The fight for free speech took a dark turn when several major companies (Apple, YouTube, Facebook, Spotify) decided to ban the political commentator Alex Jones all in the same day. It was a frightening show of force by the politically left-leaning companies which showed the people that we have allowed social media companies to monopolize the way we speak to each other. It showed us that these companies can silence wrong-thinkers with a simple flip a switch. But one social media, surprisingly, decided not to follow suit: Twitter.
Jack Dorsey is the public face of Twitter and has garnered the reputation as a biased warrior of Social Justice for the clear bias Twitter has shown against notable and effective Anti-SJW superstars, most notably Milo Yinnopoulos – former tech editor of Breitbart and fabulous provocateur. (A.K.A. @Nero). And it didn’t stop there. Also, Twitter seems to suppress pro-conservative tags from trending, or at least, trending for too long. However, while they were busy banning right-wingers for “hate,” it should be noted that several verified accounts have been allowed to tweet blatantly racist and even violent things. Open hatred of white people, open hatred for conservatives, open hatred for men, in general, all have been allowed without consequence. There was even a recent incident where some left-wing wackaloon took a picture of Steven Crowder and suggested, in a tweet, that someone should firebomb his van. Again, no consequences, not until Crowder posted a video which started his new series Crowder Confronts.
So far it seems Twitter has sided with the far left and has also decided to follow the mainstream trend of punishing right-wingers for being attacked by SJWs and punishing right-wingers for defending themselves against SJWs. This didn’t just stop with banning. See, banning comes with a lot of flak. It’s public. That’s when Twitter started shadow banning certain users.
What’s shadow banning?
Shadow banning lets the user keep their account but restricts who are allowed to see their tweets, usually only those who were already following can see what they tweet out. And shadow banning often occurs without the user’s knowledge. So, if you’re used to getting plenty of likes and retweets, and then you say something terrible like “I don’t think Trump is so bad,” you might suddenly find yourself getting fewer likes and retweets. If you notice a drastic and sudden decline in your interactions, then you’ve likely been shadow banned. And this bias seemed to remain in place until Jack Dorsey personally stated that they will not be banning Alex Jones for one simple reason: He hasn’t violated their rules.
Of course, Twitter is getting a lot of angry cry-bullies trying to push him into banning the notable political commentator, and they may succeed eventually. However, this is probably a good sign, and not because Jack has suddenly decided to take a moral stand. This is a good sign because this could very likely be a business decision.
Alex Jones still has a huge following of both lovers and haters. He attracts millions of people across the country. Now, of the major social media giants where Alex Jones can be found, Twitter is one of the few. If someone wants to see updates from Alex Jones, Twitter is going to be their likely candidate. This is a good thing. Not Alex Jones’ restrictions, of course, but the fact that Twitter is hopefully making decisions based on good business rather than politics. So, I will support Twitter in this decision. Because if other companies see that upholding free speech yields more rewards than suppressing it, then others will undoubtedly join them.
Literature Devil 