Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ British politician and broadcaster George Galloway has made headlines in the UK with his threat to press legal action against Twitter for designating his account "Russia state-affiliated media", a label which will now show up under his name every time he posts anything on the platform.
Hi Caitlin, thanks for the article, I am becoming a big fan, I republished the article carrying out all the attribution and even how to donate and subscribe to you. I thought it the best way to introduce you to my British readers and followers on FB. https://labourheartlands.com/twitter-is-state-affiliated-media/
All corporate media is by definition "state-affiliated," since corporations exist solely as the result of government-granted charters. The only truly independent media are those run by individual journalists and podcasters. You can encourage such independent podcasters by contributing to the platforms on which they appear or are heard, or in many cases contributing directly to those individuals. Totalitarianism can only be defeated by turning off all "state-affiliated" media and making small contributions to individual journalists and possibly the platforms on which they appear, assuming those platforms otherwise do not engage in censorship and propaganda.
Caitlin, I direct your attention to Dr. Shiva, who ran effectively for US Senate in Mass. He was running a largely social media campaign for office. He was banned from Twtr during the election for calling out fraud. During litigation, he discovered that an NGO affiliated with NWO-types had a backdoor into Twitter. So, Twitter is just a service for NGO NWO types while the NGOs and intel cabal “fly the airplane” behind the scenes. Twitter is a converged operation.
Americans, despite the mythology drilled into us since kindergarten, have no right to free speech. Period.
Where exactly in the following brief but complete text of the First Amendment are we Americans supposed to find our inexorable right to speak freely:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The only thing this glorified “right” does is to prevent the Congress of the United States from making a law that prohibits free speech. It doesn’t prevent you or me or any small business or, especially, any corporation from prohibiting free speech. In fact, it doesn’t stop the American judicial branch from prohibiting free speech (as it does with libel and slander laws or death threats). Nor does it stop the U.S. executive branch from making rules or policy that limit speech (as it routinely does for members of the military, federal employees, and government contractors).
The sad fact is if you live under the U.S. Constitution you have never had an absolute right to free speech, and you never will have that right, and to think otherwise is delusional.
You and I, or any business, and especially any corporation, can and often do prohibit free speech. You cannot walk into my house and say anything you want. You cannot walk into a business and say anything you want. In both instances you will be, at minimum, asked to leave, and that can be enforced by police (for trespassing, disturbing the peace, or some other law that does not generally apply directly to speech but which instead applies to maintaining order or property rights).
In America, property rights trump all other rights (except the right to own slaves which was specifically prohibited in the 13th Amendment, which wasn’t ratified until 1865).
I hope Galloway follows through on his threat to take legal action. Under British law he may actually be more likely to win than under U.S. law.
However, so long as Twitter remains a private company, it can and will restrict your speech. Even if we argue Twitter has become like the public square and we nationalize the company and bring it under the umbrella of the U.S. Constitution, that still won’t solve the problem: try to exercise your free speech rights in the public square without a permit and see what happens.
I wish we actually had free speech, but I refuse to suffer under the delusion that free speech is enshrined in the First Amendment. I think the best we can do is to search out places where free(r) speech is allowed. That’s why we are here on Substack (and other “parallel structures” that don’t rely on government protections). But how long will Substack remain free before it participates in the censorship mania? How long before we must self-exile from this platform and find another?
Frankly, if we want to hurt Twitter and convince it of the error of its ways, then BSD it. (Or at least BD it.) Or consider using creative coded language on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, then linking that to your Substack where you can explain using plain language and free(r) speech.
For now, that’s as good as you’ll get. And it’s likely to get much worse from here on.
For years I've listened to the Shortwave Report that gives news from around the world, including Afshin Rattanzi on RT. This week German indie radio talked about the global arms trade, Japan on US missiles sold to Taiwan, France on how not everyone in the world is supporting the Ukraine narrative and that there are three years left to avert climate catastrophe, and Cuba on Peru's curfew because of mass protests over fuel and food costs, and the Taliban's ending of opium production. It featured this quote from Gore Vidal: "The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent."
