Ron Paul Posts Criticism of Censorship ... Shortly Before Facebook Blocks Him

[CLAX1911]

'Selectively applying'... the lament of the rabid right 'victims'...

I guess civil rights activists back in the sixties were just rabid right victims.

Oh how many times the rabid right in here claims that????

and it can't possibly be true because you hate them.

So Ron got banned, appealed and got his account reopened- yeah VERY authoritarian...

many others that didn't get their account reopened so yes very authoritarian. But go ahead and lick the boots of your authoritarian overlords and I will just tell you I told you so when they take you out.

Seems I recall many posting (not saying) violence against Obama, BushII, Clinton....

so what violence was Ron Paul advocating?

But to call for open rebellion and then the Deplorables attack our Nation's Capital (that is the 'jump the shark' moment that pushes the simple frothy blather to dangerous levels.) Attacking the Capital Building changes everything, one thing to froth another when the frothers attack democracy.

not sure what this has to do with Ron Paul and people not related to it in the least getting banned from social media but go ahead and ramble about it I guess.

That some fail to grasp that seems the bigger issue- Ron was banned appealed and his account back active- seems awfully snowflake of a thing to try and gin up to authoritarians destroying the 1st amendment.

calling people names for pointing out authoritarianism you refuse to see says more about you.

This isn't a 'They came for him and I said nothing' trite way overworked clap trap.... ✌

Then nothing ever will be. Go ahead and kiss your Master's boots it's okay.

 

[CLAX1911]

So we've moved the goalposts from monopoly to oligopoly now?

Well that's a huge move of goalposts those things are like polar opposites.

This is pathetic.

 

[bomberfox]

This scares me to death. This is Ron Paul, the consummate libertarian, being axed for criticism of--of all things--an epidemic of censorship.

Via blogger Jonathan Turley (bold by me):

​

Now former Texas congressman Ron Paul, 85, has been blocked from using his Facebook page for unspecified violations of “community standards.” Paul’s last posting was linked to an article on the “shocking” increase of censorship on social media. Facebook then proceeded to block him under the same undefined “community standards” policy.​

​

Paul, a libertarian leader and former presidential candidate, has been an outspoken critics of foreign wars and an advocate for civil liberties for decades. He wrote:​

​

“With no explanation other than ‘repeatedly going against our community standards,’ @Facebook has blocked me from managing my page. Never have we received notice of violating community standards in the past and nowhere is the offending post identified.”​

​

His son is Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tweeted, “Facebook now considers advocating for liberty to be sedition. Where will it end?”​

​

Even before the riot, Democrats were calling for blacklists and retaliation against anyone deemed to be “complicit” with the Trump Administration. We have been discussing the rising threats against Trump supporters, lawyers, and officials in recent weeks from Democratic members are calling for blacklists to the Lincoln Project leading a a national effort to harass and abuse any lawyers representing the Republican party or President Trump. Others are calling for banning those “complicit” from college campuses while still others are demanding a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to “hold Trump and his enablers accountable for the crimes they have committed.” Daily Beast editor-at-large Rick Wilson has added his own call for “humiliation,” “incarceration” and even ritualistic suicides for Trump supporters in an unhinged, vulgar column.​

​

After the riots, the big tech companies moved to ban and block sites and individuals, including Parler which is the primary alternative to Twitter. Also, a top Forbes editor Randall Lane warned any company that they will be investigated if they hire any former Trump officials.​

​

Also (ibid.):

The riots are being used as a license to rollback on free speech and retaliate against conservatives. In the meantime, the silence of academics and many in the media is deafening. Many of those who have spoken for years about the dark period of McCarthyism and blacklisting are either supporting this censorship or remaining silent in the face of it.​

​

Please don't let this be you.

I definitely support a truth in reconciliation commission to hold Trump and his enablers accountable for the willful destruction and suffering of the American people. We can have differences of opinions but what trump and his enablers have done is not a difference in opinion anymore than thinking consuming battery acid is healthy for you. If Dr. Paul was a trump supporter, i severely regret ever supporting him for as long as i have. Being afraid of socialists is no excuse for siding with tyrants.

 

[bomberfox]

One thing i do agree with is facebook’s tendency to not give clear reasons for banning people.

 

[bomberfox]

Leftists are trying to start a civil war. Why would you ban Ron Paul.......

Which leftists?

