Here, in the United States, citizens are granted rights through our Constitution. One of the most coveted rights is the very first one. The FIRST Amendment. It gives all of us the right to free speech. Free speech. Imagine that! Freedom to speak your mind regardless of who you might offend. |  |
It gives all of us the right to free speech. Free speech. Imagine that! Freedom to speak your mind regardless of who you might offend. Your view may absolutely offend your neighbor, parent, employer, teachers and even your government and the law allows you do so without punity. Your opinion can be crude, ugly, disgusting. You can even lie about public figures. You can create the most disgusting art that offends everyone and no one can do a thing unless it is considered illegal. There are forms of speech that are illegal, which includes anything that involves children and sexual content. Free speech has consequences though. Your employer for instance, may have certain allowable limitations if you want to stay employed. Your parents do not have to support you and may quit speaking to you. Your friends may turn their back on you.
There are civil consequences. If you publish or speak lies and cause damage to someone who is not a public figure, they can sue you. If you violate someone’s civil rights, they can sue you for damages. This is not censorship.
As journalists, our duty is to protect all speech regardless of whether we agree with it or not. We are given broad protections and with these protections come great responsibility. Unfortunately, social media platforms have become the free speech police over the last few years. Free speech does not guarantee you will not be offended or that you will agree so why not scroll past what you disagree with or counter with a valid argument?
It seems like the social media platforms of Twitter, Facebook and You Tube among others have taken it upon themselves to squash alternate perspectives instead of offering open dialogue. For instance during the Covid 19 crisis, we had many from around the world, especially in countries CFTWF worked in that offered alternative views on the use of HCQ as a possible treatment. Not only were these views censored, the authors of views were deplatformed, videos and channels were removed and many of physicians were doxxed and or fired from their jobs. Some were called racists, even though many were black, their credentials questioned and labeled crazy. The censoring did not stop at simply not publishing. Those who censor want to destroy those they disagree with. They want them to disappear. That, my friends is the danger. That is not America. In fact, this is straight up Communism. I majored in Russian Studies and know quite a bit about Communism. America cannot go down this road. This MUST stop.
Why silence voices you disagree with? Let’s be adults. Simply create an argument with compelling evidence to dispute what you disagree with. It is not hard. I do it everyday. If you do not agree, agree to disagree and move on. It IS that simple. I have no need to control those who disagree with me and neither should those who disagree with me.
Some say censorship serves to prevent misleading information from being distributed. It protects the people. I suggest censorship does the opposite. Censorship creates a phenomenon called the Streisand Effect, which causes individuals to seek out the information being suppressed. People want access to what others do not want them to have. It is human nature. Once a platform begins censoring, the public develops mistrust for whoever is censoring. Intuitively, the public begins to question why the censorship is occurring, then leads them to seek out alternate sources for their information. I am witnessing people who now are seeking the truth on their own and not absorbing what the media is feeding them. We are seeing this in real time as people flee these platforms for alternatives. I believe the genie is out of the bottle and will not be back. Jack and Mark really screwed up, whatever their motivations are. They have created a mess and now the public does not trust them. The silver lining is the public is awake now.
So, you may ask why am I even writing this blog. CFTWF was censored and deplatformed temporarily across our social media platforms as we shared a variety of information regarding alternative views about Covid 19 treatment as well as information on its origins. Our donation platforms were cut off. Our website was even offline for weeks. We also were censored as we discussed online the massive global sex trafficking issues we uncovered during our research for future projects. As journalists, we take our responsibility seriously. Free speech is critical to our freedom. The public can decide for themselves if the information we publish holds true. They can decide if they want to continue to support our work. We have deactivated Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For now, You Tube is still operative but we are searching for alternative platforms and will update you once we fully transition.
There are civil consequences. If you publish or speak lies and cause damage to someone who is not a public figure, they can sue you. If you violate someone’s civil rights, they can sue you for damages. This is not censorship.
As journalists, our duty is to protect all speech regardless of whether we agree with it or not. We are given broad protections and with these protections come great responsibility. Unfortunately, social media platforms have become the free speech police over the last few years. Free speech does not guarantee you will not be offended or that you will agree so why not scroll past what you disagree with or counter with a valid argument?
It seems like the social media platforms of Twitter, Facebook and You Tube among others have taken it upon themselves to squash alternate perspectives instead of offering open dialogue. For instance during the Covid 19 crisis, we had many from around the world, especially in countries CFTWF worked in that offered alternative views on the use of HCQ as a possible treatment. Not only were these views censored, the authors of views were deplatformed, videos and channels were removed and many of physicians were doxxed and or fired from their jobs. Some were called racists, even though many were black, their credentials questioned and labeled crazy. The censoring did not stop at simply not publishing. Those who censor want to destroy those they disagree with. They want them to disappear. That, my friends is the danger. That is not America. In fact, this is straight up Communism. I majored in Russian Studies and know quite a bit about Communism. America cannot go down this road. This MUST stop.
Why silence voices you disagree with? Let’s be adults. Simply create an argument with compelling evidence to dispute what you disagree with. It is not hard. I do it everyday. If you do not agree, agree to disagree and move on. It IS that simple. I have no need to control those who disagree with me and neither should those who disagree with me.
Some say censorship serves to prevent misleading information from being distributed. It protects the people. I suggest censorship does the opposite. Censorship creates a phenomenon called the Streisand Effect, which causes individuals to seek out the information being suppressed. People want access to what others do not want them to have. It is human nature. Once a platform begins censoring, the public develops mistrust for whoever is censoring. Intuitively, the public begins to question why the censorship is occurring, then leads them to seek out alternate sources for their information. I am witnessing people who now are seeking the truth on their own and not absorbing what the media is feeding them. We are seeing this in real time as people flee these platforms for alternatives. I believe the genie is out of the bottle and will not be back. Jack and Mark really screwed up, whatever their motivations are. They have created a mess and now the public does not trust them. The silver lining is the public is awake now.
So, you may ask why am I even writing this blog. CFTWF was censored and deplatformed temporarily across our social media platforms as we shared a variety of information regarding alternative views about Covid 19 treatment as well as information on its origins. Our donation platforms were cut off. Our website was even offline for weeks. We also were censored as we discussed online the massive global sex trafficking issues we uncovered during our research for future projects. As journalists, we take our responsibility seriously. Free speech is critical to our freedom. The public can decide for themselves if the information we publish holds true. They can decide if they want to continue to support our work. We have deactivated Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For now, You Tube is still operative but we are searching for alternative platforms and will update you once we fully transition.
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