Worries about Big Tech and its censorship have existed for years. Conservatives have been those receiving the brunt of Big Tech’s ire, but as recent events have demonstrated, not even starting alternative platforms is enough to escape Big Tech’s reach. After the events at the Capitol last week, Big Tech is more determined than ever to wipe conservatives off the internet completely and shut their views out of society. Here are some of the biggest names to be affected so far.
1. Donald Trump
President Trump has been the focus of much of the recent censorship, with Twitter and Facebook banning him from using their platforms. Even Trump’s campaign was banned from Twitter, something that seems like it should fall afoul of federal election laws. After all, if you’re allowing one campaign but not another, that seems like a clear issue of favoritism and could be construed as a political contribution to Trump’s opponents.
Even the official White House @POTUS account, a government account, was censored by Twitter. And most recently, Trump was banned from YouTube after posting videos to the site critical of Big Tech’s censorship. Isn’t that nice to see the tyrants at Big Tech suppressing all criticism of their actions?
2. Parler
Parler is probably the next most prominent victim of the purge, with the company not only having its web hosting (Amazon) shut down, but every single other vendor doing business with the company quit, from payment processors to email providers – even its lawyers quit. All of this followed President Trump announcing that he would open an account on the platform, and users leaving Twitter to migrate to Parler.
It isn’t just coincidence that all of its vendors dropped it, it’s likely evidence of collusion among Big Tech to stifle a competitor. That’s why Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey posted an image of Parler no longer being the top app in the Apple app store. Parler is doing its best to get back up and running, but you can guarantee that any firm doing business with it will be blacklisted by Google, Amazon, and the other Big Tech firms.
3. Ron Paul
Thought it was just President Trump’s “incitement” of an “insurrection” that is causing this purge? Think again. Big Tech is taking the opportunity to silence anyone it doesn’t want people to hear. Former Congressman Ron Paul is the victim of a Facebook crackdown, as his account was locked right after he posted criticism of Big Tech’s social media purges. Once again, Big Tech is not letting a good crisis go to waste, silencing its critics while it feels that it has the upper hand.
4. AR15.COM
AR15.com is the internet’s largest firearms discussion forum. Originally intended to bring together enthusiasts of the AR-15 rifle, it has since become a discussion forum for many modern firearms, accessories, and gear. In addition, it has active forums discussing politics and Second Amendment activism.
As you can imagine, that activism means that many of its users skew conservative, and that caused the site to fall afoul of its service providers. Its domain name registrar, GoDaddy, locked the domain name earlier this week, claiming that the site violated its terms of service, and halted its DNS services. That resulted in the website being unavailable for a few hours, and administrators had to scramble to get a backup up and running. But this shows the pattern that will be used to silence conservatives, as the vital services needed to keep a website running are our soft underbelly.
5. VCDL
The Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) is one of the most effective state-level gun rights organizations in the country. Its Lobby Day last year drew tens of thousands of gun owners to Richmond to protest gun control measures the Virginia legislature had introduced.
This year, the government of Virginia has pulled out all the stops to keep VCDL from holding its annual Lobby Day rally, and so the organization has had to resort to a mobile caravan of cars and buses driving through Richmond with pro-gun messages. Less than a week before VCDL’s caravan is scheduled to get underway, its email provider Mailchimp decided to shut down VCDL’s account, forcing the organization to scramble to get emails to its tens of thousands of members.
This is just a foretaste of what is to come, the tip of the iceberg. We can expect much more of these shenanigans in the future. After all, if this is what Big Tech is doing before Biden takes office, how much more brazen will they get once Biden is inaugurated? We’re in the middle of a civil war, whether we like it or not, and we’re on the defensive. Unless we rise up and defend ourselves now, Big Tech is going to steamroll us and ensure that conservatives never again have any influence in this country.