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Twitter Now Purging Regular Conservatives (Purge of Alex Jones was proof-of-concept)
Stream.org ^ | Published on December 10, 2018 | RACHEL ALEXANDER

Posted on 12/10/2018 7:08:18 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

If Twitter hasn’t suspended or banned you yet, don’t feel relieved. You may be next.

When Twitter and other big tech companies started banning fringy rightwing characters over the past year or so, few people objected, because even most conservatives weren’t sympathetic to those purged. It’s hard to feel sympathy for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. But once the radicals were banned, it became far easier to ban others.

Now, people tend to talk about public issues mostly on the big tech platforms. Minority viewpoints can use them to get around the mainstream or legacy media. A biased article in The New York Times or The Washington Post is more likely to be challenged by a small website communicating with its readers through Facebook and Twitter, than by a conservative magazine.

Need to be Concerned We need to be concerned when big tech starts censoring certain types of speech, even if we disagree with it. Big Tech doesn’t have to provide platforms for free speech, since they’re private companies. The First Amendment doesn’t apply. The tech companies can censor as much as they want to without violating the Constitution’s free speech protections.

But when they censor conservative speech, they corrupt the free exchange of ideas they claim to value. Each one declares itself a place for people to freely exchange ideas. They claim to be neutral as to politics, religion, and other matters. But they’re not.

Google, Facebook and Twitter have all censored those on the right. How do they do it? By treating some speech as hate speech — even when it’s not. Criticism of Islam or transgender activism has become a top reason for censorship. Twitter recently revised its terms of service to prohibit this type of speech...

(Excerpt) Read more at stream.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Politics
KEYWORDS: candowhattheywant; censorship; monopoly; privateenterprise; startyourown; thoughtcontrol; twitter
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1 posted on 12/10/2018 7:08:18 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

These purges and shadow bans did affect the midterms.

They need to purge and ban as much ad possible for 2020 and they will be enacting their process.

They do not want alternate viewpoints and arguments disseminated because they cannot win on direct discussion with facts and reason.

Nor can they win on funny memes that make a point.


2 posted on 12/10/2018 7:15:23 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
The author should be thankful that the water company, electric company, gas company, phone company, credit card company, bank, etc. that provide her with service haven't yet realized that, at least according to her, they can discontinue her service if they don't like her politics "since they're private companies." What an idiot!
3 posted on 12/10/2018 7:17:56 PM PST by snarkpup
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

You ain’t seen nothing yet. Just wait until a 3rd party gets a large amount of supporters then you will see Orwellian Tech unleashed with full top cover from the Uniparty.


4 posted on 12/10/2018 7:21:47 PM PST by lodi90
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To: lodi90
You ain’t seen nothing yet. Just wait until a 3rd party gets a large amount of supporters then you will see Orwellian Tech unleashed with full top cover from the Uniparty.

If you combine the idea of government using Twitter to censor people with the idea of banning minor political parties' conference speakers from entering the country, you've got the situation in the UK.

5 posted on 12/10/2018 7:28:05 PM PST by snarkpup
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

They can suspend or ban conservative contributors and users, but, can’t conservatives/republicans play the same game.

Aren’t conservatives and republicans a huge block of their users and contributors?

Then, why not we conservatives and republicans suspend and ban Twitter from our lives? We can decide to stop using Twitter and have them lose close to half their ‘audience’.

We can hit them even harder in the pocketbook by having the conservative/republican investors pull their money out; certainly, there are many other better places to ‘park’ our money.

Complaining while watching them do more harm doesn’t get us any satisfaction. It’s like the corner grocery store. If they don’t serve us and we don’t visit their store, they don’t succeed and eventually die.


6 posted on 12/10/2018 7:28:16 PM PST by adorno
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“If Twitter hasn’t suspended or banned you yet, don’t feel relieved. You may be next”

If you haven’t had your account locked or haven’t been banned outright from twitter, you’re not doing it right. I’ve had 5 different accounts locked out in the span of a year. Now, I can’t even sign up without them ‘knowing’ who I am. Yes, yes, VPN and all that...


7 posted on 12/10/2018 7:28:52 PM PST by Electric Graffiti (Cocked, locked and ready to ROCK!)
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To: snarkpup

>>Need to be Concerned We need to be concerned when big tech starts censoring certain types of speech, even if we disagree with it. Big Tech doesn’t have to provide platforms for free speech, since they’re private companies. The First Amendment doesn’t apply. The tech companies can censor as much as they want to without violating the Constitution’s free speech protections.

Big Tech is a monopoly operating in violation of antitrust laws and yet they seek more and bigger mergers

Also Big Tech considers themselves a carrier and not a publisher of content and claim no responsibility for copyright violations that occur on their sites, no responsibility for libel/slander/false advertising/incitement to violence/murder. When they pick and choose to only permit content from one political party over the other major party, they reveal that is a lie.


8 posted on 12/10/2018 7:29:54 PM PST by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committtee)
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To: adorno

#BakeTheCake


9 posted on 12/10/2018 7:30:31 PM PST by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committtee)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

1946
“A community is low on a ‘Respect’ scale if common courtesy is withheld from large groups of people on account of their political attitudes.”