 

[bomberfox]

Time for MySpace to make a comeback
lol

I miss all the widgets i used to be able to put on my myspace page. That was awesome!

 

[bomberfox]

Weird, I would of assumed he would of been more than supportive of the right of a business to decide who the serve.

Oh well looky here


I guess access to facebook for breaking terms of service is a much bigger deal than a no coloreds sign

Ron Paul has the mistaken beliefs that property rights are the cornerstone of liberty.

 

[iliveonramen]

Ron Paul has the mistaken beliefs that property rights are the cornerstone of liberty.

I guess that doesn’t include servers.

 

[bomberfox]

Absolutely, but what about everything else in the OP? There are now no small number of people who (apparently) want to blacklist companies who hire "Trump supporters" (presumably, people who voted for Pres. Trump in either 2016 and/or 2020), bar pro-Trump students from college campuses, harass and blacklist lawyers who represent companies like Parler in litigation, etc.

This is devolving into an all-out civil war.

Im not sure how accurate the claim is but i believe in rehabilitation and restorative justice.

 

[bomberfox]

True, but I find it more than a little worrying that those on the left would put their trust in our public discourse being controlled by unaccountable billionaires. Especially sociopathic creeps like Mark Zuckerburg who was hungrily buying up menstruation data of millions of women through period tracker apps.

Im definitely for antitrust enforcement and making the buying and gathering of certain data illegal.

 

[PrincessBerlin]

Well that's a huge move of goalposts those things are like polar opposites.

This is pathetic.

Talk about a self-own.

 

[bomberfox]

Hahaha. It is to laugh that Zuckerburg sought the kind of “regulation” you are thinking of, Moot. More like the regulation that a government-sponsored monopoly has over them.

But I agree with Zuckerburg. And I think the best form of regulation would be to break up Facebook since it has become so powerful that no communications platform can compete against it (since it buys up all of its competition and engages in anti-competitive practices). That is to say nothing of the Russian hackers who were able to use it to interfere with our elections and it was used as a platform to plan, organize and carry out ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. It is a menace to our society, and stands as a symbol of might that needs to broken up into a couple dozen pieces like Standard Oil.

Bingo. I’d also add that if they want to maintain protections, they gotta stop directing the traffic so much. Youtube was caught making algorithms that was demonstrably geared towards leading people towards more radicalizing content. They tried to fix this by making some hackneyed fairness doctrine like ad fixes but that only lead to leftie commentator channels being chocked with ads from cult backed Epoch Times, OAN, and Prager U. These social media platforms just cannot handle the load they are taking on and algorithm based steering has been a nasty failure.

only thing i worry about is the pieces turning into the next parler and white supremacist gab which is more extreme than Parler

 

[CLAX1911]

Talk about a self-own.

Yeah because an oligopoly and a monopoly are two very very different things.

Seems you don't understand sarcasm.

 

[PrincessBerlin]

Yeah because an oligopoly and a monopoly are two very very different things.

Seems you don't understand sarcasm.

They actually are. I guess this was a case of Poe's Law.

 

[CLAX1911]

They actually are. I guess this was a case of Poe's Law.

They aren't though. Whether it's one corporation or two or more corporations that form a trust it results in the same thing.

 

[COTO]

Rand Paul is not the consummate libertarian by any stretch of the imagination. It's just a role he plays from time to time.

Ron Paul, not Rand Paul.

Conservatives believe that private companies should be allowed to refuse service to people until someone refuses service to them. You only believe in Capitalism when it works for you, which is Conservatism 101.

I've come out against government regulation of social media on many occasions. I don't believe forcing companies to host content they don't want to host is a solution to anything.

Having said this, antitrust laws and laws designed to punish/prevent anticompetitive practices exist for a good reason, and if FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) aren't the very definition of 'oligopoly', I don't know what is. They've either bought, bankrupted, or outmaneuvered every competitor in the online world--with the help of favourable laws and court rulings--until they're the only game in town. And now even the gutter fringes like Parler are being taken out though concerted action.

Even if you don't support antitrust laws, breaking up companies, or punishing anti-competitive practices, I still hope that the other points in the OP regarding blacklisting, harassment of lawyers, etc. cause you some concern.

