Society's Child
The ban came without warning, Molyneux claimed during a livestream in which he discussed the development. "It's nice to see that Twitter is talking to tech journalists before they would talk to me," he said. The popular right-wing pundit and intellectual suggested that he was removed from the platform after promoting a new essay that outlines his values and beliefs. "It's not hard to understand why powerful people might not want you to read what I wrote below," reads a note at the top of the essay, in which he announced his removal from Twitter.
Molyneux argued that the campaign to deplatform conservative voices has started to "energize" conservatives and that his ban demonstrates "who has the power and who doesn't have the power."
Twitter appears to dispute the notion that he was removed for ideological reasons. In a statement provided to CNN, the company said that Molyneux "was suspended for spam and platform manipulation, specifically operating fake accounts."
Liberal journalists applauded Molyneux's ban. Jared Holt, a report for Right Wing Watch, said the move was "overdue" and expressed curiosity about what finally motivated Twitter to pull the plug on his account.
But others condemned Twitter's decision and warned of a growing assault on free speech, expecting "the purge" to "accelerate."
Conservative commentator Mike Cernovich predicted that the group of prominent public figures who recently signed an open letter condemning cancel culture would not rush to Molyneux's defense.
Molyneux, the host of Freedomain Radio, was permanently banned from YouTube last Monday, after allegedly violating the site's "hate speech" policies. His removal from the platform came amid a wide-ranging social media purge, which resulted in popular Trump-related accounts receiving bans on Reddit and Twitch, as well as other right-wingers being booted from YouTube.
Comment: See also:
- Another voice gone: YouTube perma-bans Stefan Molyneux, reports '5x spike' in removals after launching crackdown on 'supremacist content'
- Absurd Standards: Enforcing the law is now 'threats of harm'? Twitter censors Trump again
- YouTube to delete thousands of accounts after it bans supremacists, conspiracy theorists and other 'harmful' users
- MSM scrambles to smear 'free speech' platform Parler as Twitter censorship wave pushes conservatives out
Reader Comments
In the United States, antitrust law is a collection of federal and state government laws that regulates the conduct and organization of business corporations, generally to promote competition for the benefit of consumers . The main statutes are the Sherman Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914 and the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. These Acts serve three major functions. First, Section 1 of the Sherman Act prohibits price-fixing and the operation of cartels, and prohibits other collusive practices that unreasonably restrain trade . Second, Section 7 of the Clayton Act restricts the mergers and acquisitions of organizations that would likely substantially lessen competition . Third, Section 2 of the Sherman Act prohibits the abuse of monopoly power
Thus has it always been, thus it shall always be.
The solution to this, of course, is to create another gov't agency and give the gov't even greater powers. /sarc
If private company cartels are not allowed to e.g. price fix, then why are a cartel of IT platforms allowed to suppress free speech