New WordPress policy allows it to shut down blogs of Sandy Hook deniers | TechCrunch

WordPress has taken down a handful alt-right blogs, according to several complaints from affected blog owners and readers who claim the sites were removed from WordPress.com, despite not being in violation of the company’s Terms of Service. Some site owners also said they were not notified of…

Source: New WordPress policy allows it to shut down blogs of Sandy Hook deniers | TechCrunch

I had heard about this on a podcast this morning, but they didn’t really get into the story.

I’m glad that the article linked above mentioned that the blogs were hosted on WordPress.com and not self-hosted.  That is a fairly important detail in my opinion.

The difference is that when one uses a service, whether it be WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, etc. whether you read the Terms of Service (ToS for short), it is very applicable to you since you’re using the service.

If you have your own self-hosted blog, you still agree to terms set out by the hosting provider (for example, DreamHost (which I use), GoDaddy, etc.) so if one violates their policies, their blog could be removed as well.

My awareness of this “censorship” has been heightened since the events of last week when Alex Jones was taken down by Apple, Facebook, YouTube, etc.  Now, I certainly don’t agree with everything that Mr. Jones says, but he does cover many stories which the media and “the left” either purposely ignore or just omits due to lack of time or space.  The purpose of the media is not just to inform the populace, but they also have the ability to sway public opinion.

Some may claim that “censorship” can only come from the government.  Perhaps a better term might be “de-platforming”.  What Apple, Facebook, YouTube, etc. are doing to Alex Jones is making it harder for him to get his information to the masses.  His email list manager also cut ties with him.  He had to find a new provider.  The commenting system used on his website also cut ties with him, he had to find a new system for that.  Instead of being able to search for his podcasts on whatever podcatcher you want, you now have to go to his site to get the links and manually add it to your podcatcher.

Let’s face it, the Internet is the new “town square”, which used to be a place where people would have friendly discussions and rallies and sell their wares.  By the actions of Big Tech on Alex Jones, they are basically kicking him out of the town square for claims of “hate speech”, but not really giving solid examples.  

We may need an “Internet Bill of Rights” that clearly outlines our rights to privacy, free speech, etc.

Alex Jones is just one example, and perhaps the most high profile.  Others who’ve been “censored” for lack of a better term, include names that I’ve never really heard of prior to this week such as h3h3 Productions (YouTube pulled their live streaming privilege while they were actually praising them for removing Alex Jone), Gavin McInnes (removed from Twitter), Tommy Robinson (removed from Instagram) and others.

Thank you for reading my lengthy post, I’ve had a lot on my mind that I had to express and I hope it was clear and coherent enough to make you think and be aware of what’s been going on