Similar to Scott Ritter or George Galloway, Twitter has now locked my account @GFlock_GCSN for the second time in only 24 hours under ridiculous pretenses (first supposedly "hateful conduct", now "abuse and harrassment"). My 'crime' is evidence-based journalism about the Ukraine-Russia-USA conflict which you can read up on here: https://gregorflock.medium.com/. Please help me get my account back and report about this, they want me to delete the links to my work which has gotten a lot of hits. P.S. Keep up the good work Caitlyn!
It's much more convenient to outsource the censorship function to private entities.
During the Civil Rights Era in the US, southern power structures used to do something similar when they wanted to avoid that pesky Fourteenth Amendment. Just have the Sheriffs' deputies change out of their uniforms and call themselves a "private club" and voila! No civil rights violations!
If there was any evidence to be had of why the U.S. is fascistic, you only need to take a look at the U.S. Social Media companies like Twitter and Facebook. These companies have been pressured by our own govt to censor citizens. That’s really fascistic.
I only ever joined twitter once. It was to praise Edward Snowden in 2014. After that I forgot about it and someone took my handle apparently. I’m Not sure if I even have an account to login to on Twitter. I learned from being a facebook user on how insidious social Media is to us. It makes me miss mySpace.
Needless to say, I could see how troubling the platform was even then and only wanted to praise Snowden and I never used it again. Mission accomplished.
Financial derivative instruments meant to add "insurance" are the most unstable of all and given the scale, they are more than just an every day nuclear bomb.
I hope you are ready.
Elon Musk is part of the problem and I doubt Twitter will survive.
Twitter has been a servant of the US government and its ruling class at least since 2009, when it changed its maintenance schedule during the "Green Revolution" in Iran (protests following an allegedly stolen election that year) at the request of the US State Department so as to help keep the protests going. It is certainly state-affiliated, and about as independent as old Soviet _Pravda_. However, although _Pravda_ was dull and dogmatic, I don't think it was ever the sort of sewer Twitter has turned out to be.
Isn't it a badge of honor to be smeared by Twitter in this way?
Twitter is very efficient. They simultaneously infringe on freedom of speech and the pursuit of happiness.
Hi Caitlin, thanks for the article, I am becoming a big fan, I republished the article carrying out all the attribution and even how to donate and subscribe to you. I thought it the best way to introduce you to my British readers and followers on FB. https://labourheartlands.com/twitter-is-state-affiliated-media/
All corporate media is by definition "state-affiliated," since corporations exist solely as the result of government-granted charters. The only truly independent media are those run by individual journalists and podcasters. You can encourage such independent podcasters by contributing to the platforms on which they appear or are heard, or in many cases contributing directly to those individuals. Totalitarianism can only be defeated by turning off all "state-affiliated" media and making small contributions to individual journalists and possibly the platforms on which they appear, assuming those platforms otherwise do not engage in censorship and propaganda.
Scott Ritter was also thrown out but he's back now. They give no explanations.
Caitlin, I direct your attention to Dr. Shiva, who ran effectively for US Senate in Mass. He was running a largely social media campaign for office. He was banned from Twtr during the election for calling out fraud. During litigation, he discovered that an NGO affiliated with NWO-types had a backdoor into Twitter. So, Twitter is just a service for NGO NWO types while the NGOs and intel cabal “fly the airplane” behind the scenes. Twitter is a converged operation.
Americans, despite the mythology drilled into us since kindergarten, have no right to free speech. Period.
Where exactly in the following brief but complete text of the First Amendment are we Americans supposed to find our inexorable right to speak freely:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The only thing this glorified “right” does is to prevent the Congress of the United States from making a law that prohibits free speech. It doesn’t prevent you or me or any small business or, especially, any corporation from prohibiting free speech. In fact, it doesn’t stop the American judicial branch from prohibiting free speech (as it does with libel and slander laws or death threats). Nor does it stop the U.S. executive branch from making rules or policy that limit speech (as it routinely does for members of the military, federal employees, and government contractors).
The sad fact is if you live under the U.S. Constitution you have never had an absolute right to free speech, and you never will have that right, and to think otherwise is delusional.
