We have repeatedly addressed how social media companies now openly engage in censorship of political and social viewpoints. The latest example is from the company TikTok which reportedly censored a video from the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) group supporting Kyle Rittenhouse. The video discusses the effort of Arizona State University (ASU) students to ban Rittenhouse from campus. TikTok then banned the pro-Rittenhouse statement from its platform, an act that should be offensive to anyone who supports the values of free speech.
On December 1, the group posted a video stating:
“After Kyle Rittenhouse revealed that he had enrolled as an online student at ASU [Arizona State University], the collegiate woke mob was unleashed. A coalition of student groups has started a campaign to demand that Kyle Rittenhouse be expelled from ASU, citing that he is a violent racist murderer and poses a threat to the whole student body.”
First of all, he was acquitted. And second of all, he was enrolled as an online student. Therefore, he will never interact with any of these social justice warriors. Therefore, they are trying to deny this young man a college education simply because they disagree with his beliefs and his actions. That is a dangerous precedent to set.”
Censorship has become an article of faith for many on the left. Faculty and editors are now actively supporting modern versions of book-burning with blacklists and bans for those with opposing political views. Columbia Journalism School Dean Steve Coll has denounced the “weaponization” of free speech, which appears to be the use of free speech by those on the right. So the dean of one of the premier journalism schools now supports censorship.
Free speech advocates are facing a generational shift that is now being reflected in our law schools, where free speech principles were once a touchstone of the rule of law. As millions of students are taught that free speech is a threat and that “China is right” about censorship, these figures are shaping a new society in their own intolerant images.
In one critical hearing, tech CEOs appeared before the Senate to discuss censorship programs. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey apologized for censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story, but then pledged to censor more people in defense of “electoral integrity.”
Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, however, was not happy. He was upset not by the promised censorship but that it was not broad enough.
He noted that it was hard to define the problem of “misleading information,” but the companies had to impose a sweeping system to combat the “harm” of misinformation on climate change as well as other areas. “The pandemic and misinformation about COVID-19, manipulated media also cause harm,” Coons said. “But I’d urge you to reconsider that because helping to disseminate climate denialism, in my view, further facilitates and accelerates one of the greatest existential threats to our world.”
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal also warned that he and his colleagues would not tolerate any “backsliding or retrenching” by “failing to take action against dangerous disinformation.” He demanded “the same kind of robust content modification” from the companies – the new Orwellian term for censorship.
If this account is accurate (and TikTok has not denied it), the company is now censoring statements of support for an individual acquitted by an American jury. It is the latest example of the slippery slope of censorship on social media.
I wish that the planet would explode.
“Well it looks like this guy “Darren” whoever he is is “censoring” my comments.”
I am trying to be courteous and answer you even though I am not responding elsewhere. I am not Darren and have no wish to censor anyone. However, we are on a respectable blog run by a well-respected professor of law, so perhaps we should afford some dignity to the professor. I have tried to be polite to you, but that has not been reciprocated. I have stayed on the subject and restrained myself from using four-letter words in return for yours. That is my thanks to the professor for providing his blog for free. You didn’t want anyone misusing your pictures and videos while doing your job and neither, I assume, does the professor.
I have not taken your words out of context and even took those words you wrote and gave the entire sentence, perhaps more damning than the truncated version.
I do not pretend to be a nice guy. I am a nice guy. One has to protect themselves from the crazies on this list though I have excluded you from that group. I don’t lie. You can drop your prior accusation.
“Oh, …and almost forgot…
Be safe.”
Thank you, but I used those words to you because you are the one high in the tree, and to me, that is scary. That is why I say…
Be safe.
The above was to Chris Weber
Chris Weber, I got your latest insult in my email but couldn’t find it on the blog, so I will copy the confusing portion, leaving out the repetitive half.
