made second class citizens by leftwing-liberal policies and political correctness.

We want British history, traditions and to be respected, promoted and taught to our young folk who deserve a decent future.

We want to eradicate corruption in our democracy, to end the ongoing expenses scandal and restore principles and decency to politics in general.

Heinous! Pro sovereignty. Anti-corruption. Putting Britain first (instead of the rest of the planet — how quaint), love of nation, heritage and culture. Japan is allowed to have, for example, a love of nation, heritage and culture. So is Afghanistan. Why not Britain?

BritainFirst.org has, naturally, had its Twitter account suspended.

Then this from Breitbart.com because, after all, they were inspired by Twitter today, yes?

YouTube Temporarily Bans Europeans from Viewing Cernovich Documentary on Migrant Rape Crisis

by Charlie Nash

YouTube banned Mike Cernovich’s documentary on Sweden’s refugee crisis from being viewed in European countries, then restored the video but placed it in “YouTube Jail,” disabling comments and sharing, while adding a warning message to viewers.

Cernovich shared the email from YouTube that informed him his documentary, Invasion! How Sweden Became the Rape Capital of the West, which was published in March, would be censored in Europe on Thursday.

 

My documentary on Sweden, which has no nudity or foul language, has been banned in the EU.

– No explanation given
– No legal right to appeal
– No due process is a scam, social media companies do not support a free and open internet.https://youtu.be/KSGuzv-2qUY 

 
 

“We have received a legal complaint regarding your video. After review, the following video: Invasion! How Sweden Became the Rape Capital of the West has been blocked from view on the following YouTube country site(s),” declared the company, before listing, “Austria, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, France, United Kingdom, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Croatia, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Martinique, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Poland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Reunion, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, French Southern Territories, Wallis and Futuna, [and] Mayotte.”

Hey, question for Leftists: does this sound like the “net neutrality” you so lovingly embraced? Not to me.

This also creates any number of unforeseen — or is it purposeful — consequences. You’ll now have a new Twitter Narc Class who will take it upon themselves to point at others and scream.

If you recall, we were already admonished to narc on others via Obama’s “reporting of fishy emails” regarding ObamaKare, from TheHill.com:

President Obama: Withdraw citizen reporting program

A troubling new citizen reporting program is being launched at the White House -– targeting those who oppose President Obama’s health care plan –- a program that can only stifle constitutionally-protected free speech.

In an official White House release posted by the White House Director of New Media, Macon Phillips claims that “[t]here is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there” both on the web and floating around in chain emails. Phillips states that “[s]ince we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

This is a very disturbing attempt to stifle the free speech of Americans who have the constitutional right to express their opinion and concerns about health care. It’s a move designed to intimidate those who have legitimate concerns about the health care plan. And, worse, it turns the White House into some sort of self-appointed “speech police” -– urging Americans to monitor and report those who engage in “fishy” speech.

What will Obama do with those names. Who will be flagged next?

Omigosh Leftists, have you forgotten that so soon? Conveniently so? Should we go to the Russian Model and have duly appointed Political Officers on Twitter and other Leftist social media platforms. We’re not so far away. Frankly, I’d appreciate being able to identify the obvious uniform. Ah, the heady days of the Stasi.

Any other problems? Would you have to obliterate people with a picture of a Confederate flag anywhere in their digital rumblings? How about a Communist flag? How about Antifa? Any linkage to the quite violent Antifa at all?

Further, how would you accomplish this digital search? How many people to assign this task. Evidence? Warrants? Of course not, Simply a Digital Pogrom via your Digital Gestapo. Thousands of Arabic accounts that are astoundingly anti-Semitic? General anti-Semitic accounts or mentions? What about the homophobic, misogynistic accounts of Muslims? Doesn’t a Saudi prince own an assload of Twitter anyway? Why, yes.

This Saudi prince now owns more of Twitter than Jack Dorsey does

by Alice Truong

A Saudi prince has increased his holdings in Twitter, making him the company’s second largest shareholder.

