The Alex Jones controversy was never about Alex Jones.
One of the things that I and many others had warned the denizens of the internet about when it was announced that Jones had been deplatformed on a number of networks was that he was just the first. Jones was the toe in the hot tub, or the proverbial canary in the coalmine.
The left’s next censorship move may already be upon us, as the conservative education video channel PragerU has noticed some odd things happening to their channel on Facebook, and by “odd” I mean blatant censorship.
BREAKING: We're being heavily censored on @Facebook.
Our last 9 posts are reaching 0 of our 3 million followers. At least two videos were deleted last night for “hate speech” including our recent video with @conservmillen.
SHARE to spread awareness about big tech censorship! pic.twitter.com/k83HqmlMRc
— PragerU (@prageru) August 17, 2018
We just discovered that we are being heavily censored and shadow banned on @facebook. At least two of our video posts were removed last night for “hate speech” and our last 10 posts have reached 0 of our 3 million followers. More info and screenshots coming soon. STAY TUNED!
— PragerU (@prageru) August 17, 2018
Confirming PragerU’s suspicions that they are being censored and/or shadowbanned by Facebook are various people coming forward, noticing that PragerU seems to have disappeared from their Facebook feeds.
https://twitter.com/GTLongshot/status/1030504861673181185
Update: Well, I guess I was wrong. I just checked, and PragerU has disappeared from my Facebook feed. Gone, no matter how far down I scroll. I changed the settings to see your posts first, and still nothing. WTF?
— Mike Brown (@mb2982) August 17, 2018
Very weird indeed, Tyler. pic.twitter.com/J4JvPVQmzP
— PragerU (@prageru) August 17, 2018
I can’t even access your Facebook page! It says “something went wrong” and half the videos don’t play, they just go black when I click on them on my phone.
— ▻ TᗩᒪIᗩ ᕼᗩYKIᑎ | טליה (@thdpr) August 17, 2018
It should be noted that while Jones was kicked off of various platforms, PragerU seems to be getting restricted. This has already happened to them before via YouTube/Google, who, like Facebook, decided that the conservative ideas being presented are somehow hateful.
So while PragerU is not completely deplatformed, several platforms are making it harder to see their content. No matter how you slice it, Prager U is now being censored on multiple social networks.
PragerU and InfoWars are not the only channels to find themselves at the business end of major social network censorship decisions. Not long ago, YouTube interviewer Dave Rubin was showing the world how some of his videos were being selectively demonetized as well. He went so far as to make two different videos, one denouncing socialism in the title, and one promoting it. The one denouncing socialism was immediately demonetized, while the one promoting socialism still gained money.
It’s safe to say that the censorship wave is targeted at the right. If the pattern keeps, it won’t be long before we start seeing other conservative channels — from Crowder to the DailyWire — suffer the same fate.
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