You wrote: “I just posted my words troll. I posted my words, in FULL, in the comment you’re pretending to respond to, pretending you don’t see I just posted the actual words I said, not your truncated excerpt. ”
The following are the exact words I used in my quote: “Rittenhouse wasn’t quite as bad…”
The complete statement you made was: “Also the cops appeared to be encouraging them, so again there’s some mitigating circumstances there that make it not as bad as what Zimmerman did, which was outright cowardly murder. ”
In other words, Rittenhouse was bad, but there were mitigating factors. He wasn’t as bad as an “outright cowardly murder”
I can only watch my own words. I can’t stop you from writing your own.
Be safe.
This is the dawning of the Age of Amphibians.
You’re a moron and I’m tired of responding to your bullsh$t. I’ve lambasted the democrats for their defund the police movements and you know I have. You make up this bullsh#$ trying to get me to defend myself against your inane accusations and I’m done with it.
If you are too stupid to read what I actually write then don’t come blubbering to me to write more.
Read what I wrote Seth, and stop lying about me and what I say.
Chris, though some call me Seth, that is an error for I go only by S. It was a harmless error, so you can call me Seth if you wish.
If you were genuinely offended by bullsh!t, you would reevaluate many of the remarks you have made. I’ve read many of your diatribes agreeing with some points and disagreeing with others, but basically, you are a whiner who cannot attach meaning to the whines. Your attempts to place yourself alone in the middle with almost everyone outside have made your varying arguments cancel one another out.
I have heard far more nasty stuff from you about Rittenhouse than crime in the streets. I don’t expect your type of centrism (everybody but you are crazy attitude) ever to be critical of the political crimes of weaponizing the intelligence services and IRS against political opponents.
If you wish to be so insulting all the time, go ahead, but don’t expect silence. If you think staying at the top of the tree gets rid of criticism, let me help you get rid of that belief. When you come down from the tree, the criticism will exist whether you read it or not.
Get to a proctologist and get that piece of the tree removed from your a$$
Stay safe.
Your names mudd as far as I know. That’s the luxury of the anonymity you hide behind, and I could care less what your name is. I call you whatever name you post, or I just call you troll. Means the same thing. You lie, then lie some more then lie in response to the lies I call out. I never said Rittenhouse was a bad person. You invent these things, then argue them like you’re telling me something. You’re not. You’re a troll, trolling me trying to get me to play your game. That I am even responding to you at all is to my discredit but does say I give you at least a modicum of respect. Less than you give me with your constant lies about what I write.
As for your song and dance bullsh$t I could give a crap if you like what I say or not. Try not reading it troll if you don’t like it. I speak the truth as I see it and that’s all any man can do. I ain’t looking for your opinion. I could give it sh%t. You’re a partisan troll, a hack. And I could care less what a partisan has to say. I’ve heard it all a thousand times It doesnt’ change what I see, think, feel and believe one iota, nor what I write.
That it comes across harsh to trolls like you, is not surprising,
As Harry Truman once said, “I never gave anyone hell. I gave em heaven, and they just thought it was hell”.
“then lie in response to the lies I call out. I never said Rittenhouse was a bad person.”
Let me quote your words, recognizing you said a lot more.
“Rittenhouse wasn’t quite as bad…”
I won’t call you a liar for this comment. I will say you made a mistake, and that is acceptable. You are accusing others are acting in the exact fashion you have acted here and elsewhere. Take a look. Those statements can also be considered mistakes, but why must you repeat the same mistakes so often?
Be safe.
