On Friday, we published an article titled ‘Cato VP Attacks Ron Paul, Calls His Ideas a “Hideous Corruption Of Libertarian Ideas”‘ written by senior contributor Alex Witoslawski. As the article was beginning to gain traction and go viral, Facebook decided to censor it—issuing temporary bans for anyone who merely shared the writing.
Dozens of people have reported being censored immediately after sharing the article. Some of the error warnings suggested that malware could have been involved, but that was a deception. Rather than admitting to their practice of muzzling speech, Facebook apparently gives random error messages to baffle users and throw them off the trail. Most of the people afflicted were put out of commission for two days, unable to share links to content on the social media platform.
From a strictly libertarian perspective, Facebook has the right to act in completely abhorrent and disgusting ways. Conversely, we have the right to expose the truth about this entity and work to build consumer pressure against their reprehensible policies until the market develops a better alternative. Facebook allows child pornography, ISIS propaganda, and a whole mess of vile trash on their platform while squashing the free speech of conservatives. The public should, at the very least, be made aware of Facebook’s transgressions.
What Facebook did to us is wrong, and it must not become routine. This is far from an isolated incident. This is apart of a deliberate, underhanded attempt to manipulate information to protect institutional power. It is no secret that Facebook has deep ties to the Central Intelligence Agency. Mark Zuckerberg knows the masters that he serves. A massive corporation acting as sort of a “Truth Commission” is just as bad as a government-sanctioned entity doing the same. As libertarians, we must stand decisively for freedom of expression against both private and public oppression. Whether the tyranny is administered by a government bureaucracy or a private corporation does not matter a whole lot. We are staring down the barrel of an Orwellian hell, and Facebook’s behavior is actualizing that horrifying reality before our eyes.
Another enabler of Big Brother is the faux-libertarian CATO Institute. It is evident that Iraq War cheerleader Brink Lindsey got his underlings to report our indisputably true article as fake news. It is implausible that Facebook would have, on their own, cared to shield someone as irrelevant and uninspiring as Lindsey. The impetus must have been on Lindsey to lead this shameful campaign in a desperate attempt to save face after writing embarrassing Tweets. If it wasn’t obvious enough that Lindsey is a man with no integrity or scruples, this should be the icing on the cake. The fact that CATO made a man of Lindsey’s character a Vice President within their organization speaks volumes about the agenda they are really perpetrating.
The Brink Lindsey’s of the world may like Facebook’s Orwellian censorship model because it shields them from accountability. The powerful and the well-connected are very pleased at the moves Facebook is making. Nevertheless, those who are concerned about open, truthful dialogue should be alarmed and terrified. The mainstream media’s impetus to ban “fake news” after last year’s Presidential election was only a thinly-veiled attempt to stifle their competition. Any independent publisher is under the gun. We may be the latest victim, but we surely will not be the last. Please sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss our the latest updates, and be sure to spread awareness about Facebook’s blatant hostility toward freedom.
Wow it let me share thisone.
So the position of the “Liberty Conservative” is that private companies should not be allowed to control their own Website content and instead should be forced to publish yours?
The points were made rather clearly in the article. Why are you so confused?
They have a right, but we also have a right to disagree. Then to rally to use a different social media outlet. :/
It’s still happening. I got zucked an hour ago
Create a nonpartisan social media site. “If you built it, they will come.”