“...in a downright despotism opposition is dangerous whether the despotism is official or whether it is unofficial...”

“A community rates low on the ‘Information’ scale when the press, radio, and other channels of communication are controlled by only a few people and when citizens have to accept what they are told.”

“See how a community trains its teachers”
“...these students are being taught to accept uncritically whatever they are told. Questions are not encouraged.”

“And if books and newspapers and the radio [and facebook and youtube and...] are officially controlled the people will read and accept exactly what the few in control want them to. Government censorship is one form of control. The newspaper that breaks the government censorship rule can be suspended. It is also possible for newspapers and other lines of communication to be controlled by private interests...”

Democracy (Encyclopedia Britannica film, circa 1946)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx25aMPvbJo

“The newspapers of a real democracy meet these tests...”

Newspaper checks.
1. Balance of coverage
2. Disclosure of source
3. Competence of staff


10 posted on 12/10/2018 7:34:02 PM PST by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committtee)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Twitter and Facebook will both ban President Trump the day he leaves office.


11 posted on 12/10/2018 7:40:38 PM PST by TaxPayer2000 (The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government...)
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To: a fool in paradise
#BakeTheCake

Meaning what???
12 posted on 12/10/2018 7:45:24 PM PST by adorno
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To: TaxPayer2000

Any platform Trump moves to will explode overnight.


13 posted on 12/10/2018 7:49:27 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Democracy dies when Democrats refuse to accept the result of a democratic election they didn't win.)
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To: adorno
Boycotting social media won't work, for at least two reasons. 1) The Saudi princes, etc. who "invest" in these companies don't care how much money they lose. They regard their "investment" as spending money to silence their opposition. 2) Without social media, we're back to hanging flyers on doorknobs, etc.
14 posted on 12/10/2018 7:51:12 PM PST by snarkpup
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To: Electric Graffiti

Use an orthogonal thesaurus...


15 posted on 12/10/2018 7:52:05 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: snarkpup

FR is not “social media”?


16 posted on 12/10/2018 7:52:59 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: a fool in paradise
For more details on carriers vs. publishers and how legislation needs to be crafted to actually solve the problem, see Josh Smith's video on his proposed Social Media Anti-Censorship act. I've posted my notes on the talk (with links to the details) here: http://freerepublic.com/~snarkpup/#smaca.
17 posted on 12/10/2018 7:55:50 PM PST by snarkpup
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To: snarkpup

Companies like Mastercard, Stripe and Paypal saying “we decide we don’t like your views, so we won’t do business with you” is a dangerous precedent.

And unlike newspapers and schools where you can set up alternatives relatively quickly, the massive government bureaucracy makes it nearly impossible to set up an alternative payment processor.

That’s aside from outright collusion to stop it, such as Google undermining Twitter rival Gab.AI because of its special relationship with Twitter ... and their shared prejudices against conservatives.

Liberals have abandoned the principle of the very RIGHT of free speech. They’ve abandoned the belief that we should tolerate diversity of opinion.

And they’ve violated the principle that people should have privacy - that everything must be political and everything in your life must be in alignment with liberal principles. That something you said in a private discussion, a group you refuse to date or how you vote should be public and you should be subject to sanction, shunning or actual violence for not living by the far left’s political principles.

The far left is aping Islam in this regard - that their ideology has to affect every aspect of your life. Lesbians who won’t date men in dresses are to be bullied for being exclusive. That any place is mostly white and male or conservative must be infiltrated and forced to agree with liberal dogma if they’re to continue to exist. That anyone voicing any contrary viewpoints must be too afraid to “come out of the closet”, so that the general public feels that there is no other worldview than the one they swim in like water.

But they ignore one of the biggest lessons from Islam. Mohamed was a moderate monotheist until they cut off his ability to trade and deal with others in Medina. He turned to piracy and violence. And then he came back and killed those who he wrongly blamed for the suffering, ignoring how they didn’t try to kill him like those in Medina did.

Liberals are creating the conditions where there will be many angry, dispossessed and now very poor people with nothing left to lose ... and legitimate grievances against them.

Communist William Shetterly calls it the “weaponization of poverty”, whether it is trying to financially cut off businesses or seeking to force businesses to fire a person and render them unemployable.

It is an understandable tactic for creating fear, because you essentially guarantee suffering of the target - and their families. Proportionality is irrelevant, just persecute the blasphemer / hater so hard that no one else in society will dare defame the sacred social justice dogma.

It is as if the left has seen the innocent Christians jailed in Pakistan and Bangladesh on trumped up or fake blasphemy charges and, instead of sympathy for Asia Bibi, see it as a desirable thing.


18 posted on 12/10/2018 7:55:52 PM PST by tbw2
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I signed up for Twitter just to see what it was all about. I picked President Trump and a bunch of other conservatives to follow and my account was immediately suspended.


19 posted on 12/10/2018 7:57:27 PM PST by Retired Chemist
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To: Paladin2
FR is not “social media”?

FR is not "public square" social media, which is what the issue is here.

20 posted on 12/10/2018 8:00:04 PM PST by snarkpup
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