Internet Censorship: So it continues...

[RunningDeer]

Posted by safara (here)
Oooh, I see he has an official POTUS account - why not use this as POTUS?

https://twitter.com/potus

So, he has not been "blocked from speaking to the people" by Twitter in his role as POTUS???

It’s not an account that he use to post on. Perhaps it’s someone that’s part of his PR team. He used @realDonaldTrump to separate the real from the faux accounts.

Once you’re kick off Twitter, you can’t open another account. I could be wrong in which case, they’d find some lame excuse to shut it down.

It says the tweets are archived at whitehouse.gov. It’s another avenue blocked if President Trump can't tweet. Too, there's not many days left that he'll be able to use the government site if all goes the way of those that want to send him packing.

[Gwin Ru]

...

From Jim Stone:

Big tech has made it's move. LET ME REPEAT:

This report is MY EXPERIENCE, either you follow it or your site is dead.

1. Firefox has, for a long time, been a rigged browser. No details, other than team mozilla has a few problems and has had them since about 2015.

2. Google Chrome is as bad or worse than team mozilla, but Google is a lot more discreet about it and focuses more on making sure independent media does not get money than they do on censorship but they have both features built right into the browser. Just because your browser is telling you a site is not there does not mean it does not exist, if you insist, Chrome still lets you in on about the third try. But if someone never hit a site before, the three tries ruse works.

3. DO NOT USE CLOUDFLARE. When you do, you are counting on evil people to protect you, and they can shut ANYONE out at will, including your readers. They have your IP, so obviously they'll make it look to you like all is well, all the while there is serious atrition.

4. DO NOT use Google analytics. They used to be far worse about this, back around 2014 they were AWFUL about hanging sites with the analytic script but they backed off. That weapon is still there however.

5. DO NOT use Bitly. I have busted Bitly many times with censorship. Trust me, you do not need your links shortened. That's a false need. Who cares how long a link is? it is in the background code anyway. Here is how Bitly works: You give them a long link. They give you a short link, TO THEM. You put that short link on your site. People click that. It goes to Bitly, gets matched with the long link and then you go to wherever the long link would have sent you. PROBLEM: If Bitly does not like what you linked to, it will work when YOU hit the link but it won't work for your readers. Why TH would anyone compromise the information path by so needlessly putting someone else in the chain? I am sure that's the only reason why Bitly really exists, the entire context of that place is in my opinion STUPID anyway.

6. Wordpress has already shown it's hand clearly and irrefutably. For years I was warning people to NOT use Wordpress for ANYTHING. Oh, but I am only using their sitebuilder, so I don't have to worry, RIGHT? well, NO. Even if you don't use the Wordpress server for your hosting, YOU ARE TOAST. They were all about censorship all along, and they whacked EVERYONE they hated, (or are finalizing that process now).

If you have your own hosting, why would you ever even consider using the Wordpress sitebuilder? ALL HOSTING COMPANIES HAVE SITE BUILDING SOFTWARE RIGHT THERE ALONGSIDE WORDPRESS IN CPANEL. You don't need to use wordpress just because it works like Facebook. You do not need it THAT EASY when they have already proven that if you step out of line, they are going to blow you away.

7. BIGGEST ONE OF ALL: IF THERE IS NO REASON FOR YOUR SITE TO BE SECURE, DO NOT, FOR ANY REASON, USE HTTPS. IF YOU ARE NOT TAKING CREDIT CARD NUMBERS AND BANK INFO, DO NOT USE HTTPS. HTTPS IS THE BIGGEST CON JOB OUT THERE FOR NEWS SITES, THAT WANT EVERYTHING ON THEM KNOWN BY EVERYONE. THEY CAN SHUT YOU DOWN WITH HTTPS IN A NANOSECOND.

Hey everybody, I have Cloudflare, HTTPS, Wordpress, and EVERYTHING ELSE "people in the know use" AND IT IS ALL SWITCHED OFF. I have BETTER **** THAN ANYONE, More options available than ANYONE and I only use what no one else uses, DIRECT IP ROUTING. No one has that, you have to pay extra for it, it is not a freebie, it takes more than word processor level skills. GEE, I WONDER WHY I CHOSE THAT AND ONLY THAT to keep this site visible. If you are wondering, the answer is BECAUSE IT ACTUALLY WORKS. This site has been saved by that TWICE now. I'd have blinked out in 2017, they tried to kill the site off already and that stopped them because they could not just delete me off the internet by taking me out of the DNS servers.

