I wrote a couple weeks ago about being shadow-banned by the Tech Oligarchs who run Twitter and Facebook. I can still post links to my articles but they waft into a kind of memory hole now. A month ago, I’d “Tweet” (loathsome term) a link to something and traffic on EPautos would go up – a lot – immediately. Same when I did the same on Facebook. Lots of people were seeing the links and clicking and reading.
Then, just like that, no more. Literally. No more.
The upticks in traffic stopped. A new “Tweet” or Facebook post would result in not a blip on the screen. This is what shadow banning is – and it’s very clever. The victim isn’t overtly banned – that’s much too obvious. Instead, his posts just don’t get distributed – which achieves the same thing but in a way that’s much subtler. It’s very much like the Free Speech Zones invented by The Chimp. People could exercise their right to speak . . . just far, far away from anyone who might hear it.
Well, the solution to online Free Speech Zones is to bust out of them.
Which I hope I just did – and encourage you to do, too. I just joined Parler – an outfit that doesn’t ban or shadow ban people for Wrongthink. My handle is EPeters952 and I’ll be posting under that handle there from here on out. Please “follow” me if you like my stuff – click here – and help me resurrect what Twitter and Facebook are doing their best to curb stomp!
Free Speech Zones were *not* invented by “the Chimp.” I don’t know when they were invented but they were already in effect in 1996 when Bill Clinton and his entourage came to a town near mine. All protests and demonstrations were to be contained in an old tobacco warehouse on the other side of town from where Clinton was to make a campaign speech.
All this and a lot more was *already* going on throughout the Clinton era, *before Bush II and *before* 9/11 and the Patriot Act. Ever heard of AEDPA (“The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act”) of 1996)? It was the direct precursor to, and you could say the earlier incarnation of, the Patriot Act. I tied to fight against it. Did you? I got in some trouble over this.
Legally, “free speech zone” was mentioned in US v Grace, 1983, but in the context of a public space in which the gummint could NOT hamper speech (in this case, the courthouse sidewalk).
The first mention in my archives of the bad kind of “free speech zone” was for a Bush rally in 2002, followed by the new abhorrent practice quickly being adopted by other tinpot dictators, including the Tempe Public Libraries.
Hi Henry,
Isn’t it incredible? As in the literal meaning – not believable? Free speech “zones”? Really? Does the First Amendment mention any such qualification? Isn’t the whole point of free speech to be able to speak it close to those who might be made uncomfortable by hearing it?
The Supreme Court is the most loathsome of all courts because it is a lifetime dictatorship of nine people who get to unilaterally decree what “the law”is – subject to no vote and no appeal, except to themselves, if they so deign.
The Bill of Rights was meant to adduce the things the government could not do – period. And yet, the government does them anyway. Why do we consider ourselves bound the law in that case?
You tell me.
As far as I’m concerned (and the Constitution agrees) all of Amerika is a free speech zone. The govco minions can go pound sand.
Hi Mike,
Of course. The First Amendment is not qualified. But the robed tyrants qualified it, regardless. That is a big problem. I agree with Jefferson that we have the right to nullify the obviously unconstitutional. And it is obviously unconstitutional to abridge or restrict the freedom to speak anywhere that is not private property. Just as it is unconstitutional to subject a man to any search, no matter how cursory, absent specific probable cause or a court ordered warrant based on the same. The language of the law – the Constitution – is plain. It requires no parsing. But it didn’t matter. Our former rights have been abridged by nine geriatric tyrants.
Hi David,
Certainly. But if I recall correctly, The Chimp was the first to use these laws. No question, Clintigula was vile. I recall watching what his minion Janet Reno did to those people in Waco. It was an action worth of Jurgen Stroop, the SS General who torched the Polish Ghetto toward the end of the war.
But The Chimp was far worse. He weaponized fear and set a new low for meanness, lowness and general viciousness. I despise that awful little bastard beyond my capacity to articulate.
‘socialmedia’= internet prison camp … a fake news echo chamber. Shadowbanning… OMG I can’t even believe they have ONE single account anymore… how low can they go? Most of their accounts are probably abandoned or fake/bots now LOL.
