I stand in "awr" of you!
Regards,
Posted on 08/17/2023 9:00:09 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Tuesday was a banner day for censorship in America.
Within an hour of each other, I saw two prominent individuals lose access to major publishing platforms. In one case, Apple removed with no warning and no explanation Glenn Beck’s podcast from their platform, and in the other Scott Adams announced that Amazon has permanently banned him from self-publishing his books on their Kindle platform.
.@AmazonKDP (for independent publishers) banned me for life this week, so my book launch for Reframe Your Brain might be delayed.
Their stated reason is that I don't own my own content, although they have documents proving I do. I get no response when I ask who they think owns… pic.twitter.com/FCokGDITEj
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) August 15, 2023
In both cases, the cause could be some sort of glitch, and both are holding out hope that public pressure can get through to an actual decision-maker who could at least explain the reasoning behind the moves. As you likely know, these wildly profitable enterprises have worse customer service than a fly-by-night Chinese manufacturer whose experience with English is using Google Translate.
I have a feeling these “issues” with @Apple and others will keep happening the more we’re over the target. pic.twitter.com/RvATfZdUzJ
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) August 16, 2023
People who make money creating content need access to customers, and these “platforms” have a stranglehold on the means of distribution. YouTube, Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Twitter are the conduits to the customer base and have inordinate power to make or break a content creator should they so choose.
Unsurprisingly these platforms often collude through “independent” third parties, which in turn are largely funded by Left-wing organizations which create phony “safety” guidelines and “fact checks” which are used to gatekeep access to the public.
Ben Shapiro did a (mildly) deep dive into one of these groups and how “brand safety” is now used as a catch-all excuse for shutting conservatives up. Ironically, companies like Target and Bud Light did perfectly brand-safe things by these standards, at the cost of billions of dollars in lost revenues and company value.
Ironically, YouTube has suppressed monetization for Episode 1 of my new YouTube series, Facts, because it “discusses New World Order, which is a non-monetizable ‘conspiracy theory’ under [YouTube’s] Dangerous Acts in ad-friendly guidelines.”
Except nothing in the video is a… pic.twitter.com/rPj5d1JhA2
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 10, 2023
Add all the platforms together and you have a near-stranglehold on the market, and that stranglehold is used to promote certain narratives and silence others. Think of all the “conspiracy theories” during COVID that turned out to be true, and how much government-approved misinformation was promoted by Big Tech.
I am old enough to remember when people who argued that myocarditis was a problem with the vaccines were de-platformed, and criticizing vaccines as unable to prevent transmission of the virus was verboten. Those who were silenced were right, and those who were promoted by Big Tech were knowingly lying.
I am also old enough to remember when it was a “conspiracy theory” that COVID may have escaped from the Wuhan lab. You could get banned for saying it. Now we learn that even the authors who wrote a paper (at the behest of Fauci) claiming it surely didn’t happen actually suspected or even believed it had.
Censorship, you see, isn’t even intended to ensure only “true” information is shared; it is all about ensuring the proper Narrative™ is.
That is almost certainly the case here, where Ben Shapiro gets demonitized, Glenn Beck is removed from Apple Podcasts, and Scott Adams is banned from Amazon publishing. It is about propping up the Narrative™. Once a dissenter gets prominent enough they get censored.
We here at Hot Air have had the same thing done to us, as you know. We are not a “brand safe” publisher and hence many advertisers are steered away from monetizing our writing. That is why we keep on asking you to chip in to keep Hot Air and all the Townhall properties going. You can sign up for VIP access to exclusive content at hotair.com/subscribe and use code SAVEAMERICA to get 40% off.
UPDATE:
Looks like Apple restored my 3000+ episodes to their platform but still don't have clear answers as to why this happened. Hope to have an update for you tomorrow on radio.
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) August 16, 2023
Update: Lifetime ban on me reversed today without explanation. Stay tuned.
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) August 16, 2023
“If you continue in my word you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
I have to hand it to Adams.
His managing to stay relevant despite covid killing the idea of office cubicle humor is an accomplishment.
They do seem to be operating in an anti-trust manner along with assorted conspiracy and collusion. The checks could get pretty large for anyone with standing to sue.
I have a crazy idea. Let’s all stop using amazon and apple.
Amen 🙏🏻!
Gosh I’m glad the government is here to protect us
The first bans were on Holocaust denial books, at the behest of the World Jewish Congress (which proudly claimed credit in their press release): WJC welcomes Amazon move to remove Holocaust-denial books, offers assistance in identifying further material.
That part about "offering assistance" to "identify further material" is especially ominous. A clear sign that the censoring wasn't going to stop there.
And once Amazon caved to the WJC, other activist groups started lining up with their own wish lists of books to ban.
Amazon was founded with the promise of "making available every book ever published." A noble goal, one worthy of a free society.
Indeed
Remember when the internet was open
Yes. I first went online in 1995, with a 486sx laptop, gas plasma screen, and a 14.4k baud dial up modem.
Is displaying anti-Soviet tendencies with contemptable disregard for the protection of the workers’ revolution. All mentions of them will be excised from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
I stand in "awr" of you!
Regards,
I was way ahead on the date, but my modem was a rocking 1400 baud.
In 1987, I bought a 2400 baud U.S. Robotics internal modem for my XT desktop. But when I tried to access some BBS's, I couldn't get it to work. So I gave up.
Then the WWW took off in the 1990s. Rush Limbaugh began doing commercials for CompuServe. He made it sound easy.
So in 1995, I sent for the free hardshell disc with the CompuServe for DOS program, and I was off.
Someone messaged me. That never happened before. Suddenly a box pops up, with some person texting me. I asked where this person was. Turned out to be a woman from China. We talked briefly, and that was it.
It was an amazing feeling, to know I'd spoken to another human being thousands of miles away over my computer. Gen Z takes it for granted.
Brings me back to those wonderful days of the free aol disc .. around every corner and in every mailbox!🤣
How many times does this ‘accidentally’ happen to some powerful left wing crazy? I’m guessing ‘never’...
Can’t someone in this world just EMP us already. It’s the internet of things that is destroying societies around the world. Can’t censor what they don’t have. I am happy to love off grid. Most Can’t
More stiffleing of truth on behalf of the Stalinist Biden regime bought by the CCP???
Back in the 1990’s my teenage son (who works in IT now) rigged up a computer for me. I think he used an old Dell.
I remember waiting for the internet to load before I could use it.
I seriously told him at one point that I think I ruined the internet....by something I did. We laugh about that comment now.
It would be fun if you could go back and see it...to remember how different it was back then.
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