No one who hits this site needs to be told about Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any of the other obvious ones, RIGHT? You're smart enough to not be in diapers, RIGHT? I have said ALL OF THE ABOVE repeatedly since about 2014 when I figured it out, and now that everyone is being vaporized perhaps, since no one listened they'll use it for troubleshooting.

And now I'll say THIS:
Now we are going to get to see what happens to everyone when the election theft proved to us there is no system of law in America. What kept your privately hosted site from being nuked up until now? Fear of prosecution, that's what. But with the courts proving they don't exist with this election, they are likely, once Trump is out, going to play their hand, break the law EVERYWHERE and will simply totally and illegaly wipe everyone off the DNS servers and/or simply ban their PAID FOR accounts. WHO IS GOING TO STOP THEM? Come on now, you saw how this election went, WHO IS GOING TO STOP THEM?

[CurEus]

Firefox is going to block Trump now.

https://www.rt.com/usa/511996-mozill...rump-internet/

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by CurEus (here)
Firefox is going to block Trump now.

https://www.rt.com/usa/511996-mozill...rump-internet/

Many thanks, but that article didn't really tell me anything solid (as best I could see!).

To anyone who understands these things better than I do, what does it mean that "Firefox is censoring Trump"? Firefox isn't a search engine. Does it mean that the browser won't load some sites? Do we know of any examples?

[RunningDeer]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by CurEus (here)
Firefox is going to block Trump now.

https://www.rt.com/usa/511996-mozill...rump-internet/

Many thanks, but that article didn't really tell me anything solid (as best I could see!).

To anyone who understands these things better than I do, what does it mean that "Firefox is censoring Trump"? Firefox isn't a search engine. Does it mean that the browser won't load some sites? Do we know of any examples?

I wondered the same thing when it was posted elsewhere, but I got sidetracked.

Based on my quick skim of this article “How Firefox Works” from HowStuffWorks.com, it confirms what I thought. FoxFire is another browser. No where in the article does it claim to oversee who can use its services, nor deplatform whomever. I should add that there's no time stamp on the article, so it may be outdated.

[Ivy23]

From what I could tell it was stemming from Mozilla’s tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/mozilla/s...mp-internet%2F

In the blog entry that is linked they suggest these measures:

Additional precise and specific actions must also be taken:

Reveal who is paying for advertisements, how much they are paying and who is being targeted.

Commit to meaningful transparency of platform algorithms so we know how and what content is being amplified, to whom, and the associated impact.

Turn on by default the tools to amplify factual voices over disinformation.

Work with independent researchers to facilitate in-depth studies of the platforms’ impact on people and our societies, and what we can do to improve things.


I don’t think there’s anything they are specifically doing to block Trump or that they even could, since they’re just a browser. Very slippery slope they are on with the censorship. Extremely unsettling!

[RunningDeer]

I’m 8 minutes into Bannon’s War Room, Episode 644 and they report that President Trump was not only permanently suspended from twitter (88 million followers), but when he tweeted from the @POTUS account to make a statement that tweet was removed. It’s the official White House account. Twitter also took down the Team Trump account. They essentially cut off the campaign and cut off any direct access to the American people. This is what people loved about Trump. They felt like he was speaking directly to them.

Also alarming they suspended or banned his services to email people. Most people who donated to his campaign received many emails over the months leading up to the election. This overreach from across platforms has silenced his ability to reach the people.

Thousands of accounts were knock out and/or followers. This coordinate efforts also included all the people that worked for President Trump including the volunteers. They were taken off Facebook. These were their personal accounts.

[Franny]

Looking into the Firefox deplatforming of Trump, a quick look and I only found that FF and Chrome have plugins to block Trump.

Found this one on Snopes for the Chrome browser. I know, not usually reliable, but in this instance it seems to be true.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/do...rowser-filter/

This is for 🦊 Firefox and it's upsetting some users who are uninstalling the browser.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...on/detrumpify/

Checking in to see what's going on with Twitter I saw a post from James Todaro MD whom I follow for his info on CV and Vaxx. He posts that Google and Apple announced they will remove the Parler app from their stores if they won't censor blacklisted sites. A short time later he posts that Google has removed the Parler app from its store.