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, who in 2011 invested $300 million in the social network, now owns 34.9 million shares of Twitter’s common stock, according to a new regulatory filing (pdf).

At nearly 5.2%, his stake in the company is now larger than that of Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and newly re-minted CEO, whose 21.86 million shares give him 3.2% of the company, according to FactSet. (The prince previously had a stake of roughly 3%.)

Twitter co-founder Ev Williams remains the company’s largest shareholder, with 46.56 million shares for a 6.9% stake.

Didn’t Twitter originally bill itself as a “free speech platform”? Yes. So did UC Berkeley at one point. Look at them both now.

Twitter has now given itself the authority to police every Tweet. Every one. And for the behavior of each and every individual who sends Tweets — and that, of course, would apply, obviously per President Trump, to those who re-Tweet things as well.

What if nothing Tweeted is considered “offensive” by Twitter, but one’s off-site behavior is deemed “offensive”? Account suspended.

Twitter once billed itself as the “free speech wing of the free speech party.” AYFKM? No. Not at all.

Will these rules be applied in anything remotely resembling consistency, fairness, competence? Hardly. That’s similar to expecting consistency, fairness and competency from government.

Welcome to your officially-declared 2017 Digital Gestapo.

“May I see your papers please?”

Users, flee whilst you can.

BZ

 

Pushback pushes Marxist Houston Mayor Annise Parker BACK?

Mayor Annise Parker, HoustonI wrote about the situation originally here, where Mayor Parker wanted to remove the free speech of religious organs in Houston.  Please read the post first.

That said, Thursday, from WashingtonTimes.com:

Bully pulpit: Houston subpoenas pastors’ sermons, then backs off amidst outcry

Pastors had slammed demand from Mayor Annise Parker, city, as a threat to religious freedom

by Valerie Richardson

After calling church sermons for subpoena, Mayor Annise Parker backed down Wednesday from the city’s effort to force local pastors to turn over speeches and papers related to a hotly contested transgender rights ordinance.

The city had asked five pastors for “all speeches, presentations, or sermons” on a variety of topics, including the mayor, and “gender identity.”

The subpoena prompted a storm of criticism when it became public Tuesday. The pastors are involved in legal efforts to overturn the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, also known as the “bathroom bill.”

First Amendment FlagWait.  Is it just me?  Is this writer attempting to gloss over the fact that the mayor was attempting to set her Stasi Rottweilers upon those persons with which she simply disagrees?  In one word: yes.

Closely examine how the headline and sub-headline are written.  Any slant there you see?

However, Ms. Parker, a self-declared lesbian, defended the subpoenas after she was aware of them, according to her Wednesday afternoon statement.

In a post on her Twitter feed late Tuesday, around midnight, Parker said that issuing subpoenas for sermons was appropriate if the pastors had been active in promoting the signature-gathering effort to overturn the ordinance.

Frankly, nothing more than a naked abuse of power writ large.

Ms. Parker’s office initially doubled down in the face of such criticism but issued a statement late Wednesday saying the mayor “agrees with those who are concerned about the city legal department’s subpoenas for pastors’ sermons.”

But all is not won; in fact, public opinion isn’t having the effect many would like.

The statement says the city will “move to narrow the scope during an upcoming court hearing” and that city and that City Attorney David Feldman “says the focus should be only on communications related to the petitions to overturn the ordinance.”

Translated: there will still be a focus on the abrogation of the First Amendment in Houston proper.  We will still go for e-mails and other forms of communications.

Mark this now.  For a state that allegedly declares itself uninfluenced and independent and self-reliant and worthy of a lone star flag, Tejas proves itself more aligned with Fornicalia than many other states.

The five pastors targeted by the subpoenas are Hernan Castano, Magda Hermida, Khan Huynh, Steve Riggle and David Welch, all of whom opposed the ordinance.

