So-called “free speech” social media platform, Truth Social, is banning anyone mentioning the January 6th terrorist attack.
The January 6th terrorist attack on the US capitol buildings is truly a moment that shook the world. An attack on the US hasn’t been seen since September 11, 2001. While it was shocking, what makes this terrorist attack so uniquely shocking is that it was perpetrated by domestic terrorist groups on top of it all (Canada designated the Proud Boys a terrorist organization in February of last year, one of the groups noted as participating in the attack). On top of it all, the attack occurred on the very seat of American democracy.
The terrorists goal was clear from the beginning: they were acting on behalf of twice impeached president, Donald Trump. Their aim was to overturn the results of the election in a coup, detain numerous lawmakers, and hang vice president, Mike Pence. They even had nooses prepared on the grounds outside of the building to show that they were serious as well.
In recent days, Congress has been holding a widely watched set of hearings to get to the bottom of what happened. Fox “News” made headlines when they announced that they would not be airing the hearings unlike many other networks. There’s nothing really saying that they can’t refuse to air the hearings, it did prove to critics, yet again, that right wingers don’t like hearing anything they don’t like and will stamp it out of existence if given the opportunity.
That attitude appears to have carried over onto Donald Trump’s right wing echo chamber, Truth Social. Truth Social is one of a set of platforms that bills themselves as a “free speech” social media platform. Often, these networks brag how they are actually about free speech unlike platforms like Twitter which has a, well, moderation policy that cracks down on people acting like jerks. As it turns out, anyone caught mentioning the January 6th hearings are reportedly being banned en-masse. From Techdirt:
In news that will surprise basically no one, Truth Social, Trump’s social network that was pitched as being about bringing free speech back and not doing any “viewpoint discrimination,” even as its terms of service promised it would be heavily moderated, is now banning users for trying to spread some “truths” about the January 6 hearings.
Tsk tsk. What has become of free speech?
I mean, this isn’t the first time people have noticed this. But it is worth calling out, especially as people keep insisting that sites like Twitter and YouTube should never moderate anything based on “viewpoint discrimination.”
So, will Texas AG Ken Paxton kick off an investigation into Truth Social’s moderation practices? Will Elon Musk insist that he needs to purchase Truth Social to bring free speech back? Will Trump supporters who insist that “big tech is censoring” their voices admit that little tech is now doing the reverse? Will Project Veritas catfish Truth Social employees and release misleading videos?
Ever since Trump took office, there has been a famous line floating around saying “every accusation is a confession”. That very much applies here. Far right individuals have constantly berated the likes of Twitter as a platform where “conservative voices” gets “silenced” all the time (Facebook actually faced accusations of the opposite at one point). Texas made an attempt to make it illegal to moderate content as well which is a case still working its way through the courts. Yet, when right wingers have their own “free speech” platforms, it’s amazing how quickly viewpoints they don’t agree with get silenced. At minimum, it’s blatant hypocrisy.
We’re definitely on side with Techdirt here. This really isn’t a surprise to us and should be a surprise to no one that something like this would happen.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.