Fox News Commentator Calls For A 'Backlash' Against Big Tech... Because Wikileaks Released His Phone Number
from the say-that-again? dept
It's widely recognized that there's been a widespread backlash against the big tech companies over the last few years. Politicians on both sides of the aisle in the US have been calling for massive, sometimes crippling, regulations, fines or even antitrust breakups of the companies. Regulators around the globe have been fining the companies billions of dollars.
Apparently all of that is news to Fox News contributor Juan Williams, who has taken to the august pages of The Hill to publish an op-ed calling for a backlash to big tech. Dude, it's already happening. Still, perhaps Williams has a new argument that is worth considering? I mean, there are legitimate points to be made about competition, privacy and the like. But... nope. Williams is mad that Wikileaks -- which, last I checked, is not considered a member of "big tech" -- leaked his cell phone number in a cache of John Podesta emails:
Tell the truth — you love Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all the rest.
I did, too. Then it got personal for me.
In 2016, Russian hackers, using WikiLeaks, “doxed” me.
They published my private cell phone number in a dump of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s stolen emails. I gave him my number in a private email to set up an interview.
Once the number was out, my phone blew up. Pranksters harassed me. Thuggish partisans threatened me. I had to get a new phone as I was covering the final weeks of the campaign.
So, uh, what does that have to do with "Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all the rest"? I have absolutely no clue. And neither does Williams. But apparently, it's a reason to attack them. Oh, also because some asshole troll wrote negative reviews on his upcoming book on Amazon.
Then, in 2018, a smiling man came up after I hosted a television show in Dallas to tell me how much he enjoyed “trolling” me online with racist language.
I couldn’t believe he was saying this to my face. His smile made it weird.
He then bragged about how he and his pals wrote phony reviews of a book I wrote on President Trump’s history of racism. He wanted to bring down the book’s rating on Amazon, even though it had not yet been released and he had not read it.
And get this – this guy then asked for a selfie.
That's certainly a good example of an asshole troll doing asshole trollish things. But according to Williams, it's proof of why we need to attack social media companies?
This is just one horrible way the world has been transformed for the worse by social media.
Huh?
Then he just blames them all for recent mass shootings.
The recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton reminded the nation of the damage done by Big Tech's refusal to take responsibility for hate speech, racism and calls to violence.
Wait. What did any of those sites have to do with the mass shootings in either place? This is just a random slur for no reason at all. There is no connection at all. Indeed, there's a much stronger connection between those shootings and... wait for it, Williams' own employer:
There is a striking degree of overlap between the words of right-wing media personalities and the language used by the Texas man who confessed to killing 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso this month.
[....]
An extensive New York Times review of popular right-wing media platforms found hundreds of examples of language, ideas and ideologies that overlapped with the mass killer’s written statement — a shared vocabulary of intolerance that stokes fears centered on immigrants of color. The programs, on television and radio, reach an audience of millions.
So, uh, Juan Williams, perhaps there should be a "backlash" against your own house, before you start throwing stones at others. But, nope. It's important for Fox News to keep the narrative focused on the tech companies, lest anyone take a look at its own efforts. And one way to fuel the narrative is to lie about it and then poll the public you fooled. Williams plays along:
Polls now show a sharp increase in Americans who are furious with big technology companies that rake in millions while refusing to take any responsibility for the spread of hateful language, bizarre conspiracy theories, financial scams and trolls — as well as the derailing of honest political discourse.
Funny, but it's Williams buddies at Fox News who keep arguing that these platforms take too much responsibility on the site and are supposedly "banning conservatives," and that's why Senators like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz keep threatening laws to stop these sites from taking down any speech. Meanwhile, you have to be horrifically and totally out of touch to argue that these sites have not been trying to deal with "hateful language, bizarre conspiracy theories, financial scams and trolls." They've been trying. They've been failing, but part of that is the impossibility of the task. And part of it is the intellectually dishonest claims by folks like Williams.
Start with the big tech companies’ refusal to stop Russia from interfering in the 2016 election with a deluge of phony online posts designed to tear the country apart by race, religion, sexual preference, and fear of immigrants.
"Refusal to stop" is an interesting way to rewrite history. First off, according to Fox News, all that Russia stuff is a hoax and we should be holding people responsible for "years of lies" about it. But now, Williams is claiming that tech companies should be held liable for not stopping what his colleagues insist is a total hoax? Second, it is absolutely true that social media companies were caught unaware of the extent of Russian operations on social media during the 2016 election. But it's also true that detailed data analysis showed that it was Fox News and not Russian trolls who were more successful in spreading the kind of bogus propaganda the Russians were pushing.
Again, Mr. Williams, perhaps check your own house first.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a leading candidate for the White House in 2020, is following Hughes’ lead by campaigning on a plan to break up the big tech companies.
And Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced legislation to hold tech companies accountable for the fact that consumers — especially young children — are becoming addicted to tech products and harming their health in the process.
Williams is so clueless he doesn't even realize that Hawley's other recently introduced bill would literally ban what Williams is requesting in terms of having companies "take responsibility" for hate speech online.
Back in December, I wrote in this column:
“An honest 2020 election is not possible without Congress getting its hands dirty by confronting Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, the tech corporations often referred to by the acronym ‘FAANG.’”
The problem has only gotten worse.
Congress — for the future of our democracy, please bring on the tech backlash!
Again, all of the evidence says that Fox News had significantly more impact than any of the big internet companies, and Williams' sole point of complaint is that Wikileaks -- not a big tech company -- released an email with his phone number, and some random asshole online trolled him. Maybe, next time, Mr. Williams can take a look at his own employer first.
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Filed Under: backlash, fox news, internet, juan williams, tech, trolls
Companies: facebook, google, wikileaks
Reader Comments
The First Word
“Juan, Juan, if you want to kill a social media platform, why not just ask your boss Rupert Murdoch to buy them? He did a hell of a job euthanising Myspace.
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Old man yells at cloud
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Big Tech Got Caught Lying
950 documents. Live video. Give it up please. Nobody is listening to anybody crying wolf, or russian, or racist, or any of the other nonsense Google spreads with its algorithms after today. They are busted. So sorry. Thank you for playing. You can stop pretending people believe you.
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Re: Big Tech Got Caught Lying
Even if all of that were true, what does it have to do with this particular rant? The guy is mad at Wikileaks and blaming Google and Facebook for it. Why?
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Re: Re: Big Tech Got Caught Lying
For publicity
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Dude, I’d trust Project Veritas about as much as I’d trust Shiva Ayyadurai’s claims of being the one singular inventor of all modern email.
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Re:
I'd trust Project Veritas about as much as I'd trust Donald Trump's claim to be the "least racist person there is anywhere in the world."
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Re: Re:
Or that the people he brought into the white house were "the best people. Nobody has better people than me." unless, of course, he meant "the best at getting caught doing illegal stuff".
The man is an idiot.
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Re: Re: Re:
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Re: Re: Re:
"The man is an idiot."
You can say a lot of things about Trump. But the fact is that he has managed to instill a sense of fanaticism in his voter base not normally seen outside of religious cults.
He can lie outright, in every other sentence and get away with "Donald just being Donald" - while retaining his hold on the office.
He can get caught - on tape - describing the proper way of using a woman's genitals as a handle - and still get elected president of the united states.
He can get away with putting an acknowledged white supremacist in as chief of staff and have his lawyer pay hush money to porn stars.
Bill Clinton would have been hung on the white house lawn for even one of those acts.
Hell, Tricky Dick should take a knee in mute worship.
If that is an idiot then this tells us rather a lot of very unflattering things about the US citizenry as Trump not only got elected but remains in office.
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
It sure does. Because this is clearly not an intelligent man.
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Re: Big Tech Got Caught Lying
"I love Wikileaks!"
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Re: Big Zof Got Caught Lying
950 posts. Live video probably. Give it up bro. Nobody is listening to Zof crying, or his Alex Jones conspiracies, or his racist bullshit, or any of the other nonsense Zof spreads with his mind numbingly dull posts after today. You are busted. Not sorry. Stop playing. You can stop pretending people believe you. Because we don’t.
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Re: Big Tech Got Caught Lying
[Asderts facts not in evidence]
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Netflix? What?
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Re:
...Maybe he watched a movie about Julian Assange before writing his rant?
Nah, thinking that anything he posted might have some sort of sense behind it is giving him too much credit. Especially given the lack of sense in the rest of the rant.
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Re:
Netflix? What?
Otherwise FAANG would be FAAG.
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Oh, like that would’ve stopped a Fox News contributor.
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Trolls
Some trolls still use printed media
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The sad part
I believe he is supposed to be the "liberal" counterpoint to the "conservative" hosts. That is if I remember right. It has been years since I have tuned in to that station.
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Re: The sad part
Yes, you are correct. He is the "liberal" counterpart to the many "conservative" commentators.
Fox claims to be "fair and balanced", but they hired him BECAUSE he is an intellectual light weight. He makes their commentators look smarter than they are.
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Re: Re: The sad part
Fox News Token Liberal is not very liberal.
Ronald Reagan is too liberal for some of them.
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Re: Re: Re: The sad part
For most of them I’d say.
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Re: Re: The sad part
He’s the guy whos hired who if you observe long enough is doing a comedy relief role but will probably turn into the “mad as hell guy” one day.
