Censorship of Dissent

For many, the information being shared in this document is new. This is, in part, because the media and more alarmingly, social media have enacted an open policy of censorship. For example, Facebook and Google/YouTube have an explicit policy that prohibits posting information that contradicts the World Health Organization.^[1][2][3][4] This is not limited to the COVID regulation, but also includes discussion about COVID’s origin.^[5] Between April and June of 2020, Facebook removed over 7 million posts that contravene this policy.^[6]

Examples of credible posts that were deliberately removed include, a pair of medical doctors from California who was reporting being coerced into falsifying death certificates^[7] and a video produced by a group of doctors talking about the ineffectiveness of masks and the suppression of effective treatments for COVID patients.^[8] Facebook removed a 120,000 member group where people shared their adverse reactions to the vaccination.^[9] A court in Germany actually ruled against YouTube’s censorship of a video that showed a protest against the COVID restrictions after YouTube refused to allow the video, the court fined the company 100 thousand Euros.^[10]

Facebook also created a fact-checking program, that alerts users if they have visited “debunked content”.^[11]
Interestingly, two noted Oxford academics were labeled as passing on “false information” even though one is the director of the university’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine.^[12] Twitter similarly blocked tweets that referred to a peer-reviewed article supporting the use of ivermectin^[13] as well as any tweet that contains “misleading narratives”.^[14]  At Amazon, books that are critical of the government’s response to COVID-19 were removed (some were later reinstated, under pressure.)^[15][16]  Amazon’s Web Hosting service even removed the whole website of America’s Frontline Doctors.^[17] Linked-In deleted the account of Dr Robert Malone, a scientist who helped develop some of the mRNA technology after the scientist urged caution in vaccinating children.^[18]

In May 2021 a whistleblower from within Facebook revealed documentation showing how Facebook scores users based on their level of “vaccine hesitancy” and buries their posts accordingly.^[19]

Perhaps even more disturbing is that governments have joined the chorus and are also now encouraging more censorship.^[20][21][22] In Israel, the state prosecutor threatened criminal charges against those who disseminate “false content”.^[23] Police arrested a woman for videoing an empty hospital, while the government was claiming hospital overcapacity.^[24]

The British Army ordered the 77th Brigade, which usually conducts information warfare to quash “misinformation” about the COVID response.^[25] Canada had its military plan an information operation, but later pulled the program after the military itself objected because it would be “open to abuse in using propaganda or deception.”^[26] The White House is in open collusion with Big Tech to manipulate the COVID narrative by blocking what they call misinformation.^[27]

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