Its a nuanced issue. On the one hand they shouldn’t be censoring anyone. On the other hand, acting like the little punk that drove across state lines to play Rambo and ended up biting off more than he can chew (and yes, contrary to his lawyers doubletalk he DID in fact, “start it”, by simply going there to play homeland Rambo) and had to slaughter a couple people to save his pampered, spoiled fat lazy little life, meaning not everyone see’s his “acquittal” as righteous. He had no business being there with a gun. He and some other right wing psuedo-military paintball goofs got together and decided to arm themselves and travel like an invading army to another state and confront left wing protesters, many of whom should have been arrested for destruction of property and rioting. It was a riot after all, NOT a protest. But, that’s a matter for the state’s law enforcement, not the opposition political party in another state. Sure it was self defense. In that moment it was self defense because the chickensh%t coward put himself into a position where he had no choice. I’d have shot the guy who grabbed my rifle too. And maybe the one throwing a skateboard at me.
Difference, is, I’d have not been there in the first place. I’d have not dressed up like wanna-be-Malibu-Rambo and drove to another state to confront members of the opposition political party regardless of what they are doing, because its not my business what goes on in another state. As a citizen I have certain rights to make arrests in the event of actually witnessing a felony, but I don’t have any legal authority to arm myself and like this “Band of Boneheads” travel to another state to try to play homeland Police. It was self defense in the moment, but that wasn’t the crime. The crime was arming themselves, traveling to another state like an invading army and confronting members of the opposition party in the hopes of shooting some. Which is what they ALL hope. You can see it in the pats on the back from all his “supporters”, telling him he did good, etc. And Antifa is doing the same thing. Traveling to other states and cities like an invading Army hoping to confront the opposition party and hurt some of them. Only they aren’t as good at it. They tend to throw bricks and things while the right wing tends to bring firearms. Of course there was a liberal there with a pistol, pretending to give medical care but he fully intended on using that pistol and got killed over it.
So its really sad to see you Professor, who ought to know better (and I do believe you “used to know better”) placating to this murderous mentality pretending that the only issue was whether Rittenhouse was defending himself in that moment. You often make arguments that endorse sentences for those who perform some action that would be considered appropriate IF they had not gone somewhere and done something they shouldn’t have. Rittenhouse didn’t belong there. No more than Zimmerman belonged following that young black kid that he picked a fight with, got his a#$$ kicked so he pulled a gone and blew him away. In the America we grew up in, that was considered cowardice and murder. Cowardice, and murder. Not self defense. In the moment, sure. But he put himself in that moment, when he was told not to.
That being said Rittenhouse wasn’t quite as bad as the big sissy, Todd Zimmerman. Rittenhouse was a boy. A child. A crybaby chubby little boy who hasn’t yet reached manhood. I doubt he knew better in this political environment where older men are grooming young kids like him into their wannabe-homegrown rambo nonsense, and when you’re that age its easy to get sucked in. So I don’t blame him 100 percent. Also the cops appeared to be encouraging them, so again there’s some mitigating circumstances there that make it not as bad as what Zimmerman did, which was outright cowardly murder. This chubby little wanna-be rambo went along with the gang and was egged on by police so it would be unfair to hold him 100 percent accountable. However, he should have been held accountable to some degree.
Giving him a pass set the stage for many many more such encounters. We will see more and more of these self-professed “patriots” with their AR15’s gunning down people claiming self defense in similar encounters and even dissimilar encounters, emboldened by this pathetic incident and his acquittal. This set the stage for more murders, more armed conflicts between the parties by ignoring the actual crime and standing up a straw man argument that it was self-defense, while ignoring the real crime of being there like an invading army in the first place. That was his crime, but unlike Zimmermans his was encouraged by the police and others so we have definitely started down the rabbit-hole here, and given the lack of moral clarity in todays average American its unlikely we’ll be returning to solid ground any time soon.
