Axios’s Feb. 9 newsletter includes an article titled “How to Deprogram America’s extremists,” in which the writer calls for “keeping extremists out of the institutions where they could do the greatest damage — like the military, police departments and legislatures,” and for “providing help for those who have embraced dangerous ideologies.”
Of course, it is entirely unclear as to who will determine what is a “dangerous” ideology and what will constitute such a defining term. That’s where Big Tech comes in.
“Online platforms,” the article continues, are “unwavering in their commitment to root out conspiracy theories and lies that undermine faith in democracy, according to experts interviewed by Axios.” Subsequently, the article says banning President Trump from Twitter “was a major asset in the fight to slow or reverse radicalization.”
We just need "an all-out national effort to dismantle” sources of ideas that "undermine faith” in “democracy”; private companies "must be unwavering in their commitment” to this cause.
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 9, 2021
Over the past few months, conservatives have been purged from Twitter and other platforms in an attempt to root out all orthodoxy that contradicts leftist groupthink. Parler, the free-speech platform, was removed from the internet and de-platformed entirely.
The Axios article calls for a “Marshall Plan,” which would be implemented through Facebook and Twitter censorship. It claims the United States requires “an all-out national effort to dismantle” all ideas that supposedly “undermine faith in democracy.” It seems the writer of today’s newsletter played hooky in fourth-grade social studies class, conflating “democracy” with a totalitarian regime.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was exposed in a secret recording on Jan. 8 obtained by Project Veritas that blatantly celebrated the censoring of President Trump and promised the silencing of more conservatives moving forward. “We know we are focused on one account right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account, and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, the next few weeks, going on beyond inauguration,” Dorsey said. “We have to expect that. We have to be ready for that.”
https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1349853804590579713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1349853804590579713%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fv2-9mdnszte.thefederalist.com%2F2021%2F01%2F14%2Fin-secret-recording-twitter-ceo-promises-political-censorship-will-be-much-bigger-than-just-trumps-account%2F
“The U.S. is extremely divided. Our platform is showing up every single day. And our role is to protect the integrity of that conversation and do what we can to make sure that no one is being harmed based off that,” Dorsey concluded in the obtained call.
After the Capitol breach in January, Twitter suspended Trump’s Twitter account. Subsequently, his account was made inactive for “violating” terms and conditions. As Dorsey alluded, the tech giant has not stopped there. After Twitter — and Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat — got away with banning the sitting U.S. president and leader of the free world, Dorsey’s company took subsequent extreme actions to silence objectors, such as a purge of 70,000 “QAnon-associated” accounts.
Just to add to the chorus, I’ve lost about 5,000 followers. It’s clear that Twitter is wiping out conservative accounts. That’s why your follower counts are going down. This is the biggest purge we’ve seen, and not the last.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 8, 2021
I'm not sure if this is due to mass-nuking of conservative accounts by Twitter, conservatives leaving the platform voluntarily in protest of the Trump ban, or some combination of both, but accounts with large conservative followers are seeing a massive plunge in follower counts: pic.twitter.com/I7sC8WNnRj
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 9, 2021
As Big Tech continues to become the arbiter of truth on their platforms, the line between “conservative” and “conspiracy theorist” is being clearly and purposefully conflated. Further, in today’s increasingly censorious American society, it is becoming less shocking when media outlets themselves, such as Axios, disband the idea of a free and fair press and freedom of speech entirely.
