War on Digital Democracy

Google and Facebook changed their advertising policy to counter what they call “fake news.” They’re at war with digital democracy, increasingly wanting media scoundrel managed news misinformation and Big Lies featured over alternative content. During the US presidential election campaign, Google supported Hillary, rigged searches for her with positive news to sway undecided voters in her favor.

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Cover image: Ajit Pai, Trump’s FCC chief honcho. “The days of Net Neutrality are numbered.”

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Trump’s new FCC chairman Ajit Pai said Net Neutrality’s days are “numbered.” He’s taking steps to undermine digital democracy, [the ability to] let users access all content without restrictions, limitations, or discrimination, an online level playing field for everyone.

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What’s ongoing began before Trump’s ascension to power. Obama was obsessed with secrecy. Famed journalist Helen Thomas blasted what she called his press-controlling efforts, saying his actions were “blatant.” Net Neutrality is the last frontier of press freedom. Obama prioritized secret monitoring, targeted dissent, aimed to suppress truth and full disclosure, wanted digital democracy curbed. He elevated information control to an unprecedented level, targeted more whistleblowers than all his predecessors combined, and shunned transparency he pledged to prioritize if elected. He monitored journalists, accessed their phone records, read their emails, tracked their personal movements, sought to assure nothing he wanted suppressed was made public.

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The war on digital freedom continues. Efforts are being made to silence Infowars, the Alex Jones web site. The ad agency AdRoll providing a major source of its revenue pulled the plug on him, jeopardizing the operation’s viability. Its web site blasted online censorship, saying “(i)n an attempt to damage the power of our message, they have tried to hit us where it hurts by removing an important pillar of our income that keeps the Infowar funded.” The Mike Adams Natural News (NS) web site in being attacked for promoting alternative ways of staying healthy. Blacklisted by Google, 140,000 pages were removed from its search index, including material on harmful vaccines, “pharma corruption, and fraudulent science,” NS saying:

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Google’s delisting “instantly wip(ed) out a treasure trove of truly lifesaving knowledge about disease prevention, nutritional therapies, avoidance of toxins and the dangers of chemical medications (among other topics that also include opinion pieces, political analysis, health warnings and more).” Google, Facebook and other online gatekeepers are part of a modern-day Orwellian ministry of truth, featuring mainstream fake news, filtering out alternative sources of the real thing.

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Free societies depend on speech, press and academic freedoms. Without them all other rights are endangered.