That being said, TikTok censoring this silly video by some child who apparently has a crush on him, is the real crime we’re looking at in America that’s happening right in plain sight. This “robust content modification” the liberals are pushing is Orwellian and out of control. I closed my FB account over censorship, as others can talk about Corona virus but if I voice my opinion, I’m censored by FB moderators. This is unheard of in America. Ever since 911 things have changed in this country., and I’ve watched the govt propped up by the media (Fox news included, especially right after 911) slowly dismantling every single freedom we ever had, right before our eyes. Before 911 the police couldn’t just stop and search you. The police didn’t shoot first and ask questions later like they do now. The gun owners didn’t strut around like some Soldier of fortune wannabe’s with semi-automatic rifles and camo gear (which is laughable in urban environments, …in fact its laughable deer hunting…..we have grown men acting like infantile teens worshipping military style clothing and equipment so they can stand around with a bunch of stuff on their chest harnesses looking “cool” (cool they do not look, but that’s what they think) and pretend to be something they are not.
But I never thought it’d go so far as the govt, coercing big corporations and social media into censoring the free speech of the American people. But here we are.
It didn’t happen suddenly. It happened over time, by a series of mistakes made by both parties’ followers and leaders. Every time the right-wing arms themselves and tries to impose illegal and unwarranted authority with guns and makes excuses for such they open the door for more govt crackdowns on liberty. Every time the left wing encourages rioting and looting or harrassment of right-wing politicians and pundits at dinner or their homes and calls it “protests” they open the door for more censorship and crackdowns.
And every time any of us sit back and take their shots, their potions and lockdown orders and censorship, we open the door for more of the same. Only worse and worse each time.
I can no longer speak my mind on Facebook. So I don’t use my personal account any longer. So I stopped using it. I can’t say what I think and that makes my blood run cold. I think of all the crimes possible, censoring the free speech of the people is the worst, because in so doing you make it possible to conceal all other crime. I realize not everyone thinks the Covid nonsense is , …well, …nonsense. It is, but I realize many do not believe that. And that’s their right. But even if they did buy into the official hype, why on earth any American would endorse the censorship of another, is beyond me. Because I know if they can censor you, they can censor me. So I never, ever encourage censoring what someone says beyond open threats of violence. We are seeing the democrats rapidly introducing mass censorship and government controlled speech. Its not Tik Tock or Twitter or FB in the end doing it. They all used to allow almost anything. Its the democratic congress THREATENING them and using FORCE to COMPELL them to do it.
And it has to stop.
Chris, though it was ill-advised for the kid to do what he did, I see no evidence he was a bad person. It sounds like he was trying to do the right thing even though you insult him at every opportunity.
Perhaps it is the grown-ups like you that are the problem. You provide a lot of talk, but how much do we hear from you about curtailing violence in the streets. Very little. You mention Antifa but don’t seem to contribute any knowledge of how Antifa was permitted to do so much damage, nor do you contribute to solving the problems.
You do, however, use a lot of words. You like to blame both sides so you can appear to occupy the middle of the road, but you don’t. You are as partisan as the people you complain about. You like to complain about Trump, which is fine, though I think you are wrong. I support Trump because he did a lot of what he said he would do and tried to maintain peace here and abroad. That does not mean that I agree with what many dislike. Many of those things are not vital for his office.
While blaming Trump, you insult all his supporters. I am one of them who supports him because I support peace, controlled borders with legal immigration, a more robust economy with less regulation, and a whole host of other things. Your insults tell me you support the opposite, or you have a lot of trouble separating facts from fiction.
Do you blame the left and the Democrats that have defunded the police and permitted the destruction of cities? No. That is lost in what sounds more like whining than contributions to a peaceful and respectful society.
It sounds like when coming down from a tree, you got a stick caught in your a$$, and you don’t know how to get rid of it.
You appear to be a hard worker doing a challenging job. I respect that, but I hope you recognize that others on all sides do difficult jobs as well.
Stay safe.
And as for calling me partisan? You’re a loon. A complete liar and a loon. I call out the liberal bs way more than I call out the conservative BS, and I’ve even said on several occasions, as bad of a trainwreck as Trump was, its nothing compared to what Biden’s doing. So stick it in your a$$. I could care less whether you respect me or my job. Unlike you chestbeaters I don’t need others approval of what I do, except the one paying me. I post my videos for them and whoever wants to watch but I could give a sh#$ what people think about me. I learned a long time ago that’s a losing battle. So stow your feigned respect.
