1.) Social Media Censorship
Let’s review just a few of the many examples of social media censorship that have taken place over the past few years.
- Trump has been banned from: Facebook, Trump, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, and more.
- Pinterest and Tiktok both banned pro-life group Live Action.
- Twitter suspended Allie Beth Stuckey for calling a man a man.
- Facebook suspended Candace Owen’s content.
- Instagram routinely censors prolife posts.
- Censortrack.org has lists of examples of censorship broken down by social media companies.
Jen Psaki recently said, “You shouldn’t be banned from one platform and not another for providing misinformation.” If it’s been happening on social media for years, it’s going to start happening on other types of platforms as well. And it has already begun.
2.) Digital Advertising Inhibitions
Google censors organic search content by controlling the types of search results that appear. It is no longer a true search engine, but rather a tool for pushing an agenda. Google Ads and Amazon have both blocked the ads and ad accounts of some Christian and conservative companies, prohibiting them from using one of the most common and effective marketing methods of our day. Here are just a few examples.
- This article demonstrates how Google hides search results.
- Google has prohibited pro-life ads by both Choose Life Marketing and Live Action.
- Amazon prohibited ads on a book that raised some questions about BLM.
- Google Ads account suspended for wearing a MAGA hat in a video.
If you are interested in withdrawing your support from Google’s search engine, please consider using an alternative platform. For individuals interested in more market diversity, it is crucial to increase the competition that Google is facing, as this quote from a Real Clear Politics article states “while competitors are growing in popularity, their market share numbers remain low: Microsoft’s Bing has 7.2% of the pie, and DuckDuckGo has 1.75%.” For marketers and business owners, who would like to explore alternative options for advertising, you can start by listing your company on Red Balloon marketplace.
3.) Content Restrictions by Google-owned Youtube
Does your business model include dependence on platforms that get your content in front of millions of Americans? If so, you might want to start thinking about which platforms you want to rely on. Here are just a few examples of individuals and businesses who have faced serious struggles due to being de-plaltformed.
- JP Sears was gaining success and popularity until Youtube started hiding his videos.
- Youtube de-platformed Lifesite News without warning in early 2021.
- PragerU has sued Google and Youtube for repeatedly restricting their content.
- Youtube removed the account of Abortion Pill Reversal.
- Rand Paul removed himself from Youtube after being censored.
4.) Web and App Hosting Removals
We all know the internet to be a wonderful tool for business. Anyone can set up a website at any time, and start getting their messages out into the world. With the increasing popularity of mobile apps in the last 10 years, they became another amazing tool for getting in front of more and more people. However, what happens if you don’t have access to these tools anymore? In the following examples, businesses had to ask this question.
- Apple removed a prolife app from the App Store.
- Amazon Web Services denied Parler cloud hosting services.
- Apple dropped Parler from the App Store.
- GoDaddy removed prolifewhistleblower.com, causing their website to go down.
5.) Payment Processors Refusing to Process Payments
Last but certainly not least, businesses typically require a means of transferring money. Some businesses in recent years have had to face the unexpected hassle of being denied this basic service.
- PayPal has been known to deny services to accounts based on their politics before, and now they have also partnered with the left-leaning Anti-Defamation league to focus on “further uncovering and disrupting the financial pipelines that support extremist and hate movements.”
- Paypal suspended Canadian Prepper’s account. For 6 months, the 30-40% of his customers who rely on this method to make purchases on his website weren’t able to do so. Hear him tell his story in his own words.
- After January 6, 2021 Stripe stopped processing payments for Trump’s campaign website, as well as for some individuals who attended the rally that turned into a riot.
It is our belief that there are many more instances of censorship, control, and restriction that have not been reported, and that the public is not aware of. It is apparent that censorship and restriction of services extends far beyond just Twitter deleting Trump’s controversial tweets. While it is well-known that Parler was dropped by AWS and App Store, it is less well known that their other service providers all dropped them as well. Matze stated: “Every vendor from text message services to email providers to our lawyers all ditched us too on the same day.” It’s time for us to break free from Big Tech companies and start pursuing technology independence.