In banning the only living person who can summon a million Black people to a meeting, Facebook is doing the bidding of the real fascists in the deep imperial state.
“Farrakhan won’t be the last victim.”
Facebook and other social media platforms are an indispensable means of communicating with people all over the world. They are vital tools for anyone wanting to share or receive information. That is why their surrender to the dictates of the state is so very dangerous.
The Democratic Party is responsible for this assault which began in the wake of their 2016 presidential defeat. Blaming Russian interference served them well. They escaped blame for the debacle of their own making while also getting buy-in for surveillance state censorship from progressives.
Social media became the poster child in the psy-op meant to convince Americans that the election result was a Russian intelligence operation. Facebook knew better than anyone that Russian clickbait ads didn’t sway the election result.The threats against them must have been considerable because Mark Zuckerberg and his team knuckled under very quickly.
“Facebook knew better than anyone that Russian clickbait ads didn’t sway the election result.”
They announced that they would decide what was and wasn’t “fake news” under the guidance of the Atlantic Council. The Atlantic Council is a think tank which is in effect NATO’s lobbyist. It is funded by multi-national corporations, and has strong ties to the military and to intelligence agencies. In other words, only the views of the U.S. foreign policy establishment have been given legitimacy. While the deep state had its hands on our communications, America’s friends used the opportunity for their own censorship efforts. Israeli government demands that Palestinian individuals and groups be removed are met with agreement and the targets are quickly disappeared.
All of which brings us to Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. Facebook announced that he and right wing lightning rods Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos were banned from its pages forever. They were said to be “dangerous” and were accused of “spreading hate.”
“Only the views of the U.S. foreign policy establishment have been given legitimacy.”
No one should believe this well orchestrated hype. The real targets of Facebook and the rest of corporate run social media are on the left. That is the group most hated and feared by the Democrats, the people responsible for this censorship. Black people will defend Farrakhan because he is vilified by white people when they cynically use him for their own political motives. They don’t really care about what he says or does. The Facebook ban is an excellent example of this fake outrage in action. Jones and Yiannopoulos are equally unimportant. They provide ample opportunity for liberal virtue signaling but they have no meaningful use as public figures.
This sleight of hand should be vigorously opposed. Everyone’s rights are at risk from the confluence of surveillance and corporate control. But Facebook isn’t alone in acting as the government’s enforcer. Google banned Presstv Iran from uploading new content on Youtube and all of its Gmail platform. Twittersummarily banned2,000 accounts for “engaging in a state-backed influence campaign.” Their crime was expressing opinions in favor of the elected government of Venezuela. The explanations for the censorship are vague but government demands are always a part of the picture.
“The real targets of Facebook and the rest of corporate run social media are on the left.”
Black people should not allow themselves to be misdirected by Farrakhan’s expulsion. Of course he should not be removed from Facebook. But there must be protest about corporate entities acting in concert with the government to decide who and what we can see. These social media platforms must be regulated just as other utilities are. But that needed action would not completely resolve the problem either.
The problem is political. Corporations and the security state now have popular support to attack the free flow of information. They used Russiagate to whip up sentiment in favor of corporate control and right wing ideological bias. Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning sit in jail on trumped up charges meant to punish them for revealing America’s crimes. People like Farrakhan, Jones, Yiannopoulos and others who create phony outrage are in permanent Facebook jail, but the deep state has free reign over sources of information. People who otherwise claim opposition to Donald Trump and fascism say nothing about this assault which is fascist by definition.
“Corporations and the security state now have popular support to attack the free flow of information.”
It is irrelevant if the repugnant Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos appear on social media. They have a right to express themselves and people who want to read about them should be able to do so. This columnist has appeared on Presstv and finds it a credible source of information. But thousands of people who feel likewise are unable to see new content because Google acts in close concert with the United States government.
Farrakhan won’t be the last victim. Black Agenda Report has already been declared a tool of Russian influence by Propornot, the front group for the Jeff Bezos owned Washington Post. BAR is endangered and so are its political allies if this trend continues without protest.
Free Farrakhan! Free Presstv! Keep Black Agenda Report and other independent news sites from ever being captured by corporate social media incarceration.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com . Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
COMMENTS?
Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport
Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com
"When bagman Vigor Moribund came to town" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
Book Forum Editor, Roberto Sirvent, interviews Onyesonwu Chatoyer about her political organizing and work as a writer and editor.
New York Democrats are fueling the panic over a fictional crime wave to increase surveillance and police presence in NYC.
Anti-Black racism in Libya is stoked by the west to justify intervention and maintain dominance over the nation. The path toward liberation is to reject Europe and embrace a political Pan-Africanism.
Palestinian people and African/Black people share more than a common struggle. They share a history dating back thousands of years.