Him:well I just think that if you put a good lens on the issue then it looks-
Host: lens? Is that rhetorical? “Laughs”
Him: “wide eyes” nah man “rhetorical” is when you invite me to your shows to sit in this “kicks chair backwards” chair for many years just to hear you PRETEND to care.
“Camera cuts”
I have seen guys like that man lol
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Re: The sad part
Wouldn't that essentially explain his behavior here?
Oh I get it, conservatives are universally stupid and liberals are smart progressives that never incorrectly throw around blame.
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Hey, you said it, not me.
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Re: Re: The sad part
Why would you think that?
Persecution complex much?
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Re: Re: The sad part is you bro
I’d bet real money that you actually thought that your little post was as fresh and cutting as a minty razor. When in realty it’s more like a soiled nappy from a spoiled toddler.
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Re: Re: The sad part
"Oh I get it, conservatives are universally stupid and liberals are smart progressives that never incorrectly throw around blame."
Not really, no.
However, most of us non-US posters also do not define "conservatives" as "bigots and racists" or "alt-right religious fanatics".
You do realize all the founding fathers were, by definition, liberals, and that liberals wrote that constitution of yours, right?
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Re: The sad part
He is the voice of Democrats, which is one reason why the author’s mocking tone is misplaced.
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According to who, Fox News?
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Re: Re: The sad part
He is the voice of Democrats, which is one reason why the author’s mocking tone is misplaced.
Why does what party he's "the face of" have anything whatsoever to do with our analysis of his claims, which are not at all based on what party anyone is affiliated with?
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Re: Good times
I used to get really high too bro.
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Re: Re: The sad part
“He is the voice of Democrats which is one of the reasons why the authors mocking tone is displaced.
Ok I have seen Tucker’s show as well as the others and how his conversations go with “guest”
When you are the voice of the Democrats on Fox News “god that sounds so creepy like an exiled Russian who knows he’s only one outpost from Siberia” your opinions on things consist of “agreement” “eh its ok” or “safe words gently saying you may not like it” that will either get you made fun of. Dodged altogether or when that does not work the ol camera cut to another segment.
This man has the freedom and mobility of a dog who will never see sun if he is not allowed.
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Aww poor him.
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Content Neutrality
Sure, lets enforce this starting with Faux News. (Which Cadet Bonespurs slams just for COVERING his opponents.)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-fox-news_n_5d380257e4b0419fd334d998
The the Feds can come in and enforce it on StormFront and Infowars!
In the meantime, anyone that that gets de-platformed for endorsing the Nazi's can go cry wherever they want.
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Citizens United for what now?
All those people who celebrated the Citizens United decision that says corporations have first amendment rights are probably fighting tooth and nail against these initiatives to curtail how big tech expresses themselves.
Oh wait....
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Fox news talking heads are not synonymous with intellectualism, honesty, balanced view points, open mindedness, or anything else associated with a normal thinking individual.
I think the late Koko had a better handle on things than anyone from Fox.
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Social media didn't invent human stupidity. It just makes it more readily visible.
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Everyone Fox News formula is easy to understand.
When you say something remotely “yay” to them they like you and spread words of joy and peace to you even at the expense of themselves.
And the. Two minutes later you are the devil because you are in opposition to them Becuase you did something that offended the channels politics and now your a democrat pr a guy who....I don’t know hides the remote so they can’t watch tv...
They have no depth they are not a complicated Villain they are not even a news channel lol what you see is what you get.
You you could beat organizations like that the same way you do people like that: by giving them a false sense of security and pretending to agree with them just enough that it sounds like you are a friend lol
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Juan, Juan, if you want to kill a social media platform, why not just ask your boss Rupert Murdoch to buy them? He did a hell of a job euthanising Myspace.
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I got doxxed when Target got hacked and again when Home Depot got hacked. We need to bring down Big Retail!
I also got doxxed when Experian got hacked (twice). Where is the backlash against all credit reporting agencies?!
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Kind of proves the point -- BANANA PEEL
It is all -- literally all -- the fault of the mega-techs. I'm waiting for some idiot to sue a mega-tech because he slipped on a banana peel.
The lawsuit will be based on the theory that the mega-tech published a story about someone slipping on a banana peel, making the mega-tech liable for all banana peels on earth -- so give me money.
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"This is just one horrible way the world has been transformed for the worse by social media.
Huh?"
It is social medias fault that everyone wants to take a selfie and post it. At least that is the argument I have heard elsewhere.
Sorry, no citation, it was quite some time ago, after a selfie (for a social media site) murdered someone.
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Re:
"after a selfie (for a social media site) murdered someone"
A digital file murdered somebody? That's a neat trick.