You and I, or any business, and especially any corporation, can and often do prohibit free speech. You cannot walk into my house and say anything you want. You cannot walk into a business and say anything you want. In both instances you will be, at minimum, asked to leave, and that can be enforced by police (for trespassing, disturbing the peace, or some other law that does not generally apply directly to speech but which instead applies to maintaining order or property rights).
In America, property rights trump all other rights (except the right to own slaves which was specifically prohibited in the 13th Amendment, which wasn’t ratified until 1865).
I hope Galloway follows through on his threat to take legal action. Under British law he may actually be more likely to win than under U.S. law.
However, so long as Twitter remains a private company, it can and will restrict your speech. Even if we argue Twitter has become like the public square and we nationalize the company and bring it under the umbrella of the U.S. Constitution, that still won’t solve the problem: try to exercise your free speech rights in the public square without a permit and see what happens.
I wish we actually had free speech, but I refuse to suffer under the delusion that free speech is enshrined in the First Amendment. I think the best we can do is to search out places where free(r) speech is allowed. That’s why we are here on Substack (and other “parallel structures” that don’t rely on government protections). But how long will Substack remain free before it participates in the censorship mania? How long before we must self-exile from this platform and find another?
Frankly, if we want to hurt Twitter and convince it of the error of its ways, then BSD it. (Or at least BD it.) Or consider using creative coded language on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, then linking that to your Substack where you can explain using plain language and free(r) speech.
For now, that’s as good as you’ll get. And it’s likely to get much worse from here on.
Long live Big Brother! Freedom is slavery. GET OFF SOCIAL MEDIA! Consider the lilies…
For years I've listened to the Shortwave Report that gives news from around the world, including Afshin Rattanzi on RT. This week German indie radio talked about the global arms trade, Japan on US missiles sold to Taiwan, France on how not everyone in the world is supporting the Ukraine narrative and that there are three years left to avert climate catastrophe, and Cuba on Peru's curfew because of mass protests over fuel and food costs, and the Taliban's ending of opium production. It featured this quote from Gore Vidal: "The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent."
http://outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml
Similar to Scott Ritter or George Galloway, Twitter has now locked my account @GFlock_GCSN for the second time in only 24 hours under ridiculous pretenses (first supposedly "hateful conduct", now "abuse and harrassment"). My 'crime' is evidence-based journalism about the Ukraine-Russia-USA conflict which you can read up on here: https://gregorflock.medium.com/. Please help me get my account back and report about this, they want me to delete the links to my work which has gotten a lot of hits. P.S. Keep up the good work Caitlyn!
It's much more convenient to outsource the censorship function to private entities.
During the Civil Rights Era in the US, southern power structures used to do something similar when they wanted to avoid that pesky Fourteenth Amendment. Just have the Sheriffs' deputies change out of their uniforms and call themselves a "private club" and voila! No civil rights violations!
If there was any evidence to be had of why the U.S. is fascistic, you only need to take a look at the U.S. Social Media companies like Twitter and Facebook. These companies have been pressured by our own govt to censor citizens. That’s really fascistic.
I only ever joined twitter once. It was to praise Edward Snowden in 2014. After that I forgot about it and someone took my handle apparently. I’m Not sure if I even have an account to login to on Twitter. I learned from being a facebook user on how insidious social Media is to us. It makes me miss mySpace.
Needless to say, I could see how troubling the platform was even then and only wanted to praise Snowden and I never used it again. Mission accomplished.
Financial derivative instruments meant to add "insurance" are the most unstable of all and given the scale, they are more than just an every day nuclear bomb.
I hope you are ready.
Elon Musk is part of the problem and I doubt Twitter will survive.
Anyhow - I hope you are ready.
Twitter has been a servant of the US government and its ruling class at least since 2009, when it changed its maintenance schedule during the "Green Revolution" in Iran (protests following an allegedly stolen election that year) at the request of the US State Department so as to help keep the protests going. It is certainly state-affiliated, and about as independent as old Soviet _Pravda_. However, although _Pravda_ was dull and dogmatic, I don't think it was ever the sort of sewer Twitter has turned out to be.
This aged like fine wine.
Catlin please integrate Lightning channels to recive Bitcoin that way. Lower tx fees.
Great article btw. Thanks