A bit later Laurence Fox cites a BBC article for the same, including that Apple will remove the app on Sat, Jan 9.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55598887

Google suspends 'free speech' app Parler

Google has suspended "free speech" social network Parler from its Play Store over its failure to remove "egregious content".

Parler styles itself as "unbiased" social media and has proved popular with people banned from Twitter.

But Google said the app had failed to remove posts inciting violence.

Apple has also warned Parler it will remove the app from its App Store if it does not comply with its content-moderation requirements.

On Parler, the app's chief executive John Matze said: "We won't cave to politically motivated companies and those authoritarians who hate free speech!"

Launched in 2018, Parler has proved particularly popular among supporters of US President Donald Trump and right-wing conservatives. Such groups have frequently accused Twitter and Facebook of unfairly censoring their views.

While Mr Trump himself is not a user, the platform already features several high-profile contributors following earlier bursts of growth in 2020.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz boasts 4.9 million followers on the platform, while Fox News host Sean Hannity has about seven million.

It briefly became the most-downloaded app in the United States after the US election, following a clampdown on the spread of election misinformation by Twitter and Facebook.

However, both Apple and Google have said the app fails to comply with content-moderation requirements.

Analysis: Necessary or draconian action?

By Shayan Sardarizadeh, BBC Monitoring

For months, Parler has been one of the most popular social media platforms for right-wing users.

As major platforms began taking action against viral conspiracy theories, disinformation and the harassment of election workers and officials in the aftermath of the US presidential vote, the app became more popular with elements of the fringe far-right.

This turned the network into a right-wing echo chamber, almost entirely populated by users fixated on revealing examples of election fraud and posting messages in support of attempts to overturn the election outcome.

In the days preceding the Capitol riots, the tone of discussion on the app became significantly more violent, with some users openly discussing ways to stop the certification of Joe Biden's victory by Congress.

Unsubstantiated allegations and defamatory claims against a number of senior US figures such as Chief Justice John Roberts and Vice-President Mike Pence were rife on the app.

Google and Apple say they are taking necessary action to ensure violent rhetoric is not promoted on their platforms.

However, to those increasingly concerned about freedom of speech and expression on online platforms, it represents another example of draconian action by major tech companies which threatens internet freedom.

This is a debate which is certain to continue beyond the Trump presidency.

In a statement, Google confirmed it had suspended Parler from its Play Store, saying:

"Our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence.

"In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app's listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues."

Apple has warned Parler it will be removed from the App Store on Saturday in a letter published by Buzzfeed News.

It said it had seen "accusations that the Parler app was used to plan, coordinate, and facilitate" the attacks on the US Capitol on 6 January.

Mr Matze said Parler had "no way to organise anything" and pointed out that Facebook groups and events had been used to organise action.

But Apple said: "Our investigation has found that Parler is not effectively moderating and removing content that encourages illegal activity and poses a serious risk to the health and safety of users in direct violation of your own terms of service."

"We won't distribute apps that present dangerous and harmful content."

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

In a related development, Google has kicked Steve Bannon's War Room podcast off YouTube, saying it had repeatedly violated the platform's rules.

The ex-White House aide's channel had more than 300,000 subscribers.

"In accordance with our strikes system, we have terminated Steve Bannon's channel 'War room' and one associated channel for repeatedly violating our Community Guidelines," Google said in a statement.

"Any channel posting new videos with misleading content that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 US Presidential election in violation of our policies will receive a strike, a penalty which temporarily restricts uploading or live-streaming. Channels that receive three strikes in the same 90-day period will be permanently removed from YouTube."

The action was taken shortly after the channel posted an interview with Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, in which he blamed the Democrats for the rioting on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

One anti-misinformation group said the action was long overdue after "months of Steve Bannon calling for revolution and violence".

"The truth is YouTube should have taken down Steve Bannon's account a long time ago and they shouldn't rely on the labour of extremism researchers to moderate the content on their platform," said Madeline Peltz, Senior Researcher at Media Matters for America.

[Franny]

Just saw that the Mexican president, AMLO, is not happy with Trumps censorship on platforms.

Here is a link:

https://www.deccanherald.com/interna...ts-936489.html

Mexico's President on Thursday condemned the decision by social media platforms to block the accounts of US President Donald Trump.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at the same time declined to condemn the assault by Trump supporters on the US Capitol on Wednesday, citing his policy of not interfering in other countries' affairs. He said only that he regretted the loss of lives.

