I have said it a great many times and it remains true: freedom and truth are absolutely fundamental!
Over the past few months I have wrestled with the idea of responding to the increasingly politicisation of the mainstream social media platforms. I don’t mean that these are used for political purposes or that the political debates might have been increasingly intensifying or polarised – No. I am talking about these companies, as a matter of active policy, inserting themselves in the arena and de-platforming anyone with a dissenting voice to their newly and narrowly accepted political narrative. In the same way Weibo (the Chinese version and alernative to facebook/instagram) does not allow the use of words like “Freedom”, “Democracy” and so forth, we have now moved into a world of overt censorship in an otherwise democratic west.
Some examples: Twitter has removed well over 70,000 accounts, including Donal Trump while still president of the USA. Beforehand it already banned accounts like Alex Jones, Milo Yanopoulos and others. YouTube (Google) has banned accounts it deems spruiks false claims that goes against their ‘true narrative’, including claims of fraud in the US election (even though it has been proven and widely acknowledged that there was fraud), videos critical of wearing masks (even though the WHO does not recommend it) and so forth. Facebook removing Donald Trump’s account to influence the election in the US. Instagram (owned by Facebook) the same.
Snapchat, Tiktok, Reddit, Pinterest, Discord, Twitch have also been banning accounts of Trump and other posts for similar reasons. Then in my opinion in a gross overreach of influence, both Apple and Google, as well as Amazon Web Services stepped in to destroy a competitive free speech platform alternative called Parler.
LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Messenger (latter two owned by Facebook) also banned Trump. WhatsApp is also planning a data harvest, which it now has postponed. So, for a range of reasons, I will no longer be able to support these platforms and be seen to condone their behavior, nor be willing to be counted as a potential consumer of their advertisements.
Normally, I would have no issue with a commercial enterprise setting their rules, but they have grown in their influence and size as an open platform and are now effectively abusing their power to influence thoughts, legislation and elections. My advertisements have been blocked, some videos de-monetised and – not taking a marterdom position – have decided I will do everything I can to fight their abuse.
My answer – leaving them and closing my accounts. As you know, I had already moved off Twitter and Facebook earlier, hence this website with an independent community platform. But now, I have also deleted my Instagram, WhatsApp accounts (other Facebook owned platforms) and Minimised the use of Google, by deleting my YouTube accounts and clearing my Google Groups and Blogger engagement.
I will host my own videos or may use alternatives like Bitchute or Rumble. I will gladly pay for freedom using MeWe as facebook alternative. SMS/TXT is still effective, but if needed can utilise Telegram instead of WhatsApp – but before then I will simply use Zoom for video messenging.
Hopefully, Parler can re-establish itself, but until then, the only way we can make a positive influence is to not close our eyes to their blatant disregard for our well being. We need to return ourselves to the seat of consumer, rather than merely accepting being used as the product.
You know where to find me if you need me,
Blessings and peace,
Cor
