The Flying Monkeys of Facebook

For the record I have never had a Facebook account. This was not for a desire not to have one but rather because I read in its entirety, the disclaimer for permitted use, which I vehemently disagreed with. With that said, I am free to share my views unconditionally with respect to the social media’s platform gormless decision to censor and deplatform Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson, Louis Farrakhan and Laura Loomer among several others. True, Facebook is a private company and they have the right to decide who can or cannot use its services. However, it is also a publicly traded company and for them to have a nebulous and unclear policy of who should be deplatformed based on subjective criteria such as dangerous and offensive views will always be unacceptable and un American.

Facebook gave the heads up on this ban to several major mainstream news media outlets. This means that this was a coordinated action, on behalf of the progressive left against leading conservative activist. I say this because clearly there was a preconceived bias toward the right or else they would have never called Louis Farrakhan right wing. They do this in an autocratic way, for if Facebook consider what one says, or thinks is hateful, people will not be allowed to share their views or opinions.

In basic terms, by their logic, one could ask why should Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson, Louis Farrakhan and Laura Loomer be allowed to use a computer, or paper to write down and publish their views or a telephone for that matter? Would a contractor that builds a public square in a town be allowed to decide who can or cannot speak on the wood stage they built? Don’t even consider the fact that they deem hateful people as folk they simply disagree with. As the Verge notes: “The decision took into account the group’s behavior both on and offline” So for Facebook, appearing in a video with Gavin McInnes (Jones & Loomer) or even praising him or Tommy Robinson (Milo Yiannopoulos). CNN and Fox have had Gavin McInnes on TV, will they be banned? Facebook even allows a convicted pedophile (Austin Jones) to use their platform to groom underage girls into sending sex videos to him and his page is still up. How does this make sense?

According to CNN, Facebook states: "We've always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology," If this was accurate then Antifa and Islamic Jihadist fundamentalist would have been banned but they have not. If these people are dangerous and get banned, then why are people like Antifa allowed to threaten conservatives,  even their families with death and are allowed to operate openly on face book? None of them have never threaten to kill people from what I have read. A white democrat can call a black conservative a “nigger uncle Tom” and not be banned (I know I responded to a twitter blue check who called me that and was banned for life from Twitter). Yet still, some under thirty something silicon valley nerd in San Francisco, where shit and needles literally cover the streets, is allowed to make these decisions of what people are allowed or not allowed to listen to. I bet there wasn't even a black person in the room when this decision was made.

Who is Facebook to decide what people should hear or not hear? Who is Facebook to decided what people want to read or should read? Who is Facebook to decide what people should or should not be protected from? Americans nowadays are soft enough as it is and to further bubble wrap them from the real world will result in more harm than good. Facebook regardless if the believe it or not is the public commons – the common place for public speech. It is not good that private corporations can be unaccountable and have the power to control our public spaces.

They may not want to admit it, but it is clear Facebook had closed door purge conservative views meeting, or else they would have never sent out a press release saying they were banning far-right political voices (which are nowhere close to far right). The only reason Farrakhan was added so that they would not seem to have a bias against the right on behalf of the progressive liberal left. For example, Linda Sarsour remains on twitter although she praises and supports Farrakhan and a known convicted murder terrorist Rasmea Odeh who was convicted in Israel of killing two Hebrew University students in a 1969 terrorist attack and for planning an attack on the British Consulate. Is she banned? Will she be banned? I doubt it.

The flying monkeys of Facebook are the true danger. I consider them flying monkeys because it is a phrase used that describes folk “who act on behalf of a narcissist to a third party, usually for an abusive purpose” or folk “who act on behalf of a psychopath for a similar purpose.” Yes this is an apt description of the thought police of Facebook however, they are not fictional characters the likes provided to literature by L. Frank Baum in his novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz  but they are ironically the same representation of evil or fear Facebook censors proffer us today for to Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, dangerous means saying things they do not like – fascism by another name is one person deciding what opinions you are allowed to have, especially if liberal leaning tech companies are the single controller in open public debate.