Today’s blacklisted American: Former President Donald Trump
What Facebook & Instagram want cancelled.
They’re coming for you next: Both Facebook and Instagram instantly removed today an interview of former President Donald Trump in which he suggested he might run again for president in 2024, merely because the clip contained his voice.
[The interview] was for The Right View. … During the 18-minute interview, Trump also spoke about running for President again in 2024. Lara [Trump, whose show it was and who is Trump’s daughter-in-law] had been promoting it on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter beforehand.
At 9.26pm on Tuesday night, four minutes before it was due to be uploaded, Facebook emailed Lara’s team warning them that it would be removed if it went live. At 9.51pm, they emailed again to say that they’d taken it down.
Lara shared screenshots of the emails on Instagram afterwards. ‘And just like that, we are one step closer to Orwell’s 1984. Wow,’ she wrote alongside them.
Trump has been banned from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram since the January 6 riots, cut off from his supporters and unable to get messages to them in the way he did before.
In their email, the Facebook employee said that ‘content posted in the voice of President Trump is not currently allowed on our platforms (including new posts with President Trump speaking) and will be removed. ‘This guidance applies to all campaign accounts and Pages, including Team Trump, other campaign messaging vehicles on our platforms and former surrogates’. [emphasis mine]
The audacity of this censorship of a former president of the United States by these companies is breath-taking. The highlighted quote makes it clear: Their goal is to silence Trump, in every way possible. They do not celebrate free speech, or the ability of everyone to express themselves publicly. The only people who will be allowed freedom of speech will be those who agree with them.
Though they are private companies who should have the freedom to publish who they wish, these companies also have been granted special tax status as utilities which provide a platform for everyone, not a publisher who picks and chooses what he wishes to publish. Under this tax benefit, they have no right to block anyone’s show, period.
Putting aside these legalities, why would any Republican, conservative, or anyone who supports free speech remain a user of Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter? They are not only clearly Democratic Party operatives, working to promote that political party’s agenda, they also clearly view anyone who disagrees with that agenda to be pond scum. Why provide any support to such authoritarians?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
What Facebook & Instagram want cancelled.
They’re coming for you next: Both Facebook and Instagram instantly removed today an interview of former President Donald Trump in which he suggested he might run again for president in 2024, merely because the clip contained his voice.
[The interview] was for The Right View. … During the 18-minute interview, Trump also spoke about running for President again in 2024. Lara [Trump, whose show it was and who is Trump’s daughter-in-law] had been promoting it on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter beforehand.
At 9.26pm on Tuesday night, four minutes before it was due to be uploaded, Facebook emailed Lara’s team warning them that it would be removed if it went live. At 9.51pm, they emailed again to say that they’d taken it down.
Lara shared screenshots of the emails on Instagram afterwards. ‘And just like that, we are one step closer to Orwell’s 1984. Wow,’ she wrote alongside them.
Trump has been banned from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram since the January 6 riots, cut off from his supporters and unable to get messages to them in the way he did before.
In their email, the Facebook employee said that ‘content posted in the voice of President Trump is not currently allowed on our platforms (including new posts with President Trump speaking) and will be removed. ‘This guidance applies to all campaign accounts and Pages, including Team Trump, other campaign messaging vehicles on our platforms and former surrogates’. [emphasis mine]
The audacity of this censorship of a former president of the United States by these companies is breath-taking. The highlighted quote makes it clear: Their goal is to silence Trump, in every way possible. They do not celebrate free speech, or the ability of everyone to express themselves publicly. The only people who will be allowed freedom of speech will be those who agree with them.
Though they are private companies who should have the freedom to publish who they wish, these companies also have been granted special tax status as utilities which provide a platform for everyone, not a publisher who picks and chooses what he wishes to publish. Under this tax benefit, they have no right to block anyone’s show, period.
Putting aside these legalities, why would any Republican, conservative, or anyone who supports free speech remain a user of Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter? They are not only clearly Democratic Party operatives, working to promote that political party’s agenda, they also clearly view anyone who disagrees with that agenda to be pond scum. Why provide any support to such authoritarians?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The fact is that the government cannot rely on these platforms for official state functions.
When republicans finally get back power, they simply need to pass a law not to tell “private” companies to do, but to mandate that state, local, and federal officials and agencies be banned from posting on any media that has ever banned or censored a state, local, or federal official or agency without a court order..
Call it the government outreach reliability act or something. Twitter can still exist, but no nasa or national evacuation warnings or potus account. It can revert to cat photos.
Guess what?
Mike Lindell is about to launch his own Youtube / Twitter concept and he has it set up for at least 1 billion users right out of the gate. I believe it will be called FRANK.
And D.J. Trump is also going to do the same.