I definitely support a truth in reconciliation commission to hold Trump and his enablers accountable for the willful destruction and suffering of the American people. We can have differences of opinions but what trump and his enablers have done is not a difference in opinion anymore than thinking consuming battery acid is healthy for you. If Dr. Paul was a trump supporter, i severely regret ever supporting him for as long as i have. Being afraid of socialists is no excuse for siding with tyrants.

I assume the first question in the commission will be "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Trump Party?"

Do you realize that tens of millions of your countrymen consider Pres. Obama, Rep. Pelosi, Sen. Schumer et al. to be "tyrants" responsible for a great deal of "willful destruction and suffering of the American people"? I daresay the only reason the capitol riot could take place is because some of these people have adopted your bellicose belief that "We can have differences of opinions but what [Pres. Obama et al.] and his enablers have done is not a difference in opinion anymore."

I agree with you that Trump supporters specifically causing violence and mayhem at the riot have moved well beyond differences of opinion, but you've set your sights on "Trump and his enablers", which to me suggests anyone who supported/supports his presidency. Are you so eager to usher in the new McCarthyism?

 

[PrincessBerlin]

Having said this, antitrust laws and laws designed to punish/prevent anticompetitive practices exist for a good reason, and if FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) aren't the very definition of 'oligopoly', I don't know what is.

There are plenty of other social media sites you can use. Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, Snapchat, Tiktok, and so on. Same goes for search engines and streaming sites.

Further more, certain people should be deplatformed across the board, such as Trumpists. We need to stop pretending this isn't a terrorist Fascist movement on the same level as Islamic State.

 

[notquiteright]

I guess civil rights activists back in the sixties were just rabid right victims. and it can't possibly be true because you hate them. many others that didn't get their account reopened so yes very authoritarian. But go ahead and lick the boots of your authoritarian overlords and I will just tell you I told you so when they take you out. so what violence was Ron Paul advocating? not sure what this has to do with Ron Paul and people not related to it in the least getting banned from social media but go ahead and ramble about it I guess. calling people names for pointing out authoritarianism you refuse to see says more about you. Then nothing ever will be. Go ahead and kiss your Master's boots it's okay.

Oh the victim card is strong in some on the rabid right...

Don't try and compare the civil rights movement of the 60's to these Deplorables. I was alive during the 60's and now have seen both- not even close and shame on you for trying to compare them...

Yes many who actually violated the ToS rules don't get there accounts re-instated. Again because you willfully ignore this point- RON HAD HIS ACCOUNT REOPENED BECAUSE HE DIDN'T VIOLATE ToS. It was a mistake and people, including Mr. Perfect tRump, make mistakes.... You are using a straw man to beat a dead horse (how's that for combining online favs)

Young man, I served my country wearing a brain bucket and carrying a REAL black rifle (including some other REALLY bad ass weapons) I have scars to prove it. I'll do my best to ignore the passions and ignorance of youth. I don't lick anyone's boots (have kissed a few VERY sexy asses but that is for a different thread) Having been other places than my computer I know what authoritarian is, you not so much... ☹

But answer my questions- Is this website 'authoritarian' because it bans those who violate ToS. Are you saying those in here who wail the enforcement of the rules are against the poor down trodden conservatives are correct? Are you going to carry on about those banned for violations far lower than what those on Twitter????

It easy to rail against other forums- now how about closer to home where it affects you far more- is this site authoritarian????

Look the account is back, a mistake was corrected, the howlers can move on, the whine about authoritarian can be saved for the REAL deal... ✌

 

[CLAX1911]

Oh the victim card is strong in some on the rabid right...

Don't try and compare the civil rights movement of the 60's to these Deplorables. I was alive during the 60's and now have seen both- not even close and shame on you for trying to compare them...

Yes many who actually violated the ToS rules don't get there accounts re-instated. Again because you willfully ignore this point- RON HAD HIS ACCOUNT REOPENED BECAUSE HE DIDN'T VIOLATE ToS. It was a mistake and people, including Mr. Perfect tRump, make mistakes.... You are using a straw man to beat a dead horse (how's that for combining online favs)

Young man, I served my country wearing a brain bucket and carrying a REAL black rifle (including some other REALLY bad ass weapons) I have scars to prove it. I'll do my best to ignore the passions and ignorance of youth. I don't lick anyone's boots (have kissed a few VERY sexy asses but that is for a different thread) Having been other places than my computer I know what authoritarian is, you not so much... ☹

But answer my questions- Is this website 'authoritarian' because it bans those who violate ToS. Are you saying those in here who wail the enforcement of the rules are against the poor down trodden conservatives are correct? Are you going to carry on about those banned for violations far lower than what those on Twitter????