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Re: Re:
"A digital file murdered somebody? That's a neat trick."
Ten to one it was that asshole in a vault suit with a pip-boy on his wrist.
It makes as much sense as the claim that a selfie caused death.
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Re: Re: Re:
I assume what he means is one of those occasional stories where some idiot fell to their death trying to get a good angle to send to instagram. In which case, the cause of death is "doing something stupid for attention", which is a much older issue than social media.
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
We don't blame people for these things. We have scapegoats such as video games, guns and social media sites. There is no need to blame someone for their own actions.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
It is a little disturbing when people put weapons in the same class as entertainment and communication, but such is your culture I suppose.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Ever hear of "Action Movies?" It is a genre of movies that overwhelmingly contains guns. Movies are used to communicate a message. See any type of connection yet?
Mentioning a few scapegoats is the only genre I mentioned. Do scapegoats have to come from same class, in your culture?
Do you see drug addicts, another scapegoat, as a form of entertainment for yourself or in the same class as communication, Mr. Sackler?
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I didn't realize you had to send nudes to strangers to stop strangers from sharing your nudes (copywrong)
Online Harassment: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
"Online harassment is a major problem, but it’s rarely prosecuted. If only we’d been warned about this in the early days of the internet."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuNIwYsz7PI
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Re:
Reading fail,.-1.
The pictures were getting shown, no matter what. She sent them to deprive a blackmailer of leverage.
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Re: Re:
Just realized I posted this to wrong article. Fail
Above post is in regards to shutting revenge porn down using copyright but you first have to send nudes to copyright office in order to do so
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FoxNews
Still number 1 (#1) in viewership. think about that folks, Juan Williams reachs more folks in an average day then yall do in a week.
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Re: FoxNews
And yet here you are.
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... and?
People tend to pay more attention to the person holding a cardboard sign ranting about the end of the world than they do the person holding a professionally made one advertising their business. Or if you want another example, sports vs educational content.
'Gets more attention' does not necessarily equate to 'credible' or 'worth more than the other thing'.
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Re: FoxNews
Did you have a point related to the post, or did you just want to play the "I'm a tribalist and have to support my tribe no matter what" card?
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Re: FoxNews
"Still number 1 (#1) in viewership"
...on US cable, which is not watched by a majority of Americans right now, let alone by the world. By contrast, Fox shut down their UK channel because one a few thousand people were watching it.
Also, even if true that has no indication of its quality. Lots of crap is popular for various reason.
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Damn you, Netflix!
It's funny how "big tech" needs to be brought down and take responsibility, yet no other big industries have ever had this call from conservatives writ large. In fact, very, very much the opposite.
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Smears!
Smears and lies!
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Re: Smears!
I can see why you'd be confused, but they prefer to use the slogan "Fair & Balanced."
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"This is just one horrible way the world has been transformed for the worse by social media."
Anyone care to list the ways Faux News has done the same? There's plenty of space below this post.
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The Hill
So, which editor at The Hill thinks that this evidence free, disconnected, illogical rant was worth publishing?
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"all of the evidence says that Fox News had significantly more impact than any of the big internet companies"
Social media poses a greater threat to democracy than any of the legacy media outlets. You don't need a fancy study to know that if Google and Facebook decided to use their vast reach to tip the scales in the next election that they could easily do so? And that under current law, they could legally do so because they are private companies and can do whatever they damn well please.
Techdirt often launches into tirades against the power of corporations in our digital lives, but is particularly blind to the evils of corporate America when it's defending massive social media corporations.
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Re:
[Asserts facts not in evidence]
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... Adam?
Social media poses a greater threat to democracy than any of the legacy media outlets. You don't need a fancy study to know that if Google and Facebook decided to use their vast reach to tip the scales in the next election that they could easily do so?
Article: Here's a study showing that X, rather than Y, had a higher impact on the election, contrary to what people are claiming.
AC: I reject your reality, and substitute my own!
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Re:
Ac....
Fox News is a private company...
That often Launches into tirades against the power of corporations in our digital lives...
That can use the vast reach to tip the scales of an election...
“Insert psycho scare music”
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Is he still trying to be relevant? #fail
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re: trolling
re: “what did any of those sites have to do with the mass shootings in either place?”
Its impossible to tell, because the evidence of law enforcement trolls, JTRIG/FVEY radicalizers, crisis PR trolls, and ADL /SPLC sponsored speech police, provocateurs and deplatformers are webscrubbed from FAANG platforms as soon as the, “bad guys ” shoot something up.
Is THAT a conspiracy theory, or just more DVIC /K 4 hiding the ball?
https://medium.com/@helen.buyniski/the-great-deplatforming-how-hate-speech-conquered-free-speech-4f 0214dd4f54
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