Mr. Welch, executive director of the Texas Pastors Council, said city officials appear to be interested in “demonizing” the pastors by finding something politically incorrect in the stacks of sermons, emails, presentation notes and other communications requested under the subpoenas.

Tolerant LeftistsA story in flux and transition.  And not yet entirely solved in favor of logic or even the founding documents of our great nation.

Marxist Lesbian Mayor Annise Parker ain’t done yet.

Not until she grinds religion under her heel.

BZ

 

Leftists in America: suppressing Free Speech and Christian beliefs in Houston, TX

Brown Shirts MarchingJust when you were wondering: “how much worse can the attack on the First Amendment get?” — it gets worse.

From FoxNews.com:

City of Houston demands pastors turn over sermons

by Todd Starnes

The city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court.

Read that again and begin to fully and truly digest its meaning.

Annise D. Parker is a Stalinist mayor in America.  This is the re-creation of the Stasi and Brown Shirts all over again within the borders of the United States of America.

The subpoenas are just the latest twist in an ongoing saga over the Houston’s new non-discrimination ordinance. The law, among other things, would allow men to use the ladies room and vice versa.  The city council approved the law in June.

The Houston Chronicle reported opponents of the ordinance launched a petition drive that generated more than 50,000 signatures – far more than the 17,269 needed to put a referendum on the ballot.

However, the city threw out the petition in August over alleged irregularities.

After opponents of the bathroom bill filed a lawsuit the city’s attorneys responded by issuing the subpoenas against the pastors.

But here’s the Crux of the Biscuit:

The pastors were not part of the lawsuit. However, they were part of a coalition of some 400 Houston-area churches that opposed the ordinance. The churches represent a number of faith groups – from Southern Baptist to non-denominational.

Therefore, you can chalk the subpoenas up to nothing more than retribution.  And jackbooted authoritarianism.

The lawsuit and subpoenas were designed to intimidate, quash and chill the free speech of pastors and base religious freedoms themselves.

Mayor Parker will not explain why she wants to inspect the sermons. I contacted City Hall for a comment and received a terse reply from the mayor’s director of communications.

“We don’t comment on litigation,” said Janice Evans.

However, ADF attorney Stanley suspects the mayor wants to publicly shame the ministers. He said he anticipates they will hold up their sermons for public scrutiny. In other words – the city is rummaging for evidence to “out” the pastors as anti-gay bigots.

Pages ripped from the playbooks of both Saul Alinsky’s “Rules For Radicals” as well as Stalin and Marx:

Among those slapped with a subpoena is Steve Riggle, the senior pastor of Grace Community Church. He was ordered to produce all speeches and sermons related to Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality and gender identity.

The mega-church pastor was also ordered to hand over “all communications with members of your congregation” regarding the non-discrimination law.

“This is an attempt to chill pastors from speaking to the cultural issues of the day,” Riggle told me. “The mayor would like to silence our voice. She’s a bully.”

No kidding.  The response:

David Welch, director of the Houston Area Pastor Council, also received a subpoena. He said he will not be intimidated by the mayor.

“We’re not afraid of this bully,” he said. “We’re not intimidated at all.”

He accused the city of violating the law with the subpoenas and vowed to stand firm in the faith.

“We are not going to yield our First Amendment rights,” Welch told me. ‘This is absolutely a complete abuse of authority.”

Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, said pastors around the nation should rally around the Houston ministers.

“The state is breaching the wall of separation between church and state,” Perkins told me. ‘Pastors need to step forward and challenge this across the country. I’d like to see literally thousands of pastors after they read this story begin to challenge government authorities – to dare them to come into their churches and demand their sermons.”

Pastor Welch said: “We can no longer remain silent. We must stand together – because one day – the government might come for your pastor.”

This, of course, reminds me of the classic quote from another pastor named Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Final question: do you think this would have occurred with regard to Islamic sermons in America?  Do you think Islam “loves” gays?

I know my answers.

BZ