“A VERY DANGEROUS THING”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Aug. 18, 2018) — On Saturday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted his concerns about a growing number of reports that social media sites are muzzling right-leaning individuals while continuing to allow those on the political left to express their views freely.
In January, Facebook changed its algorithm, after which many right-leaning pundits and Internet educators reported that their traffic was significantly reduced or their videos removed altogether by Internet giants such as Google, Facebook, YouTube (owned by Google), Patreon, Twitter, Spotify, ITunes and others.
Last week, in what some are describing as a “coordinated” effort, info war’s host Alex Jones was silenced by at least a half-dozen platforms on the same day. On Wednesday, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai closed down Liberty Radio, a station Jones was using based in Texas for his radio show which the agency claims was operating illegally.
On Thursday, Matt Couch of America First Media Group (AF-MG) discovered that his Patreon page was “removed” without warning. Likewise, last month, Jihad Watch founder Robert Spencer’s page at the fundraising site was closed, citing a mandate from MasterCard, which Spencer says he does not use.
On Fox & Friends Saturday morning, Turning Point USA spokeswoman Candace Owens revealed that she had just come out of “Twitter jail” imposed on her account for a week.
Gavin McGinnis and others have been banned permanently from Twitter although maintaining that they did not violate the platform’s policies.
In October, PragerU sued YouTube and Google alleging that “unlawfully censoring its educational videos and discriminating against its right to freedom of speech solely because of PragerU’s political identity and viewpoint as a non-profit that espouses conservative views on current and historical events.”
Since last fall, internet vloggers “Diamond & Silk” have alleged that Facebook labeled them as “unsafe to the community.”
In March, a Catholic organization, Ordo Militaris, was banned permanently for tweeting criticism of UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of radical Islam within her country. Appeals have reportedly fallen on deaf ears, and Twitter gave no meaningful response to this writer during its investigation.
A Tuesday vehicular attack in Parliament Square on pedestrians and cyclists was found to have been carried out by a “Sudanese immigrant.”
“Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices,” Trump tweeted approximately 7:30 AM EDT. “Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others…..”
That tweet was followed by, “… Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police. If you are reading out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all..”
His final tweet on the subject claims that “too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen… Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!”
The Media Research Center (MRC) has issued a report which claims that social-media companies are “targeting” those deemed to be “conservatives.”
Are these not companies (You tube and the Face Book)?
Are they bound by the same freedom of speech requirements as government?