But Lopez Obrador, who is seen as friendly to Trump, was quick to criticise what he called the censorship of the US president.

Read | Facebook bans Donald Trump 'indefinitely': CEO Mark Zuckerberg

“I don't like anybody being censored or taking away from the right to post a message on Twitter or Face(book). I don't agree with that, I don't accept that,” López Obrador said.

“How can you censor someone: 'Let's see, I, as the judge of the Holy Inquisition, will punish you because I think what you're saying is harmful,'” Lopez Obrador said in an extensive, unprompted discourse on the subject.

“Where is the law, where is the regulation, what are the norms? This is an issue of government, this is not an issue for private companies.” Presidential spokesman Jesus Ramirez doubled down later in the day, writing in his Twitter account that “Facebook's decision to silence the current leader of the United States calls for a debate on freedom of expression, the free exchange of information on the web, democracy and the role of the companies that administer (social) networks."

Facebook and Instagram said Thursday that they will bar Trump from posting at least until the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Twitter said that it's still evaluating whether to lift or extend what started as a 12-hour lockdown of Trump's account.

Also Read | Facebook, Twitter lock Trump's account; YouTube removes his video after Capitol violence

Lopez Obrador also said he was not planning to attend Biden's inauguration. Earlier, he refrained from congratulating Biden on his election victory until after the Electoral College vote in mid-December. The Mexican leader's only trip abroad so far in his presidency was to visit Trump in Washington in July to celebrate the implementation of the Mexico-US-Canada trade agreement.

[andyangel1205]

We are now quickly becoming a Chinese communist state, and it should worry everyone. Anything pro-Trump or anything that questions the sham election and tries to shine a light on that fraud is in the process of being purged. On the side, I design t-shirts - a few very innocent designs I submitted to Merch by Amazon & Zazzle were removed with this completely BS explanation:
your design graphically portrays violence or victims of violence. It will amaze me if these designs don't get purged from other sites as well. So, simply questioning the election irregularities (everyone read Peter Navarro's report) equals violence to these totalitarians. Additionally, YouTube banned one of my wife's channeled videos simply because the mantis being we talked to called the COVID vaccine "fruitless." The being didn't say not to take the vaccine, just questioned its effectiveness. Scary times, my friends. Welcome to the oligarchy.

[RunningDeer]

Cool tee-shirts, andyangel1205. Your images don’t come up for me. Based on the links in your post these are what I found @ TeePublic.com.

One of the topics covered today on the Bannon’s War Room, Episode 644 is how they’ve taken down all the merch sites that promote anything Trump. It’s one more avenue to punish and financially cripple citizens.

Posted by andyangel1205 (here)
We are now quickly becoming a Chinese communist state, and it should worry everyone. Anything pro-Trump or anything that questions the sham election and tries to shine a light on that fraud is in the process of being purged. On the side, I design t-shirts - a few very innocent designs I submitted to Merch by Amazon & Zazzle were removed with this completely BS explanation:
your design graphically portrays violence or victims of violence. It will amaze me if these designs don't get purged from other sites as well. So, simply questioning the election irregularities (everyone read Peter Navarro's report) equals violence to these totalitarians. Additionally, YouTube banned one of my wife's channeled videos simply because the mantis being we talked to called the COVID vaccine "fruitless." The being didn't say not to take the vaccine, just questioned its effectiveness. Scary times, my friends. Welcome to the oligarchy.

[justntime2learn]

Apple suspends Parler from App Store after unrealistic 24-hour deadline to introduce moderation expires

https://www.rt.com/usa/512049-apple-...er-moderation/

[justntime2learn]

Some realistic comedic relief:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=IoCZUhJ3AL0

[Franny]

A friend just sent this, Parler is being booted from its Amazon cloud service.





Lin Wood also mentions it on Parler.

https://parler.com/profile/linwood/posts

[happyuk]

Is it just coincidence that I lost ~5% of my Twitter followers last night?
Others are reporting the same.

[Bill Ryan]

From Breitbart:

https://breitbart.com/tech/2021/01/0...se-in-traffic/

Free Speech Platform Gab Reports 750% Increase in Traffic

Gab.com, the free speech friendly social network, says traffic has increased by more than 750 percent in the past few days, following the blacklisting of President Donald Trump from most mainstream tech platforms.