It easy to rail against other forums- now how about closer to home where it affects you far more- is this site authoritarian????

Look the account is back, a mistake was corrected, the howlers can move on, the whine about authoritarian can be saved for the REAL deal... ✌

Go ahead and make boots it's okay with me. The conversation is over because you are obstinate.

 

[bomberfox]

Ron Paul, not Rand Paul.


I've come out against government regulation of social media on many occasions. I don't believe forcing companies to host content they don't want to host is a solution to anything.

Having said this, antitrust laws and laws designed to punish/prevent anticompetitive practices exist for a good reason, and if FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) aren't the very definition of 'oligopoly', I don't know what is. They've either bought, bankrupted, or outmaneuvered every competitor in the online world--with the help of favourable laws and court rulings--until they're the only game in town. And now even the gutter fringes like Parler are being taken out though concerted action.

Even if you don't support antitrust laws, breaking up companies, or punishing anti-competitive practices, I still hope that the other points in the OP regarding blacklisting, harassment of lawyers, etc. cause you some concern.


I assume the first question in the commission will be "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Trump Party?"

Do you realize that tens of millions of your countrymen consider Pres. Obama, Rep. Pelosi, Sen. Schumer et al. to be "tyrants" responsible for a great deal of "willful destruction and suffering of the American people"? I daresay the only reason the capitol riot could take place is because some of these people have adopted your bellicose belief that "We can have differences of opinions but what [Pres. Obama et al.] and his enablers have done is not a difference in opinion anymore."

I agree with you that Trump supporters specifically causing violence and mayhem at the riot have moved well beyond differences of opinion, but you've set your sights on "Trump and his enablers", which to me suggests anyone who supported/supports his presidency. Are you so eager to usher in the new McCarthyism?

Not mccarthyism and truth in reconciliation commissions have nothing to do with mccarthyism. The first started after apartheid. Trump and his enablers include the people in power that contributed to this mess and directly. Those who consider democrats responsible for this have no case whatsoever so it doesnt apply. Trump and his enablers include the people that directly contributed to the big lie that lead to this moment, hell they can replace those people with others of the same party but the GOP is in deep shit. Those that helped trump in his sedition plot and those who continued to contribute to the spread of covid should be punished. The trump party has the blood of hundreds of thousands on their conscious through willful neglect and willful deception.

 

[LouC]

Show me that they were banned.

I never said they were banned.

I have nothing to prove, unlike you, so, prove your claim.

 

[ASHES]

This scares me to death. This is Ron Paul, the consummate libertarian, being axed for criticism of--of all things--an epidemic of censorship.

Does it scare you as much every time DP bans a person? Happens every day. DP is free to ban people that don't follow the rules, and so is Facebook. Don't like the rules, don't agree to them.

 

[COTO]

Further more, certain people should be deplatformed across the board, such as Trumpists. We need to stop pretending this isn't a terrorist Fascist movement on the same level as Islamic State.

First of all, ISIS is brutal and oppressive, but it isn't nationalistic, socialistic, capitalistic, or dictator-ruled, meaning it clearly isn't fascistic.

Secondly, ISIS militias have summarily executed tens of thousands of people, some in the most barbaric ways imaginable, and have waged wars that (in all) have cost millions of lives. At the height of its power, the number of people willing to take human life in furtherance of ISIS' goals numbered in the tens of thousands.

By contrast, the riot in the capitol resulted in 82 arrests and five lives lost (one suicide, three medical emergencies, and one rioter shot). There's quite literally a one hundred thousandfold difference in scale. Hence the two are only "on the same level" if we ignore five orders of magnitude--approximately the factor by which the weight of an adult African bull elephant differs from the weight of a mouse.

 

[COTO]

Does it scare you as much every time DP bans a person? Happens every day. DP is free to ban people that don't follow the rules, and so is Facebook. Don't like the rules, don't agree to them.

DP doesn't ban members for discussing the risks of censorship, to the best of my knowledge. If it did, then yes, it would worry me.

 

[ASHES]

DP doesn't ban members for discussing the risks of censorship, to the best of my knowledge. If it did, then yes, it would worry me.

Nobody said that was the post that got him 'censored.' You and the article are making that assumption.