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.
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#NetNeutrality 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
