New in PJ Media:
The Biden regime has an ever-lengthening record of opposition to the freedom of speech: the abortive Disinformation Governance Board, the Twitter Files revelations that regime apparatchiks pressured Twitter to remove dissenting tweets, the weaponization of the “Justice” Department against the regime’s principal opponent, and on and on.
It thus comes as no surprise that the regime pressured Facebook, as well as Twitter, to remove posts that dissented from its line on COVID-19. What’s striking is that the regime even hassled Zuckerberg’s wonks to take down jokes making fun of the regime’s line on the COVID vaccines.
As Thomas More put it long ago, “The devil, the proud spirit, cannot endure to be mocked.” Neither can authoritarian regimes. Someone in National Socialist Germany who tossed off even the most harmless little quip about Hitler or made Stalin the punchline in the international Socialist Soviet Union was looking at prison and hard labor.
The Biden regime isn’t quite that evil (yet), but it is no less impatient with ridicule. After all, it was Communist strategist Saul Alinsky who pointed out the power of ridicule as a rhetorical weapon against the class enemy: it was infuriating to be on the receiving end, and there was no adequate response. Ridicule is supposed to be a weapon Leftists use, not one that is used against them.
This revelation came from an unnamed Facebook vice president who was “in charge of content policy,” according to a Friday report in the Wall Street Journal. The veep explains, “We were under pressure from the administration and others to do more.” Strikingly, this Facebook wonk adds, “We shouldn’t have done it.” Wait, what? Someone who is against government censorship is a vice president at Facebook? Someone who believes in the freedom of speech is in a position of influence over content in Mark Zuckerberg’s shop? No wonder this person opted to remain anonymous in the WSJ report. Come out for freedom at Facebook, and you’re likely to be pounding the pavement looking for work the next day.
Yet it does seem as if there was pushback from Facebook to the regime’s authoritarian initiative. The Facebook vice president said in an internal email, “There is likely a significant gap between what the WH would like us to remove and what we are comfortable removing. The WH has previously indicated that it thinks humor should be removed if it is premised on the vaccine having side effects, so we expect it would similarly want to see humor about vaccine hesitancy removed.”
Even more strangely, Facebook’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, replied, “I can’t see Mark in a million years being comfortable with removing that — and I wouldn’t recommend it.” Mark Zuckerberg uncomfortable with censorship? What planet were these people on, anyway?
There is more. Read the rest here.
Hardball1Alpha says
Biting and effective sarcasm must follow the logic of the truth, and that’s why the Left must squelch it online… and notice how their sarcasm is always personal insults and guilt trips…
And they’re pissed that the American keyboard patriots always find a work-around.
Say something wonderfully sarcastic to a Liberal friend, and watch them go apoplectic, followed by ad hominem abusive retorts.
mike says
for anyone who may still use any of these platforms is beyond me
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I use
Twitter“X” after Musk’s takeover, which while not perfect (I did get suspended for a week for saying that muslims don’t belong in India as hate speech, and I was told that another tweet, that included the term “rapefugee” was limited in reach), is far better than it was in 2017, when I was previously there. Like when I see tweets (or whatever they’ll now be called) from famous people on the Right, there is a mix of responses both pro- & anti- Right, which is what one would expect. In the previous regime, all the Right leaning tweets would be shadow-banned & only the Leftist ones highlighted. Now, thankfully, far less of that happensI do agree w/ you about Facebook. I can see Threads getting off, but only piggybacking on the existing subscriber base of Instagram. Incidentally, I don’t get why Threads was needed in the first place: people can simply use Facebook! One thing these platforms need to do is introduce tech that allows people to edit their tweets/posts
gravenimage says
Mike, for good or ill these platforms still have a major reach. That is why Robert Spencer and Jihad Watch still have a presence on Facebook and Twitter (or whatever this platform is calling itself today).
gravenimage says
Wipe That Smile Off Your Face, Peasant: Biden Regime Pressured Facebook to Ban Jokes
…………………………………….
Disgusting–but given their record, who can be surprised?
OLD GUY says
That’s because Biden is a JOKE.
James Lincoln says
There is no fun in Leftism (sound familiar?)