Pretty soon the playing field will be leveled, and so being banned from Youtube and Twitter and Facebook by these enemies of freedom, these censors or free speech and the Constitution has resulted in what may well defang, dilute or destroy them. They crafted it themselves.
It can only get more interestinger.
Let’s not forget that private companies don’t have the freedom to refuse baking cakes for gay weddings.
Also private companies don’t have the freedom to keep an employee should the mob want them fired.
We need to crack this one layer at a time.
First, government officials and agencies need a platform where they can put forth official statements even if some private company doesn’t like it. It can just be a discord server hosted by the government, but it needs to be something.
Secondly, we need to break up the iPhone App Store as the monopoly it is. Microsoft was almost broken up for preinstalling Internet Explorer on Windows. This is a million times worse.
Not only does Apple put their AppStore preinstalled as the default, but they prevent other people from making their own.
There was a little noticed Supreme Court decision involving the four (then) liberal justices and the only conservative judge who knew what an App Store is. If followed through properly, this will make it impossible for apple to block competing app stores.
David–
Local, State, and Federal governmental entities already have their own web-pages, whereupon they conduct ‘official business.’
Just because various governmental entities utilize non-governmental platforms to disseminate their propaganda, doesn’t make anything they say on them, true, legal, or ‘official.’
[on the Federal level, IIRC, the Federal Register is the publication of Record.] {unlike the New York Times}
Q: ref: “When republicans finally get back power, they simply need to pass a law…..”
Which Republicans, at what level, are going to pass what laws?
(i’m doubting that piling up intervention upon intervention by our Overlords, is going to ‘fix’ any of this.)
Brazil (1985)
trailer
https://youtu.be/ZKPFC8DA9_8
2:14
David K, excellent suggestions.
“these companies also have been granted special tax status as utilities which provide a platform for everyone”
Can you imagine a utility that can decline your home water, electricity or gas because of your political views? I suppose if your bank freezes your account, declines your credit cards, your utilities won’t be paid giving them an excuse to decline your Utilities for non-payment… ESG- score may have this effect. (Environmental social government score) public/private corporations will control, to some extent, everything.
Cotour, here is a site that a lot of videos have been moving to that’s been canceled/pulled down from YouTube. Just heard of it.
https://brandnewtube.com/
Wayne – Brazil! Holy Cow! (I think I can still say that?!) – How’d they get that camera in my head? I’ll have to watch that movie. Maybe it will seem like a re-run.
So I call your Brazil and raise a Jordan Peterson – lucid dreaming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwPoNcGpefw
Hi Robert, Here is an idea for your 2022 fund raiser. First Year Under Biden. Print up a little booklet with all of your 2021 ‘Their coming for You Next” essays. $2.00 (or more) will get your very own copy!
Just a thought… Art
Why provide any support to such authoritarians?
Because these companies made it brain-dead easy to connect and communicate with other people (mostly, only ones that are on said platform). So all the lazy and brain-dead folks decided to embed their lives on these platforms instead of building their own websites to do so. And they pulled in their families and acquaintances, too.
Also, because these platforms appeal to the inner narcissist of most people. They get all these thumbs-up and likes and they have soooo many friends and followers. Their emotional experience or intelligence is validated. “You like me. You really, really like me!” (Evidently it was actually “You like me, right now, you like me!”, which is even more appropriate.)
Max said
March 31, 2021 at 7:51 pm
Can you imagine a utility that can decline your home water, electricity or gas because of your political views?
You mean, like if you disagree with requiring masks?
Cotour said
March 31, 2021 at 1:54 pm
Pretty soon the playing field will be leveled
Well, not really. Because Facebook (not as much) and Twitter are broadcast utilities. The point is that everyone on them can share with everyone else on them. So the new places will not be broadcasting to everyone, but only to those who show up there.
Yes, not everyone is on Twitter or Facebook. But we suffer for that (for some values of ‘suffering’) by not having access (for replies, and sometimes even for viewing) if we don’t join the crowd. And there are ways to cross-pollinate, I think. But it doesn’t have the ease of a single place for mingling and gossiping. (Yes, Facebook and Twitter are basically the old Gossip’s Corner, or the back fence. Except everyone in town can hear you.)
Mind you, I’m not saying those alternatives shouldn’t happen or can’t succeed. But it will never be a “level playing field” in the sense of everyone talking to everyone. (You might be able to build an app that cross-pollinates with Twitter, but you will still have to have an account on Twitter for that. I doubt Facebook would ever allow a plug-in that would cross-pollinate; and of course, you would still have to have a Facebook account, too.)
You get Black-Listed by the Liberal Democrats for not being a Globalists and the M.S. Media for not being Liberal Democrat trump is Not a Globalists or a Democrat unlike Clinton,Obama and Biden