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Parler got the axe from Apple yesterday. An arbitrary move from a company that has declared it is the sole decider of what is “good” or “bad” speech for the apps Apple allows on its platforms.
Parler was told, via NEWS REPORTS on Thursday, that Apple was considering this move and immediately contacted the company.
“The companies both said that Parler had not sufficiently policed the conversation on its app, allowing too many posts that encouraged violence and crime.
“We have always supported diverse points of view being represented on the App Store, but there is no place on our platform for threats of violence and illegal activity,” Apple said in a statement late Saturday. “Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety.””
Honestly, I am laughing at this statement. Apple is trying to convince us that every single game and app and podcast across the platform is violence and illegal activity free… EXCEPT Parler.
“John Matze, Parler’s CEO, wrote in a message on his platform that Apple “will be banning Parler until we give up free speech, institute broad and invasive policies like Twitter and Facebook and we become a surveillance platform by pursuing guilt of those who use Parler before innocence.”
“They claim it is due to violence on the platform,” Matze wrote of Apple, whom he also accused of being a “software monopoly,” a particularly relevant attack right now given an ongoing antitrust suit against Apple from Fortnite maker Epic Games. “The community disagrees as we hit number 1 on their store today.”
That’s a key phrase. Presume guilt before innocence. Twitter and Facebook are no longer guilty of providing a platform for President Trump because they banned him for life, but Parler is guilty until the company bows to the demands of Apple. Meanwhile Amazon, and the unionized Amazon employees have jumped into the fray by deciding that Parler has violated Amazon’s TOS and have less than 24 hours to figure things out or they are done.
I have SO many problems with this. Why? Because these decisions by social media, by Amazon, and by Apple are not business decisions. Nope, they are 100% POLITICAL decisions. The inference of these demands is that Parler will be reinstated with zero questions asked as long as anyone, even Lin Wood, who is deemed a violent Trump supporter is banned from the platform for life.
Big Tech/Big Media/ Democrats continuing to collude against and silence their political opponents. https://t.co/YLKGrBnm4M
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) January 10, 2021
As I noted above, the tech giants are picking and choosing what is “good” or “bad” speech. They are picking winners and losers with politics in mind. And only leftist Democrat politics need apply. Kathy Griffin did a skit with President Trump’s severed head. Her career took a hit, but now she can tweet it again with zero repercussions. As many have pointed out, China can gleefully tweet about forced sterilization and genocide in their work camps, while Iran can tweet about killing Israel and the world. Their tweets are totally acceptable.
Apple: we can’t allow an app that allows a governing executive to stoke social unrest and use authoritarian power.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 10, 2021
Also Apple https://t.co/pKXlS00qon pic.twitter.com/4jv4M166W5
Anything from someone in the Trump Administration, President Trump himself, or a Trump supporter? BAN ALL THE THINGS!
As a friend wisely pointed out last night, we cannot hide our heads under the sand and hope this will go away, or stick to the belief that it will only happen to that other guy. Nope, it can happen to us ALL. So we MUST NOT cheer this kind of censorship. And yes, that is exactly what it is. Censorship. It’s a censorship based upon political likes and dislikes. A censorship that can far too easily morph into more and nail everyone in its path, and yes for all those cheering this censorship on (including the grifter jackasses at The Lincoln Project), it will happen to you eventually.
This is not just some companies deciding to censor people. This is a coordinated attack to rid the internet of free speech. This was too well executed to not be organized and timed. If you care to ever have a voice again and not be controlled by a select few, you need to wake up https://t.co/OT5MQLq8Hx
— Lisa (@Rockprincess818) January 10, 2021
Alexis de Tocqueville warned us:
“Tyranny in democratic republics does not proceed in the same way, however. It ignores the body and goes straight for the soul. The master no longer says: You will think as I do or die. He says: You are free not to think as I do. You may keep your life, your property, and everything else. But from this day forth you shall be as a stranger among us. You will retain your civic privileges, but they will be of no use to you. For if you seek the votes of your fellow citizens, they will withhold them, and if you seek only their esteem, they will feign to refuse even that. You will remain among men, but you will forfeit your rights to humanity. When you approach your fellow creatures, they will shun you as one who is impure. And even those who believe in your innocence will abandon you, lest they, too, be shunned in turn. Go in peace, I will not take your life, but the life I leave you with is worse than death.”
We have a First Amendment and a Constitution for a REASON. This is absolutely NOT the time to sit idly by and hope this will all go away. This is the time to look around you and realize that our Freedoms are EVERYTHING.
Feature Photo Credit: Freedom of Speech, Constitution, Royalty-free stock photo ID: 729477004 via Shutterstock, cropped and modified
[…] Censorship: Parler Axed From Apple […]
John Wilson says: Two thoughts come to mind. If Trump starts his own platform, who will provide the servers as an apolitical service? That platform will be an immediate success, IMO. Second point is whether Amazon is hosting DOD sites? I would be very troubled having those nameless arbiters of truth and honesty in control of our national security.
Bucky Barkingham says: Apple may have axed the Parler app but you can still access Parler on an iPhone using the web browser to go to Parler.com. At lease until the browsers filter Parler out. Trump tried to fight this kind of Big Tech tyranny by insisting that Section 230 repeal be included in the NDAA. Of course the Roll-Over Party in Congress was having non of it and over turned his veto. Now who’s got our backs. Nice going Cocaine Mitch!
The only way to stop the tyranny is to stop funding it. Don’t buy iphones. Don’t use Apple products.
Sound scary? Impossible you say? How did humans get along just 20 short years ago before the internet as we now know it, before iphones? Before the addiction was pervasive? We talked to each other face to face. We wrote letters to each other. We published local newsletters and newspapers. We were concerned with local events. Now we are more concerned with what is happening in Portland than what is going on in our local schools. And we have no one to blame but ourselves.
If you want change, it is imperative that you, as an individual, change first.
Want to end Apple’s control? Stop buying their $1,000 phones made by Chinese slave labor at a total cost of $26 per unit delivered to Apple US warehouses. End Apples control by making them poor. Same with google.
But, you say, I make money with my blog from google ads. Find another way to make a living or stop complaining about how the enemy treats you as their prisoner.
As for a server farm for free speech; there are choices now. A new one is always welcome. Do some research and find or build what you need. More importantly, find your neighbor. Find your local elected official. Find your local DA and make sure that he is not a swamp creature. Do what you can locally first to protect your community. The rest of the world will do just fine doing the same thing.
GWB says: So, what’s your alternative to Apple phones? Android? (You know they’re run by Google, right?)
Just asking if you mean to go full Luddite or not.
Ralph R. Jaeger says: I tried to sign up onto Parler this afternoon. “ Sign up not available” was the reply.We live in interesting times.
GWB says: If you care to ever have a voice again and not be controlled by a select few, you need to wake up
and…? Just waking up leaves you still abed and doing nothing. What are you going to DO?
Nina Bookout says: Good question GWB!! What is your solution? 😉
GWB says: I’m preparing for a very physical moment.
I’m also trying to wake people up to the stupidity of the “Oh noes, we can’t be uncivilized when addressing the tyranny!” (Yeah, they will still have to get out of bed.)
I would also dearly love to find a way to take down AppGoogleZon (as Larry Correia put it today). (BTW, I told DoD it was a very bad idea to get cloud services from Amazon. That anything but a wholly gov’t-owned cloud was an invitation to someone shutting it all down.)
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