You want to show some respect try not lying about me and my character once. Try speaking the truth to me instead of your bullsh3@# accusations and stop pretending you hear only one side of what I say.
That’s what you trolls do. You hear one side of what I say and ignore the other. The trumpers only hear my criticism of Trump, and the Biden bootlickers only hear my criticism of the left.
That’s why I have zero tolerance for trolls. You’re a waste of keystrokes. You’re too caught up in the game they’ve got you sucked into, and can’t see the forest because you’re lost in the trees. I have zero “stick up my butt” and just speaking the truth to trolls is just that. I’m not one of your political ops, and I could care less at the end of the day what you idiots do because almost everyone I ever cared about is either long since gone or on their way, …like me. So if you guys want to live in a f#$ked up 3rd world clusterf#$ it won’t matter to me much longer.
But as long as I’m still breathing and living in a country that my family fought for our freedoms for, then I’ll exercise them. And one of them is speaking what I think. I don’t plan comments, if I use a lot of words its because I am thinking outloud as I type. One post, no “drafts” of it and no going over to see if I want to change something. I write it as I feel and think it. And I seldom have time to write or respond, so when I say something its because it was genuine, and from the heart.
Casting my pearls to the swine, …as it were.
But as long as Mister Turley says the blogs open even to the likes of me, then I’ll post what I think and the trolls be damned.
“And as for calling me partisan? You’re a loon.”
You are partisan in your own way. Let’s call it the Tree up your A$$ Party that contains you and everyone else at the top of your tree. I didn’t comment about which side you favored, but I think you are more conservative than Liberal. The thing I initially liked was your dislike of politicians as a whole. At least I think that was your position, which I agree with, but we have to live with them.
“as bad of a trainwreck as Trump was, its nothing compared to what Biden’s doing. So stick it in your a$$.”
You don’t have to prove you are conservative. The type of work you perform tells me that no matter how you vote, you have many conservative values.
“The trumpers only hear my criticism of Trump, and the Biden bootlickers only hear my criticism of the left.”
The problem is your rants make you look like you hate everyone. People have to figure out whether you are a misanthrope or in pain.
“I’m not one of your political ops”
Did anyone accuse you of being a political op? Maybe someone meant that you were paid like Charles Dickens, by the word.
Be safe.
Nope, not reading it. You just wasted your time troll. You don’t get to lie, then double down writing a bunch of nonsense for me to read.
Not even wasting my time. Just yours. So keep writing, …. I’m done responding but keep writing. Maybe someone else will read it.
I keep my responses to you relatively short. You can stay at the top of the tree if you wish but eventually you will come down. Whether you read what I write or not doesn’t matter. You already know that what I write is true.
Be safe.
“Nothing you say is true. “
Even the words I quoted that showed what you actually said? They were your words. Were your words untrue? Why the four-letter words?
Be safe.
Chris: Whew! I’m glad you got all of that off your chest. Do you get paid by the word?
I once saw a picture of Stalin and Hitler playing badminton together in Vienna.
Mr. Rittenhouse was clearly a collateral damage target of prosecutorial misconduct, trying to please the unpleasalbe.
Which idiots got duped into listening to these dependent parasites and codifying “hate” crimes?
Did John Wayne Gacy “love” or “hate” the 33 victims he violently disarticulated then disintegrated with Quicklime?
Next thing you know, they’ll be lobbying for NAMBLA.
Get these monkeys off your back, America!
Stand up for familial, national, normal and righteous.
No more Mr.Nice Guy.
_________________
“It’s time to stop talkin’ and start chalkin’.”
