The Great Purge

Hey! It’s purge day!


Back in the day, when autocracy was the thing, opponents could be removed from history. Sounds like crazy times huh? Images and words could be erased and the fear of God could be turned up to 11 for anyone wishing to mention or remember those now lost. The cost for crossing the autocrat was, more often than not, death.

When good ‘ol Joe McCarthy was attacking intellectuals and free thinkers death was off the agenda but imprisonment and career demolishing court cases, naming and shaming in the public domain, a domain that was fervently anti-commie, was enough. Lives were ruined and voices silenced.

Nowadays it’s far less problematic. No need to assassinate or hold show trials and executions, no need to destroy incomes and families and imprison those with alternate views for holding thier own opinions. With no perceived state intervention those who are ‘thorns in the sides of’ are silenced by the withholding of resources as high on the Human Rights must haves as water and a roof over ones head.

So now the handful of owners of the largest digital business’ in the world can dictate who is heard, who is seen and so who can engage.

Donald Trump has been banned from Facebook and Twitter and almost EVERYWHERE else… Think about that. The standing President of the USA has been totally de-platformed. This is a concerted and co-ordinated effort. I have no axe to grind here. However I think we all ought to be concerned when the tech giants have this much power. They will come after you… *

Prior to the Georgia elections of a few days ago Facebook ‘made a mistake‘ and de-platformed the campaign pages of the Republican Senators. Could that be an actual mistake (they seem to make quite a few of those) or could that be interference in an election in a ‘democratic’ society.

As I type it would appear that both Facebook and Twitter are de-platforming outspoken voices with Google and their flagship YouTube being not far behind. There is a ‘Great Purge‘ underway and it is being driven by those handful of big tech owners. This ONLY suits those owners and their agendas.

And so I refer you to my post of just a few days ago where I condemned the de-platforming by YouTube of TalkRadio and I refer you to my comments wishing that the platformed had stood by Alex Jones and David Icke when first they came for them…

This isn’t going away. This will not stop until libertarian’s, free thinkers and single issue dissenters globally are silenced. It’s as serious as that. This is a Great Purge and it is comparable to those great purges of the past. We may not be being taking outside and shot but the impact is the same. Our voices are silenced and the narrative of the few becomes the narrative of the masses.

Never was this graphic, in actuality, any clearer than it is this very day…

As I’ve mentioned before I’ve for a long time been of the opinion that we are in the hand cart and well on the way to hell. This days actions have certainly sped up that descent. I can feel that it’s getting warmer for us all…

Dramatic extent of censorship

*Action taken against The Donald as of Sat 9th Jan 2021

Platforms are rapidly removing Donald Trump’s account or accounts affiliated with pro-Trump violence and conspiracies, like QAnon and #StoptheSteal. 

Here is a running list:

REDDIT: 

  • WHAT: Reddit has banned the subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump,” a spokesperson confirmed to Axios on Friday.
  • COMMENT: “Reddit’s site-wide policies prohibit content that promotes hate, or encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence against groups of people or individuals. In accordance with this, we have been proactively reaching out to moderators to remind them of our policies and to offer support or resources as needed,” a spokesperson tells Axios.
  • CONTEXT: While not an official group or page hosted by the president, it’s one of the company’s largest political communities dedicated to support for President Trump.

TWITCH:

  • WHAT: Twitch disabled Trump’s channel, citing the move as a “necessary step” to protect its community and “prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence.”
  • COMMENT: “In light of yesterday’s shocking attack on the Capitol, we have disabled President Trump’s Twitch channel. Given the current extraordinary circumstances and the President’s incendiary rhetoric, we believe this is a necessary step to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence,” a spokesperson told Axios.
  • CONTEXT: Twitch was one of the first platforms in June to temporarily ban Trump’s channel for hateful content around the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer.

SHOPIFY: 

  • WHAT: Shopify took down two online stores affiliated with Trump — his organization and his campaign’s merchandise sites — for violating its policies on supporting violence.
  • COMMENT: “Shopify does not tolerate actions that invite violence. Based on recent events, we have determined that the actions by President Donald J. Trump violate our acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits promotion or support of organizations, platforms or people that threaten or condone violence to further a cause. As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump.” – a spokesperson told The Financial Times. 
  • CONTEXT: Shopify had until Friday gone the farthest in actually de-platforming Trump, as his stores were permanently removed, not temporarily disabled. 

TWITTER:

  • WHAT: Twitter announced Friday the platform will permanently ban President Trump’s account effective immediately.
  • COMMENT: “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said in a statement.
  • CONTEXT: It’s Twitter’s strongest-ever action against the president’s account and comes in response to the “risk of further incitement of violence,” per the social media company. 

