The Fragile Right and Censorship Today

As I read an article about Marjorie Taylor Greene using Facebook to harass David Hogg, ramble about Qanon conspiracy garbage, and incite riots, murders and sedition, I was amazed. The right-wing Trump supporters could get away with murder, or at least inciting it, on Facebook while those of us on the left are suspended or have accounts permanently disabled for innocuous comments. Yet they all still scream about freedom of speech and claim their rights are being violated ad nauseam.

I have been censored for decades, really since 1992, and I quickly learned the difference between censorship and freedom of speech or first amendment rights. What I dealt with back in the 90s was a clear violation of my first amendment rights. I did go to a couple of attorneys about it and one was the ACLU attorney for Central Florida at the time, but he wasn't interested because he was representing a strip club and claimed it was a conflict of interest.

Here's my October 1996 Sprint Publishing letter. For the record, the "clear and convincing case" the MBI made to Sprint Publishing involved setting up Sprint ad reps using vague word twisting and circle talk. They then took the "evidence" to Sprint's attorneys and threatened to takedown the entire company for racketeering (RICO). I addressed it thoroughly in my Memoirs book. 

I have one from Bellsouth Advertising too, but it doesn't mention the MBI and they voluntarily removed the category. No setup was necessary. 

Take the world of adult businesses for example and think back to Craigslist Erotic Services category... Do you have any clue how threatened Craigslist CEO and attorneys were by the Orlando MBI? Here are the letters with the thinly veiled threats.

The Original Attack on Craigslist Adult Categories

MBI to Buckmaster September 2007

MBI to Buckmaster November2007

Buckmaster to MBI November 2007

MBI to Buckmaster January 2008

MBI to Buckmaster March 2008

Remember Backpage indictments and federal takedown? Ever heard of Big Doggie? I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that what's published is controlled, at least in the US.

Do I need to link my post about PayPal permanently limiting and freezing my account because they claimed a book I published and sold using PayPal for payment processors was adult sexual material (It's not!)? Yeah, so only Amazon and Google can sell my books and I have not been able to since 2011. I was angry about the PayPal censorship because it was based on a lie, but it has nothing to do with freedom of speech or the first amendment. 

Censored By PayPal

The fragile right has worked to get Facebook to censor me for some time now. My account has been restricted four times this year for innocuous comments. This last 3-day suspension felt like I was slapped and told that I had better not dare to respond to the misinformation, hyperbole, and attacks constantly spread by this crowd; not even jokingly. It occurred on an article about the My Pillow guy's plight and I was repeatedly lectured about oppression and freedom of speech before making the comment.

 Truth be told, if I had any clue it would have resulted in yet another 3-day suspension, I would have said what I wanted to say: You're dumb as freakin' dirt! Stop your whining BS, go read a book, and take your pillow pal with you.

 

UPDATE on April 22, 2021 @12:45PM

First I must state that after watching the situation closely for the last couple of months, I must conclude that it is not left vs right as I initially believed. I'm updating this post as the topic is unworthy of another post.

Facebook a Tool of Manipulation and Nothing More

As if suspending accounts for a perceived violation of the Terms of Service was not enough, the new tool in the Facebook tool box is to simply block an account from commenting, posting, or any form of participation if the person is on a target list. If your account posts comments on articles that dispute the article itself or the establishment / government viewpoint you are next. A block pops-up that looks like this:

 

I'm sure I'm not the first target and positively not the last, but when it happened to me a couple of days ago it was the first time I saw it or heard about it. Perhaps they are testing it out on a handful of accounts and intend to fully implement the tool in the near future. I'm over social media in general, so just alerting the rest of you on the situation.

 

They're working with media and government on this... mark my words. While nothing I stated violated anything, I do recall the discussion that seemed to trigger it. 

UPDATE on June 18, 2021 @11:45PM

So, today my Facebook account was suspended for 3 days for the simple act of responding to a troll account with an image of a troll. It was on an article The Hill posted discussing Trump's opinion on why the US shouldn't boycott the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, and for the record, I also don't think the US should boycott. I commented that my opinion was at least as valid as Trump's on the issue and how irrelevant his thoughts are. My comment received a lot of likes and of course responses from a few trolls. One troll posted a couple of memes calling me a "Karen". I responded once with this...

Yes, that's it. You see, Facebook allows these Trump followers to create empty, blank accounts anonymously and troll any comments negative on their leader. They then report any and all responses immediately and see what sticks. My little response violated Facebook Community Standards of harassment according to Facebook. You've got to laugh; I did. 

Facebook has community standards? Wondering if A1 or these moderators are living under a rock OR if they're all set to an I love Trump setting. 

File this under Absurd Suspensions with the rest of this shit. 😉

Hmm I was able to share a post a minute ago, so perhaps a human reversed the 3 day suspension. No notification on this, but in past they usually posted a note saying sorry, but we made a mistake two weeks after the suspension. Yeah.