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July 30, 2021 — John Hinderaker
The dark night of censorship isn’t just threatening, it is already here. The most recent case–one of hundreds, if not thousands–is that of Dave Rubin, a popular conservative commentator with a large following on Twitter. Rubin tweeted this: They want a federal vaccine mandate for vaccines which are clearly not working as promised just weeks ago. People are getting and transmitting Covid despite vax. Plus now they’re prepping us for
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July 22, 2021 — John Hinderaker
The Biden administration has enlisted Facebook to police conversations among Americans. This is because the rest of us are too dumb to be trusted, and may fall for “misinformation.” So how does Facebook carry out its mission of uplifting our discourse? By censoring conversation about hoes in gardening groups: A group called WNY Gardeners has been repeatedly flagged by the social network for “violating community standards,” when its more than
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July 16, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Today saw a follow-up to the revelation that the Biden administration is instructing Facebook as to “misinformation” that Facebook should delete from its platform. Joe Biden was asked about his administration’s relationship with Facebook as he departed for Camp David. His response was striking: President Biden on Friday accused Facebook of “killing people,” just after White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration is “in regular touch” with
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June 18, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Some readers may remember that I was mysteriously booted off Twitter some months ago. Twitter was never my preferred medium, but I had around 14,000 followers. One day Twitter sent me an email saying that my account had been accessed by someone in Australia who had changed my email address. If you didn’t do that, Twitter’s email to my user name said, click here. I clicked there. The first thing
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June 4, 2021 — John Hinderaker
After the mostly-peaceful demonstrations in Washington last January 6, Facebook and Instagram suspended President Trump’s accounts. He appealed to Facebook’s Oversight Board, which upheld the suspension but said it should have a time limit. Today Facebook responded by decreeing that Trump is off its platforms for two years, and after that, they will see. Facebook’s suspension was based on two posts that President Trump did on January 6. Both called
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May 22, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Alpha News is Minnesota’s scrappy alternative news service. Scott serves on Alpha’s board, and my organization both supports and collaborates with Alpha. Today Alpha reported that Facebook has threatened to ban its page for posting a cartoon that Facebook found offensive: Facebook has threatened to ban Alpha News from its platform for publishing an anti-Hamas cartoon. The Alpha News Facebook page now has “reduced distribution and other restrictions” for publishing
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May 10, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Buzzfeed has a story that is perhaps unintentionally revealing. Facebook documents leaked to that outlet indicate that Facebook is trying to assuage Starbucks’ ire at “hate speech” the company is encountering on the social media platform: Facebook is scrambling to prevent Starbucks from leaving its platform after the world’s largest coffee company said it was dismayed by hateful comments left on its posts about racial and social justice issues. In
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February 8, 2021 — John Hinderaker
One of the major issues of our time is the Left’s attempt to ban conservative speech where it now matters most: on social media platforms. The Left monopolizes social media outlets, and if an upstart competitor rears its head–Parler, say–it is crushed by an obviously-illegal combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade. (See Section 1 of the Sherman Act.) Good luck litigating that for the next ten years while you
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February 3, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is an important guy in more ways than one. As John notes in this nearby post, DeSantis seeks to impose statutory constraints on Big Tech/social media in support of neutral free speech principles. Below is the full video of DeSantis’s press conference announcing the initiative. Looking around online for the details, I see that the Miami Herald reports: The proposed bill, which is still being drafted,
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February 2, 2021 — John Hinderaker
A number of people around the country are working on the problem of censorship of conservative speech by the technology behemoths, especially the social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. For now, it seems clear that federal action is foreclosed. The Democrats have no intention of doing anything to disrupt a situation that is highly favorable to them. So for the foreseeable future, all the action will be at the
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November 30, 2020 — John Hinderaker
That is what my friend Roger Simon says: “Now Is the Time for All Good Men and Women to Get Off Twitter.” Whatever Jack Dorsey and his minions dislike, whatever threatens them, is automatically banned or, at best, temporarily tolerated with some supercilious notation about its supposed wrongheadedness. (And they claim they’re a public facility—like the phone company.) Almost never do they say with any specificity why they are censoring.
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November 17, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Following the election, the social media monopolies did their best to ban discussion of voter fraud, lest confidence in Joe Biden’s “victory” be shaken. Today, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on their platforms’ political biases and influence. I don’t know what to make of Dorsey. He looks like a homeless person and, based on videos I have seen of his
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October 28, 2020 — John Hinderaker
CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google testified today before the Senate Commerce Committee on Big Tech censorship, and its naked support of the Democratic Party. The hearing lasted for nearly four hours. This exchange between Ted Cruz and the apparently homeless Jack Dorsey has been the most discussed moment in the hearing: We may add further clips as they come to our attention. Basically, the Silicon Valley giants are sitting
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October 14, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Today the New York Post published an explosive expose on Joe Biden. Here are some of the highlights: Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company, according to emails obtained by The Post. The never-before-revealed meeting is mentioned
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June 18, 2020 — John Hinderaker
That is an evergreen headline. Here are a couple of instances from today’s news. First, Facebook has pulled Trump campaign ads under its “organized hate” policy. Sounds serious, right? No: the Trump ads were anti-Antifa, and, since Antifa is an organized hate group, you might think Facebook would approve of them. Just kidding. Still, what was the problem? The Trump campaign ads included a red inverted triangle. A Trump campaign
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May 28, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Today President Trump signed an executive order intended to address the problem of liberal bias in the major social media platforms. Reporting on the order has generally been poor. This is some of what it actually says, after a long preamble: Sec. 2. Protections Against Online Censorship. (a) It is the policy of the United States to foster clear ground rules promoting free and open debate on the internet. Prominent
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August 20, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Last year, Facebook hired former senator Jon Kyl and lawyers from Covington and Burling, a prominent D.C. law firm, to look into allegations of bias against conservatives. The Kyl group released its first report today. My impression of the report is that it does a pretty good job of summarizing conservatives’ concerns about the Facebook platform. For example: Hate Organization Designations: Facebook prohibits use of the platform by “terrorist groups
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