GOOGLE:

  • WHAT: Google has pulled Parler, a social media app for conservatives and far-right extremists.
  • COMMENT: “In order to protect user safety on Google Play, our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence,” a Google spokesperson said.
  • CONTEXT: Google’s move immediately suspends Parler, going further than Apple’s earlier decision to remove the app unless it submits a content moderation plan.

YOUTUBE:

  • WHAT: YouTube is accelerating its enforcement of election misinformation and voter fraud claims against Trump and other channels. 
  • COMMENT: “Due to the extraordinary events that transpired yesterday, and given that the election results have been certified, any channel posting new videos with these false claims in violation of our policies will now 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,” Alex Joseph, a YouTube spokesperson, told Axios.
  • CONTEXT: YouTube is typically slow to take action on bad content and accounts. Its response, while swift, was somewhat benign compared to competitors removing or disabling Trump’s account. YouTube did remove the video Trump posted Wednesday that addressed the Capitol violence without fully condemning it.

FACEBOOK:

  • WHAT: Facebook banned Donald Trump from posting on his Facebook accounts for at least the next two weeks until the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden is complete.
  • COMMENT: “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post Thursday.
  • CONTEXT: On Wednesday, Facebook did remove the video Trump posted Wednesday addressing the violence without fully condemning it before taking greater action against Trump on Thursday.

INSTAGRAM: 

  • WHAT: Instagram banned Donald Trump from posting on his Facebook accounts for at least the next two weeks until the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden is complete.
  • COMMENT: “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post Thursday.
  • CONTEXT: On Wednesday, Instagram’s parent Facebook did remove the video Trump posted addressing the violence without fully condemning it before taking greater action against Trump on Thursday.

SNAPCHAT:

  • WHAT: Snapchat disabled Trump’s Snapchat account Wednesday because it believes the account promotes and spreads hate and incites violence, a spokesperson said.
  • COMMENT: “We can confirm that earlier today we locked President Trump’s Snapchat account,” Snap spokesperson Rachel Racusen told Axios.
  • CONTEXT: Snapchat was one of the first major social platforms to take serious action on Trump’s account for threats to democracy in June when the company said it stopped promoting his account in its “Discover” section, which features professional content and other prominent people.

TIKTOK:

  • WHAT: TikTok is removing content violations and redirecting hashtags like #stormthecapitol and #patriotparty to its community guidelines.
  • COMMENT: “Hateful behavior and violence have no place on TikTok. Content or accounts that seek to incite, glorify, or promote violence violate our Community Guidelines and will be removed,” a TikTok spokesperson said.
  • CONTEXT: Other hashtags like #stopthesteal and #QAnon have been redirected since last year. 

APPLE:

  • WHAT: Apple on Friday threatened to remove right-wing-friendly social media app Parler from its App Store if Parler doesn’t lay out a plan to moderate its content.
  • COMMENT: “We have received numerous complaints regarding objectionable content in your Parler service, accusations that the Parler app was used to plan, coordinate, and facilitate the illegal activities in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021 that led (among other things) to loss of life, numerous injuries, and the destruction of property,” Apple wrote to Parler in an email obtained by BuzzFeed News. “The app also appears to continue to be used to plan and facilitate yet further illegal and dangerous activities.”
  • CONTEXT: Apple is flexing its power to try to get Parler to moderate its content.

DISCORD:

  • WHAT: Discord says it has banned server The Donald, per journalist Casey Newton
  • COMMENT: “While there is no evidence of the server being used to organize the Jan 6 riots, Discord decided to ban the entire server today due to its overt connection to an online forum used to incite violence and plan an armed insurrection in the United States,” per Mother Jones’ Ali Breland.
  • CONTEXT: The Discord account was connected to the pro-Trump social network TheDonald.Win and the r/theDonald subreddit that was banned Friday.

PINTEREST:

  • WHAT: Pinterest has been limiting hashtags related to pro-Trump topics such as #StopTheSteal since around the November election, a spokesperson said.
  • COMMENT: “Pinterest isn’t a place for threats, promotion of violence or hateful content,” a Pinterest spokesperson said. “Our team is continuing to monitor and removing harmful content, including misinformation and conspiracy theories that may incite violence.”
  • CONTEXT: Trump doesn’t have a Pinterest account, and the platform has tried to stay away from political content, but Pinterest hasn’t been able to squelch it completely.

The bottom line: Trump is quickly losing access to all the platforms where he once was able to spread his message freely, but groups of his supporters will still be able to gather online.