“Our traffic is up 753% in the past 24 hours. Tens of millions of visits,” said Gab in response to a question about slow loading speeds.

The free speech network announced that it would bring ten new servers online to handle the increased traffic volume. Gab was the first free speech alternative to Twitter. It takes a hardline stance on freedom of speech, allowing all legal content except pornography. Users are allowed to control their own experience on the platform through the creation of custom word filters and blocks.

Gab takes an equally hardline stance on illegal content and threats of violence, encouraging users to proactively report such content for removal.

Despite this longstanding policy, both Apple and Google have, for years banned the Gab app from their app stores, a fate which has also befallen Parler.

https://twitter.com/getongab/status/1348013897576370181

Launched in May 2017, Gab has faced attempted censorship and suppression from multiple quarters, leading to innovative approaches to circumvent it.

To avoid censorship by cloud hosting companies, Gab maintains its own physical servers. Gab is also in the process of developing the Gab phone, to circumvent app store censorship.

https://twitter.com/getongab/status/1348078952204550144

Gab also developed Dissenter, a browser extension that adds a comments section to every website on the internet. When mainstream browsers like Chrome and Mozilla Firefox banned the extension, Gab launched its own web browser, also called Dissenter.

In response to the surge in traffic, Gab founder and CEO Andrew Torba gave a concise comment to Breitbart News: “Checkmate, Silicon Valley.”

[greybeard]

Military Personnel Explains What Happens Next; Twitter Censorship: Massive Conservative Exodus

Beyond The Noise with David Zhang
122K subscribers
We have footage from a military personnel with some insights into the day after the inauguration and what is to come as the year goes by if Biden is inaugurated.

Then we will dive into the all roads lead to ROME if you understand what I mean.

Finally, to finish off this episode, discuss my reaction to Big Tech censorship on President Trump and Parler. Which is a step towards communist censorship.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ww-zO53HaZk

At the moment Im reluctant to post anything as so many statements with good intention dont turn out as predicted or proclaimed.
However this source tends to be well grounded.
Chris

[SilentFeathers]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

In response to the surge in traffic, Gab founder and CEO Andrew Torba gave a concise comment to Breitbart News: “Checkmate, Silicon Valley.”

Personally I believe Mr. Torba is underestimating what is exactly happening right now....

On January 20th the Biden Administration can "Checkmate, Gab" by declaring Gab a domestic terrorist organization and before January 21st Gab could be completely shut down and eliminated.

What we have seen over the last few days is that there is an effort to shut down anyone and everyone that doesn't 100% agree with the incoming Biden Administration and the Globalist Agenda.

Look for a HUGE False Flag Event within days, not weeks, that'll be blamed on Trump supporters and conservatives that will usher in even more draconian and destructive actions....controlling the narrative on the internet is only a small piece of the tyrannical pie.

[Gwin Ru]

The creator of this cartoon got his account suspended

Women System
January 09, 2021

[onawah]

Rep. Nunes Calls for Racketeering Investigation Into Big Tech Companies Following Parler Ban
BY ZACHARY STIEBER
January 10, 2021
https://www.theepochtimes.com/rep-nu...n_3650863.html.

"A top Republican in the House of Representatives on Sunday called for a racketeering probe into large technology companies who over the weekend took action against Parler, a social media website.

“This is clearly a violation of antitrust, civil rights, the RICO statute. There should be a racketeering investigation on all the people that coordinated this attack on not only a company but on all of those like us, like me, like you, Maria,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo.

After Twitter banned President Donald Trump and some other users, Parler saw its traffic explode. Soon, though, Google announced it had removed Parler from its online store, a move followed by Apple. Then, Amazon announced it was suspending Parler from its web hosting services.Parler CEO John Matze told The Epoch Times his company is prepared to take legal action, but in the meantime authorities should investigate the possibly-coordinated actions, Nunes argued.

“The effect of this is that there is no longer a free and open social media company or site for any American to get on any longer,” he said, because Amazon, Google, and Apple, “have just destroyed” Parler.

“It’s preposterous. So I don’t know where the hell the Department of Justice is at right now, or the FBI,” he added.

Nunes also said the CEOs of the companies should be prosecuted criminally. He also said he has been talking to fellow members of Congress and that they’re exploring their legal options. And he also called on the Supreme Court and federal judges to step in and intervene.

The Department of Justice, Apple, Google, and Amazon didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment."