Disclosure: I have been off Twitter since late 2020.
There are many reasons for it.
One, Twitter’s censorship of the story of Hunter Biden’s so-called “laptop from hell” kept a crucially important and timely story largely under wraps in the weeks before the crucial Trump-Biden election. I’m no lawyer, but that alone seems like election-meddling. Polls since the 2020 election show that many folks who voted for Biden said they were unaware of the laptop allegations at that time, and had they known, would not have voted for Biden.
Thus, in a real way, you can say that Twitter helped install a president and commander-in-chief who sometimes tries to shake hands with thin air, read directly from the teleprompter, threw 41 million Afghans to the wolves, etc.
Two, I watched, aghast, as content and and content-producers were silenced and kicked off left and right…sometimes for daring to contradict the prevailing narrative of the Democrat Party and/or mainstream media. At other times, the censorship seemed arbitrary and random.
Three, it seemed wrong to me to promote and support a platform that was, despite its touting itself as a “free speech platform,” so horribly anti-free speech.
Four, I realized, if I wanted not to get kicked off Twitter, I would need to engage what some call the worst form of censorship: self-censorship. So, rather than wrack my brains before each tweet wondering “will this rub some Twitter employee the wrong way and get me kicked off?”, I decided the easiest thing was to simply log off. I guess you could say, I decided to cancel them before they could cancel me. More is explained in “Why I Kissed Twitter Good-bye.”
The iconoclastic satire site The Babylon Bee has both poked fun at Twitter censorship and double-standards, and paid the price by getting censored on that platform. Protesting their getting blacklisted, they responded with this headline: “With Babylon Bee off Twitter, Users Forced to get Fake News from CNN.”
Pointing out the inconsistencies of the “Twitter Police,” the Babylon Bee cued this one up: “While Scanning for Accounts That Incite Violence, Twitter Algorithm Mistakenly Bans Planned Parenthood.”
Addressing the ridiculous position that Twitter banned President Trump, while still in office, from Twitter but continued to allow the Taliban to have an active account led to this gem: “Trump Sneaks Back On Twitter By Disguising Self As Taliban Spokesperson.”
On July 29, Twitter suddenly censored all content from The Epoch Times newspaper. Not just articles about the 2020 election, or Trump, or the vaccine, but all content. Twitter enforced a warning on all links from The Epoch Times. A click on a link directs users to a page titled “Warning: this link may be unsafe,” which prompts users to return to the previous page.
To be fair and honest, Twitter did not block all links to The Epoch Times. (Sadly, that has happened often on many Big Tech platforms.) In this case, Twitter put up an ominous-looking “warning” page, but in small print at the bottom wrote “Ignore this warning and continue” which let readers proceed to The Epoch Times‘ articles.
Just what are the people at Twitter so afraid of? A cursory glance at some recent Epoch Times stories shows these headlines:
- Coast Guard Vaccine Mandates Forcing Rescue Swimmers Into Retirement
- US Sold Nearly 6 Million Barrels of Oil Reserves to China
- Lockdowns Damaged Speech, Mental Development of Children
- Six Medicinal Herbs You Should Be Growing in your Garden
- Bringing the Fun Home: 5 family outings for tight budgets
- The Health and Healing Powers of Community
- The Questions You Ask to Create the Life You Want
- Roadmap for a “Perfect” Summer Parfait
- Build Your Own Brick Barbecue
- Paying Too Much for Cellphone Service?
- Mast Cell Tumor Is the Most Common Canine Skin Cancer
- Building your Mom Binder: A simple way to organize your home life
- An Enduring Hobby: 84-year-old Spent 40 Years Building a Huge Wooden Boat in his Garage–and He’s Still Working On It
Now, which of those headlines to you sound “unsafe?” Which strike you as “dangerous”? What sounds like “fake news”?
The Epoch Times rubs a lot of people the wrong way because they do not engage in groupthink or peddle the same narratives most of the folks in the legacy media routinely do. Several times during the last couple of years critics have slammed The Epoch Times for spreading “conspiracy theories,” like when they suggested the Covid virus escaped from the virology lab in Wuhan or they questioned the efficacy of the Covid vaccines or lockdowns. With the passage of time and as more data has come in, however, it turns out many of the so-called “conspiracy theories” may very well be true, while the critics were in error.
In most cases, those who most confidently and loudly assured us they were right, but who turned out to be wrong, never apologized of showed any remorse. Instead, they just changed the subject and kept plowing ahead.
Someone I know sums up such people this way: “Sometimes in error but never in doubt.”
It’s almost like the real version of Orwell’s predictions in 1984, “Oceana has always been at war with East Asia.”
Thankfully, after the July 29 crackdown, there was a public outcry by many who are disgusted by several years of increasing censorship by Big Tech. Three US Senators, all Republicans, used their positions to call out the platform for its outrageous viewpoint discrimination. Notably, Virginia’s two US Senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats, kept silent. In the face of the public relations firestorm they had sparked, Twitter backpedaled, prompting this Epoch Times headline: “Condemning Twitter’s Censorship and Thanking Our Supporters.”
I don’t know about you, but I take heart from this episode. It showed that, from US senators to rank-and-file Main Street Americans, there was a loud and clarion call.
Stop the censorship!
Let free speech and free thinking flow!
Twitter employees and top brass are not the final arbiters of what is true or false.
In the face of the outcry, the “Twitter tyrants” turned tail and relented. Of course there will be other attacks on free speech and expression, but this was a win. Let’s celebrate it, keep honoring free speech, and keep our eyes peeled for other assaults, so we can blunt those too.
With the crucial 2022 midterm elections approaching, we can anticipate more attempts at censorship and attacks on free speech. Therefore, we need to be aware, work together, and raise our collective voices when we see these outrageous attacks on our liberties and the free-flow of information.
President Ronald Reagan issued this warning to be ever-vigilant about our liberties and how to safeguard them: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on to them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
In that quest for freedom and to keep it alive, The Epoch Times has proven itself to be a key ally, but Twitter, an adversary.
Be aware and stay alert.
S.D.G.
