Prepare for the arrival of the ‘Great Firewall of China': Social media have censored a large amount of information. They have not been 100% effective but they will be making improvements

American Thinker ^ | 11/30/2020 | John Dietrich

[SeekAndFind]

Conservatives frequently complain about Twitter and Facebook policies that censor conservative views.  Even “moderates” admit that these social networking services are biased against conservatives.  The Wrap reports, “Twitter and Facebook have been increasingly proactive in moderating content.”  Moderating content is a euphemism for censoring.  

Twitter and Facebook are social networking services that are privately owned.  It is argued that they are entitled to deny service to anyone they choose.  (Could they deny service on the basis of race?)  Their influence on public opinion cannot be overstated, however.  

In addition to social networking services, website and blog hosting services are capable of denying service.  Recently WordPress, the world’s largest website and blog hosting service, informed the site, The Conservative Treehouse, that it was being deplatformed.  The reason given was "the incompatibility between your site’s content and our terms."  

Social media have censored a large amount of information.  However, they have not been 100% effective.  They will be making improvements.

Social media censorship has had a major impact on public opinion.  This was dramatically illustrated by the media treatment of the New York Post article dealing with the Hunter Biden laptop.  Twitter and Facebook blocked platform links to the New York Post revelations of the Biden family scandals.  This obviously had an impact on the presidential election.  Mark Zuckerberg argued that his company’s delay in releasing the article was to allow time for their own fact checkers to vet it.  Twitter’s Jack Dorsey admitted “this action was wrong” in Twitter’s censorship of the Hunter Biden emails.

[SeekAndFind]

The Chinese government has implemented a variety of strategies to censor the Internet.  They are referred to as the “Great Firewall of China.”  

[Source: Global internet Freedom Consortium, China’s Great Firewall via Daxueconsulting]

The government maintains complete control over the Internet.  The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) controls access to the worldwide web.  Their social media app WeChat employs artificial intelligence to scan and delete images considered to include banned content. There are over 10,000 websites blocked in China, including the New York Times, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.  Chinese tech firms employ thousands of censors.  Facebook plans to increase the number of its employees who review and delete content on the site from 4,500 to 7,500.  According to The Wrap “China is a leader in developing and exporting internet censorship tools.”  It concluded, "Internet censorship in China will likely get more rigorous."

[cuban leaf]

I visited a favorite store when I was in the Chicago area. I had asked them online to create a MeWe account for those of us who have left facebook. She bristled at using “political” sites and said they would not do it, and that they had a hard time already keeping up with Facebook, snapchat, etc. The fact that she saw it as “political” was telling. Frankly, I’m really surprised at small businesses that are pro leftist. Then again, they are a record store.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Back in the day when Google was a little less evil, it refused to consult with China on internet control. Now, the Chinese have forged ahead on their own, and may consult with Google and Facebook!

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Back in the day when Google was a little less evil, it refused to consult with China on internet control. Now, the Chinese have forged ahead on their own, and may consult with Google and Facebook!

$$$$$$ <-— That’s all companies care about. THE BOTTOM LINE.

From companies that close manufacturing here in the USA to move to China, to the NBA ignoring human rights abuses in China, the potential market of 1.4 billion people, 4 times the size of the USA, greater than the population of the USA, Canada and Mexico (USMCA) combined is too lucrative to ignore.

[mo]

...peer-to-peer tech is coming big time....

Part of the rush to the Great Reset is trying to outrun that
trend before it is the standard-at which point centralization of info becomes history

[SecondAmendment]

> $$$$$ <-— That’s all companies care about. THE BOTTOM LINE.

That's the 20th century way of thinking, contemporary multi-nationals are in the business of acquiring political power and becoming pseudo agencies within a country.

This is why companies like NewsCorp don't care about loosing viewership and ad revenue anymore...

[ConservativeInPA]

$$$$$$ <-— That’s all companies care about. THE BOTTOM LINE.

You are correct. There is a second half to this, just as in economics there is supply AND demand. As consumers we have to power to affect their bottom lines.

At this point, I generally write something along the lines, "I cannot understand why Americans, particularly conservatives, use Google, Facebook and Twitter. Even the President uses Twitter after his tweets have been labeled and some even deleted." That is weak minded of me.

The reasons for social media use and acceptance of their censorship is apparent. 1.) Many, perhaps most, people are not politically inclined. They casually follow the news and if they do at all. Their social media posts are for the most part apolitical. In short, they are unaffected by big tech. 2.) Many people get caught up in the social aspect of social media. It is convenient. It is easier to post and tweet than to get the gumption to meet friends and families in person. 3.) Some people have addictive personalities. Perhaps you have experienced a friend or family member wanting to show you social media posts and pictures on their phones when you do meet them in person. They do this instead of making a memory in the moment with you. Instead of being on their phone they could be doing something active with you. 4.) Many people rather have safe online "friendships", which really do not rise to the level of a casual acquaintanceship. Emphasis on the word safe - they can control it. 5.) People care not for their freedoms until their freedoms are taken away. And even then they think they are powerless to do anything about it. 6.) People fear losing so-called social media friends more than losing their freedoms. Perhaps, they do not even foresee the potential loss of their freedoms.

I could continue.

My life is devoid of social media accounts and has been for years. The closest thing I get to social media is posting on FR, and reading other people's twitter posts and viewing videos online - generally posted on FR. So even I use social media. There is a place for it because it is an effective method of communicating. It by passes the mainstream media and news that is 95% Marxist. That's all great until social media companies censor what is being communicated. There are alternatives to Google, Twitter and Facebook.

It is time to cut them off. It needs to start with President Trump and every politician that is on the side of freedom and liberty. They need to move to platforms that do not censor. No posts, no tweets, no views decreases ad revenues. It affects their bottom lines. That's the other half of the equation. It's not all that difficult to do.

[SeekAndFind]

COMPETITION IS GOOD AND THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES

[SeekAndFind]

[Sirius Lee]

You were doing good up until that last one.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: You were doing good up until that last one.

Sorry, the last one was there in that image :( , but you don’t have to use either one of them. Heck, I don’t even care for the name — DOMINION anymore.

Just go to show that even porn stars have been politicized :(

[aimhigh]

I remember the good old days of the 80s, before corporations got onto the internet.

[subterfuge]

“privately owned?”

[markman46]

not private company’s publicly traded company’s, anyone of us can own stock in fakebook or twatter