Posted on 11/18/2022 9:42:34 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Remember back when Twitter started their full court press of censorship and account banning? Immediately after January 6, 2020, they began a huge purge. I lost 5000 followers overnight. Larger accounts saw even bigger losses. Coincidentally, it was only happening to conservative accounts. The progressive talking heads mocked and ridiculed the consternation from the right. Jake Tapper made a snide comment about not even being concerned about how many followers he’d lost because counting followers was beneath him. Of course, he boasts an account with over three million followers.
The left scolded the rest of us for our outrage. They pretended we were worried about popularity, when really it didn’t have anything to do with popularity. It was about reach, and Twitter was purposefully limiting the reach of conservative accounts through purging and shadow-banning. They made the complaints seem petty and narcissistic.
Build your own platform!
Some moneyed up Republicans did just that…and then they were banned from Amazon servers and app stores. You can build a platform, but if you can’t get it online, what good is it?
When we suggested that bias social media had helped influence 2020 elections (squashing Hunter Biden stories, deleting opinions as misinformation, etc.), the left scoffed at the idea. Social media is just a conversation space, and if you’re not following the rules of so-called “polite conversation” you’ve got to go. Nothing more, nothing less. They told us to stop whining about the non-existent influence of social media giants.
And then came Elon.
He’s hardly even begun to overhaul Twitter, and yet already Democrats in Congress are making noise about regulating Twitter. Very Important Opinion™ pieces about how “disinformation” could sway the next election began flying around. What will happen in 2024? What if Trump runs again, but this time without the restraints of social media censorship? What if *gasp* he actually reactivates his account? America cannot survive!
Failed Presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar appeared on CNN recently to express her concern that unfettered social media that embraces free speech could have an outsized influence on politics.
.@amyklobuchar threatens @elonmusk: "We have no rules when it comes to do they get to keep their immunity when they’re actually amplifying hate speech & misinformation … There are ways … we could put rules in place .. This should be a major focus for the Congress next year" pic.twitter.com/fzGdg7246n
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 18, 2022
As it turns out, conservatives were not crazy for suggesting that social media blackouts had a great influence on elections. When social media colludes with corporate media to squash legitimate stories, or even varying opinions on those stories, it does create a vacuum of sorts. The Democrat party understood this and swept in to fill the void with dangerous and harsh rhetoric about their fellow Americans on the right. It most certainly had an effect, but we weren’t supposed to notice.
Until now. Now they notice, because now the guy they don’t like is in charge of one of the most influential media platforms in the world. Their current frenzy has given away the game. They know damn well that controlling social media means controlling the flow of information and ultimately, the flow of the truth. Now that they aren’t in control, it’s a Problem™.
We’ve been right this entire time, and the freak-out fest proves it.
And what is really amusing is that Elon Musk doesn’t seem to be doing anything except taking off reins, not binding. Of course there still need to be moderation controls. Parler and Gab both learned the hard way why that is. People can get crazy from behind a keyboard (present company excluded, obviously) and if you don’t create an environment that people want to play in, your customers won’t show up. Still, Musk isn’t proposing censoring progressives. He’s just proposing not censoring (again, outside of typical moderation). In the deranged minds of progressives, having to compete on an even playing field equals DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!!
They’re not even self-aware enough to acknowledge their admission. But the rest of us see clearly what we’ve known all along.
The internet is the great equalizer, when allowed to function autonomously, and Democrats – the party of Jim Crow and slavery – really do not care for equality.
What are they freaking out about? I’m not sure he even intends to stop any of the censorship.
Agree.....the censorship policies will pretty much remain in force.
It’s social terrorism
Ping
Bfl
He has fired the senior executives who set the censorship rules in place and has fired half the staff and has set policies re: free speech that has made many others quit.
Most of the employees now gone from Twitter were involved in censorship and/or moderation either by the design/management of algorithms or directly by hands-on removal of conservative users.
Said he isn’t sure Trump will be allowed, Alex Jones isn’t, and I doubt it’ll Be the free speech haven we imagine
Oh bullshit nick
Because this forum runs on narrative generated by ones internal dialogue and prejudice rather than seeking actual information
I’ve been here 22 years and could spend 24 hours day trying to simply educate folks with facts instead of their earnest bloviation hunches
They usually vote right I’ll give em that
But shoot first learn facts second
I don’t have many pals here but those I do are solid and keep up
And most I actually know in real time
BTW, I just posted an article on this subject:
Musk posts Twitter poll asking whether Trump should be allowed back on platform
That said, I use FR to stay current and regularly get quick updates on things that are changing.
For my money, there are a lot of smart people here despite those with shallow opinions. Just like shopping at a tag sale/garage sale, you have to pick through a lot of junk to get to the jewels.;-)
Well, the censorship also affected people’s livelihoods. Whether it was Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.
Private companies that want to be in the content arena maintaining a TOS in regards to speech.
When this article talks about ‘reach’ they are also talking about $$$. Money made from being an ‘influencer’ account. Money made from being able to post your content on the platform and having reach. If you do not have ‘reach’ you do not get those gigs.
I landed my book deal because of my social media posts. 8 months later my accounts on two platforms were hacked and then banned. Height of covid and was never able to get them back or get back on those two platforms. My publisher won’t give me another book, because I no longer have content reach.
Not only should the people being reinstated be enough. There should be some sort of financial remuneration. The worst part of the entire experience, not being able to email or talk to a real person. Everything runs through their algorithms.
Does anyone remember just a couple years ago you used to be able to comment on articles posted on websites? I visit the MSN Financial site for stock information and to track investments. A couple years ago they did away with the ability comment on their articles. Initially, they said it was temporarily disabled. It was obvious that they did this to censor people from taking issue with their propaganda and slanted articles.
Now their articles are posted without challenge. Don’t want facts to get in the way of of their stories. What recession?
Head lefties are all hypocrites as we all know. And I do believe that they are aware of that fact. I actually believe they use that to their advantage because they know the unwashed and uninformed out in the cyber-sphere will believe anything the head lefties say.
.
Thanks, good article.
I added some keywords and pushed it up to frontpage
Vivek Ramaswamy talking about it on Fox and Friends Saturday a few minutes ago.
Who's the new boss at Twitter again?
If I were Trump I would never return for just that reason.
Trump has been reinstated to Twitter
That’s a -very- good sign...
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