Big Tech Is Back on a Censorship Binge

 

Big Tech Is Back on a Censorship Binge - Todd Strandberg -

http://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/

 

The websites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have become hopelessly fixated on who should be allowed as members of their social media club. The membership rulebook is under constant revision. If you are someone who holds to leftist views, you might not notice the changes. That is because conservatives and Christians are the only ones being restricted.

 

A couple weeks ago, there were headline reports about Twitter's effort to "shadow ban" conservatives. A "shadow ban" involves blocking a website account in a way where the account's content is not readily available to others on a website. The user is unaware that their content is blocked.

 

When a YouTube page that hosts The Hal Lindsey Reports sends out a notification about his latest video, I don't always receive the message. Since I'm on his contact list, I should be alerted every time he adds a new post. I don't receive the notice because someone has decided to limit the number of people who can access his material.

 

Last week, there was an outright ban on Alex Jones by Facebook, Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Jones was marked as an easy target because he is the source of many conspiracy views. He believes that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was fake, the 9/11 attack was planned by the U.S. government, and the moon landing was staged in a Hollywood studio.

 

I think it is very dangerous to free speech to allow Jones to be banned. The Silicon Valley is the most liberal region of America, and it's very obvious that these companies would like to silence all voices on the right.

 

Tech companies such as Facebook, Senator Ted Cruz said, have "a degree of power and an ability to censor that William Randolph Hearst at the height of yellow journalism could never have imagined. They have the ability, if there is a speaker who is disfavored, simply to silence the speaker - to shadow ban them so that you might speak, but your words float off into oblivion and nobody hears them."

 

Several years ago, I decided against posting Rapture Ready's content on Facebook and Twitter because I knew that censorship would eventually become a problem. Lately, I've read numerous letters that detail how social media has largely destroyed platforms that people spent years building up. Last week, I read an email from Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily. He said the Internet Cartel had caused a profound shrinking in his site's traffic and revenue. "WND.com, for instance, saw drops in revenue from more than $10 million in 2016 to $6 million last year to perhaps as little as $4 million in 2018," said Farah.

 

Martin Niemöller was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. He wrote the following poem that should be applied to this current situation:

 

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-Because I was not a Socialist.

 

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

 

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-Because I was not a Jew.

 

Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

The only thing to keep us from falling into a situation where Big Brother controls access to all web platforms is the fear of public opinion. These big tech firms have gone through several steps where they would restrict someone and then back away from criticism, and then they would censor the same person in a different way. With each cycle, the restrictions become progressively worse.

 

If the Democrats win control of the government, they have promised to add controls to the web. Senator Chris Murphy said censorship of websites is so vital the "Survival of our democracy depends on it."

 

Other Senate Democrats are already circulating plans for a government takeover of the internet. The paper suggests forcing social media platforms to identify and track the person behind all user accounts. To protect us from Russia agents, they want the federal government to act as a tyrannical gatekeeper of the worldwide web.

 

If we continue down this path, the day will eventually come when President Trump's Twitter account is deleted. I'm sure Jack Dorsey, the head of Twitter, gets asked each day why he hasn't already made this move. When Facebook had its last earnings report, reporters were constantly badgering the firm on why it allows Fox News to have a platform. I think these so-called reporters have become so evil, they're incapable of realizing they are acting like Nazis.

 

I firmly believe that God is going to hold things together until the very end. If we reach the point where the web authorities have decided to label and ban all Christian sites as purveyors of hate speech, the rapture will occur right before they get a chance to throw the switch. Since this demonic cabal is obsessed with finishing its task, we have a strong indication that time is very short.

 

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14).