US President Donald Trump should be lauded for taking on Twitter which, other Big Tech platforms, wants to censor everything that the Left-liberal establishment does not approve of. A good effect of Trump’s bold move has already come to the fore: Twitter has been forced to act against China’s misinformation campaign.
The short-messaging platform <a href="https://indianarrative.com/world/twitter-flags-tweets-posted-by-chinas-foreign-ministry-2539.html">flagged</a> a couple of tweets posted by China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson. Warning labels were added to tweets from spokesman Lijian Zhao, one of which read: “It might be the US Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan.”
“If it were legal, if it [Twitter] could be legally shut down, I would do it,” Trump said while signing an executive order targeting Big Tech firms which have been silencing the voice of Rightists.
The fact that Twitter acted over two months after Lijian posted the tweets shows that the Jakc Dorsey-promoted company is favorably inclined towards Beijing; concomitantly, it has a pathological bias against Trump, one of the few leaders in the world who have the gumption and courage to confront China.
Come to think of it: Twitter subjected the President of the world’s most powerful democracy to fact-check, but never bothered about the wild claims made by the world’s biggest and most powerful rogue state.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated!</p>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1266326065833824257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2020</a></blockquote>
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In a way, it is not surprising though, for Big Tech is increasingly becoming inimical to individual liberty and pally with the Left, Islamists, China, the public health mafia—in short, with all those who are the enemies of freedom.
A few weeks ago, YouTube removed the video of a press conference which had gone viral, getting five million views. The billionaire Elon Musk had supported the views expressed in the press conference. Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi of California’s Accelerated Urgent Care had claimed that the fears of Covid-19 were being presented to people in vastly exaggerated terms.
The two medical doctors even alleged that physicians were being forced to add Covid-19 to death certificates as well as diagnostic lists even without any evidence of the coronavirus infection.
“We quickly remove flagged content that violates our Community Guidelines, including content that explicitly disputes the efficacy of local health authority recommended guidance on social distancing that may lead others to act against that guidance,” YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi said in a statement.
But who frames the “Community Guidelines”? And how? What is the ultimate source of ‘guidance’? The World Health Organization? But that has been thoroughly exposed as the front organization of China’s. Japan’s Deputy PM Taro Aso said some time ago that the WHO should be renamed as the “Chinese Health Organization” for “giving into China’s spin.”
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has also decided to censor the content on his platform. He may take pride in the fact that the recently appointed oversight board can override the company’s decisions over content, but it is likely to have a baneful effect on free speech. Censorship by any other name would still be censorship.
Trump’s move may drill some sense into the heads of Big Tech bosses..