Eric,
I just put word out to my followers, so hopefully you’ll pick up some more followers. You can read my blurb here: https://parler.com/post-view?q=c7cfed0bbf4c48f0946c661ae3587e77
Thanks, Mark! Much obliged!
Shadow banning is just the beginning. In the chipped digital cashless near future not only will they be able to silence us, but they will also be able to force us to bend the knee by seizing our freedom to economic transactions. If you don’t behave exactly as prescribed, no employment for you, no drivers license for you, no social security payment for you, no EBT for you, no groceries for you, no housing for you, no utilities for you….
I got a preview of this several years ago in a supermarket checkout line when the people ahead of me were paying with plastic and the card was declined. Another card also declined. They had to leave without their shopping cart full of goodies. (My thought at the time was that they must have been suspected of thoughtcrime and the Party declared them to be unpersons.) Of course I had no problem paying in cash.
If cash is done away with we are totally and completely screwed.
I am 63 and a natural-born US citizen, and I have already been denied Social Security, period, ever. I don’t qualify for any $1,200 stimulus check either. I’m in ill health with multiple disabling conditions. In desperation I finally did what others have urged me to do for years and applied for disability six months ago. All that is in some sort of silent limbo, going nowhere. The people in charge of all that don’t answer their phones and they don’t return calls. I pretty much *am* an unperson.
Hi David,
Miserable. I’m sorry to hear this. I generally eschew having anything to do with the government to the extent it will allow. But I took pleasure in using the $1,200 sent me by Orange Man to send it to the government – my local government – to pay the extortion-rent I am forced to pay every six months to be permitted to remain on the land I bought and paid for some 17 years ago…i.e., the property tax.
I despise communists. I wish I could go to Moscow and dump over Lenin’s pickle jar.
Eric,
Did you read the user agreement?
“No. 9. Parler may remove any content and terminate your access to the Services at anytime and for any reason or no reason, although Parler endeavors to allow all free speech that is lawful and does not infringe the legal rights of others. Any invitation made by Parler to you to use the Services or submit content to the Services, or the fact that Parler may receive a benefit from your use of the Services or provision of content to the Services, will not obligate Parler to maintain any content or maintain your access to the Services. Parler will have no liability to you for removing any content, for terminating your access to the Services, or for modifying or terminating the Services, at any time and in any way and for any reason or no reason. Although the Parler Guidelines provide guidance to you regarding content that is not appropriate, Parler is free to remove content and terminate your access to the Services even where the Guidelines have been followed.”
Hi William,
Yeah, I did…and I realize they (Parler) can and may do the same that Twitter and Facebook are doing. But – for now – Parler isn’t suppressing Wrongthink and I therefore will use the service and support it to the extent that remains the case. When it no longer does, time to move to another… as many times as it takes.
I think that as long as Founder/CEO John Matze is in charge, Parler will be okay. Secondly, the ToS may be standard, legal boilerplate to keep him out of trouble.
Just like Youtube and all the rest- when a site isn’t yet on the radar of the mainstream, they just want users, in order to build their popularity- then once they get firmly established, they can afford to dump those who might upset “the majority”- and of course, the truth and liberty and facts and independent thought upset the majority…… And the morons beg for it…lest they should be “offended” by politically-incorrect thought of non-conformists(non-brainwashed).
Hi Nunz,
Probably – but in the meanwhile, why not use them? We reach more people, we maybe move the ball a little in our direction. Mind, I don’t dow what I do in expectation of living in a free country during my lifetime. I do it because it’s right – and maybe someone down the line will.
Hey Eric!
Oh, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use it…. As long as you can speak freely, why not?! Take advantage of it while ya can. Look how great Youtube used to be…and how much the richer we are for having viewed some of the stuff that used to be on there!
In times of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act!
Truth can withstand any examination, criticism, or argument. It neither needs nor requires censorship for protection. Lies do. Bravo Eric, getting the hell out of the currently popular antisocial media. The worst part of these antisocial media platforms is that it seems every damned one of the corporate businesses regards a tiny, insane, minuscule portion of the population as the bell weather of popular opinion. If any one of the plethora of Snow Flake SJW Wokester delusional causes erupts over normal sane actions, they immediately bend the knee to them and accommodate their insanity.