– Chick Hearn
___________
George, very well-put. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
We had the Age of Aquarius, Enlightenment, and Renaissance among others and now it seems we are in the Age of Woke. Woke could be defined as a naïve dewy-eyed liberal infestation, lacking in sophistication, education, historical knowledge and basis decency, professing theirs is the utopian pathway forward. ‘BUT’ dissenting views are not allowed and do have consequences.
We must eradicate this infestation and its assault on the Constitution. Consolation comes that this age will also pass, and my hope is this age is short lived.
“wokeism” doesn’t mean what you think it means, dumbo. Dumbest comment I’ve read today on this blog.
Perhaps you could define Woke?
Woke is the babble produced by one who was hit over the head with a skateboard while being unable to protect himself. Ronharold needs some time to recover.
George W
Did the VC or NVA hit Red Beach? Where were you, in a bunker, on the berm or outside the wire?
Where were you deployed on January 30, 1968? Were you then a rifleman, a ’60 gunner or a radioman?
George W.
I like the 60s Age of Aquarius reference. Well played!
Well said.
George W. — It’s not just an assault on the Constitution, but on truth itself. Woke history, as in the debunked and discredited 1619 Project, is a politicized, biased, and highly inaccurate version of US history that dumbs it down for the woke mob. Apparently, woke doesn’t do “nuance” or “complex.” It’s just easier to tear a statue down based on some nonsense the mob read in one of Howard Zinn’s plagiarized books, than to actually look at the gray areas in US history and arrive at a judicious consensus. Discussion, debate, freedom of speech itself are verboten to the woke, because they clearly already have all the answers and are afraid of seeing the gaping holes in their ideology. Mao’s cultural revolution lasted ten long years — it took just ten years to destroy China’s millennia of culture. The US doesn’t have that many years invested in its culture, but the Constitution and Declaration are far more revolutionary than anything the illiterate and ignorant woke tyrants could ever come up with.
A business that operates on the principles of the First Amendment should practice them, as well.
To the Professor: this is not longer a ‘slippery slope’. It has happened. It is a done deal. That’s it, all there is to it. Do not expect the simple rule of law to keep us safe anymore, as fine as your understanding is. The thing so many liberals in denial seem to miss is that the radical contingent *do not care* about your ministrations. They pure and simply don’t. Talk logic and precedent until you are blue in the face. it doesn’t matter one whit to them.
The “prime movers” of social media expression (Facebook/Twitter/Youtube) achieved their market dominant position by permitting a speech free-for-all at the outset, gobbling up would-be competitors, and then only changed to a curated speech model after they had no viable competition. Their stock-in-trade is expression, but now they’ve decided that some very narrow classes of expression violate their principles (again, which were not violated for a good decade prior).
I think that social media fora are sui generis and I don’t know that we should be trying to fit square pegs into the round holes of prior law, and I think we should be proposing new doctrines under the First Amendment which can reach these quasi-utilities.
Interesting comment. For years, I have opined that we should not fear “Russia” or “China,” but rather the internal and insidious metastases expanding control over media and academia. Here we have the joining of both.
Hey Eb, call me back when there is a conviction. Otherwise you still just believe in Santa Clause. Why don’t you point out for us how Mother Jones has corrected their story about RussiaGate. When you site some investigation of Trump in light of the past investigations what follows is our uproarious laughter. You often times evoke our laughter.
The German American Bund had the right to free speech until WWII started. Donald Trump’s father was a member. He was also a KKK member.
The next generation is worse. Hotzie totzie be I smell a Nazi.
Liberty, source please. Otherwise it’s just a bell without a clapper.
The Queens, New York local chapter of the Klan was very active, was it?
“El Cid”–I quite literally burst out with a brief laugh. Clever!
Are you expressing an opinion here, or are you flirting with defamation? I don’t think Trump’s father qualifies as a public figure…
Go online to Google images and look up Donald Trump’s father and the KKK and German American Bund. You will see photos
AP/Reuters Fact check: Trump’s Parents PHOTOSHOPPED Wearing KKK Robes.” June 12, 2020.