Gab is still up

Parler was shut down because Amazon had the right to remove them from their services

There already was a ton of anger among conservatives about the selective censorship of their voices by Big Tech, but until last year, its victims were mostly controversial figures who were somewhat affiliated with the GOP or Trump, not actual party memembers. Until recently, I would have expected the GOP to shy away from the most drastic measures.

But now that twitter has had the audacity of silencing the sitting POTUS while Amazon brazenly banned free-speech competition Parler and Facebook censored people like Ron Paul, there can be no more doubt about the danger and scope of this censorship. Big Tech's actions from mid-2020 until now amount to a declaration of war against the GOP and conservative thought in general. Therefore, I now assume that cheeks will be clapped if the GOP regains a trifecta.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Feb 10 2021 05:07pm

I do appreciate these moments where you reveal what you actually think about stuff.

Twitter silenced Trump because he helped incite and enable an insurrection. While that isn't a big deal to you, normal people(and corporations who want to maintain an image) care about that kind of stuff. Trump has blatantly violated Twitter's policy for years... and they kept him around because he was a candidate and then president. They bended the rules to keep him on, not to ban him.

Amazon services getting rid of Parler is a different category IMO, but I'm also happy to see them defend that by pointing out all the horrible shit that Parler wouldn't erase from their own site. Hatred and violence aren't necessarily conservative or right-wing.

Ron Paul is completely irrelevant in today's politics so I'm guessing he got banned for something legitimate and right-wingers are just using it as a justification for their tech authoritarianism. Is his page still banned?

Honestly, the fact that right-wing populists are so concerned about the ToS of Twitter and Facebook tells me you people aren't ready to govern. You're way too online.

This post was edited by IceMage on Feb 10 2021 05:20pm

Oh please...
Twitter bent the rules to keep him on because he was a cash cow, they only got off the Trump train when his presidency was almost over anyway and he had done something which would see public opinion turn on him quite hard.
No, they did not actually ban him because he broke the ToS - if twitter was really concerned with world leaders crossing a red line, Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran would have long been banned after repeatedly calling for a genocide in no uncertain terms, dito for various other dictators from around the world.

Also, did you miss it when a wide range of leaders of free, democratic countries immediately picked up on the extremely dangerous precedent it sets when a private company has the power to silence the democratically elected president?
https://www.politico.eu/article/angela-merkel-european-leaders-question-twitter-donald-trump-ban/



Parler might have been ripe for the banhammer, but anyone who thinks the timing was a coincidence is extremely gullible. It was no accident that Amazon decided to deplatform Parler the day Trump got banned from Twitter and Facebook and mused about migrating to a different platform and taking most of his followers with him.


Wait a second, did you just unironically accuse the political right of tech authoritarianism? Are you fucking serious?



"You're way too online" says IceMage, the man who seemingly spends hours everyday on twitter (if we go by the amount of tweets you link here every day).

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Feb 10 2021 05:47pm

It's not a compelling argument when you say, "sure, Trump violated Twitter rules several times, and got banned, but other world leaders violated the rules and were not banned." Twitter has discretion in determining when a world leader has violated their rules to such an extent that they deserve being permanently banned.

It's fine that some world leaders are concerned about Big Tech banning the US president from a platform... I get it. But in this case, it's entirely justifiable. Twitter allowed Trump to do whatever he wanted for 4 years... an insurrection was too much. I'm glad that an American institution restrained a president when his moron voters wouldn't.

I don't know if Parler was a coincidence or not... I'm more concerned about the merits. If they don't moderate extreme and dangerous content, should Amazon have a right to not service them? I believe they should have that right.

I get more news and insight on 30 mins of Twitter than most Americans would receive watching 8 hours of news. Haters gonna hate.

I disagree. Like Twitter itself said repeatedly, there is a big public interest in receiving the message from world leaders (which is the reason why they get more latitude and are not banned for certain violations of the usual ToS). Precisely because of this public interest in the communication by political leaders should they be held to a transparent and universal standard which applies to all of them. Tweets by Trump, Biden, Merkel or Kim are too important to be treated according to the discretion/subjective calls of Twitter employees.


I again have to disagree vehemently. Twitter, Facebook and co. are NOT institutions, they have ZERO democratic legitimization and aren't accountable to anyone. Look, I get that the aftermath of the Capitol riot was an extraordinary situation, and that you are immensely disappointed in the American voters who refuse to hold Trump accountable, so that you're glad if anyone comes around who does. But outsourcing political accountability to the whims of private companies, who can have all sorts of political/ideological lean, is not a solution for this kind of problem. America might have a problem with Trump's radicalized base, but that's a political problem which has to be solved in the political sphere, not by private companies.


Have the right? Yes. But it's absolute hypocrisy when Amazon decides to pull the plug, after months of complaints and lack of moderation, at the exact moment when doing so helped quash the formation of a serious rival to the Big Tech cartel.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Feb 10 2021 10:00pm

Social media firms (especially Twitter) have thrown in with one political party. The whole reason "corporate America" has had such enduring success is that they pour money into both coffers.

Republicans will brutalize them. It's a matter of politics. The social media giants hurt Republican interests, Republicans will look to rectify that. Desantis will be a major player in 2024, and he's pushing it now.

The left has bought and paid for social media. They bought and paid for MSM.

There is NO justification for this, and it should be 100% illegal. Anything else is cheating the American public.

So you are for private business entities being jerked around by the government because of some mob-outrage-mentality by a group of people that are tech-illiterates?

Nothing is stopping the right/middle/anyone from making their own platform. Do you remember MySpace?

This post was edited by RedFromWinter on Feb 11 2021 05:36am

The riot was planned on facebook