By Steve Otto
Once again Facebook has censored me for my opinions. They are claiming that I violated their community standards. To put it in simple language this is what they said:
You can't post or comment for 2 days
This is because 3 of your previous posts didn't follow our Community Standards.
Nov 16, 2021
Your comment didn't follow our Community Standards
Jun 12, 2021
Your comment didn't follow our Community Standards
May 15, 2021
Your comment didn't follow our Community Standards
Here is my post for Nov. 16:
Has anyone seen those adds for cashnetUSA.com, Do you know what the interest rate is on those loans--a little over 200%. That is a whole lot of money, and I do mean A whole lot of money-!!!!
I then posted a link to that ad on TV:
Their complaint is that I threatened people with violence. So where in this comment does it say that I encourage anyone to use violence? The answer is nowhere. There is no suggestions that people use violence against these lenders. In earlier posts I did say that these lenders are crooks, and they deserve much worse than what most activist want to do. I posted an article in my blog, the Idiot Factor: Corruption Folly which said:
“I recently attended a Payday Loans Town Hall meeting. Most of the people there wanted to reform the predatory lenders rather than banning them. My personal feelings are that people who try to profit of the most vulnerable of people really belong in jail. I would rather see those institution banned. That is possible, but maybe not what is best for the people who live around them. Maybe the people who live around the Payday Loans and other similar institutions will be better off if those institutions simply treat them fairly.
I don’t blame the people in those areas for wanting reforms rather than bans. But I have a strong distaste for those who want to profit of off those in our society who are already down. They profit off of those who have problems finding a job that pays more than minimum wage. They profit off of those who may be living in sub standard homes, which cost them a lot of money. They profit off of those who may be driving cars that are about to fall apart at any time. When they do fall apart they have to find money to fix them and that is not always possible.”
In the past I have suggested that some of these people deserve to be shot, “DESERVE,” but I never seriously suggested that people actually use violence against them. My latest comment said nothing about hurting anyone. I didn’t say anything about putting people in jail. So why was my view point censored?!
This is an obvious case of me being shut down simply because some one does not like my opinion.
Facebook is a monopoly that can control what ever they want in a public forum. We already have three major news networks, ABC, NBC and CBS. All of them are very biased. These three networks dominate what passes for news and what is accepted speech and what is not. If there are views they don’t like, they have ways to make them go away. They ignore them and make sure such views are kept from the public. They are very affective at doing this. Facebook is following in their footsteps. They are making sure that anyone who does not support the Bourgeois status quo, simply disappears—or at least their opinions do. For example, how many people in the public eye are able to disagree with our leader’s treatment of Cuba? Those who defend the Cuban government are kept out of the public eye.
The bourgeois press is fond of pointing out that America’s Communist Party can freely publish their newspaper. That is true. But how many people have ever seen it? If any American wanted to see that newspaper, for themselves, how easy would it be to find such a paper? How many people know where to get one? Unlike the old Communist run governments, we do not have official censorship—we have effective censorship. There are no laws on the books to censor people here in America and yet there are voices that are never heard. Thanks in part to the US Congress, and due to both parties, Facebook has become another bourgeois form of thought control. They are a monopoly; they are owned by $billionaires and those of us who cross their point of view get buried. Only the wealthy and powerful in this country can be heard without censorship. Others can be swept under the rug and never heard from again. There is no organization—no company that can rival Facebook. And they know it.
Another important point is that Facebook is protecting people with unscrupulous practices that harm poor people, trapping them in debt and then squeezing out large amounts of money from them. Such practices used to be called extortion. But today these criminal practices stay legal thanks to such leaders as Donald Trump and institutions as Facebook!
I plan to appeal this to their censorship board. If that does not work, I plan to seek the help of those who are tired of a lopsided view of leaders who believe they can censor and destroy those who get in their way or threaten their agendas!
As of yet, we are not beaten. We will be heard!
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