Big Tech Purge Escalates: Ron Paul, Judicial Watch and ‘Stop the Steal’ Censored

Following Twitter’s decision to ban President Trump from its platform last Friday, censorship by big tech companies has continued to escalate.

Over the last few days, Google, Apple and Amazon all took action against the free-speech social media company Parler. Google and Apple banned it from Google Play and the App Store, respectively, while Amazon yanked it from Amazon Web Services (AWS), thereby taking Parler completely offline.

In response, Parler has filed a lawsuit against Amazon, suing it for “antitrust violations” among other things.

If that censorship was not enough, the level of suppression has continued to skyrocket this week.

Due to “repeatedly” going against Facebook’s “community standards,” the social media giant banned former Texas Congressman Ron Paul on Monday.

Paul posted a screenshot of the notification he received from Facebook to his Twitter account.

“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,” Paul wrote.

“The only thing we posted to Facebook today was my weekly ‘Texas Straight Talk’ column, which I have published every week since 1976,” he added.

Additionally, Facebook has announced that it is removing any and all content that refers to “stop the steal,” the rallying cry of protesters who descended on Washington, D.C. on January 6 who believe voter fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

“With continued attempts to organize events against the outcome of the U.S. presidential election that can lead to violence, and use of the term by those involved in Wednesday’s violence in D.C., we’re taking this additional step in the lead up to the inauguration,” Guy Rosen, Facebook’s Vice President of Integrity, wrote in a post according to CNN.

Facebook has also permanently banned the family-run retail outlet PatrioticMe from advertising its products on Facebook over allegedly not complying with its “Advertising Policies or other standards.” PatrioticMe sells pro-American products like t-shirts emblazoned with “USA” or the American flag.

The company owner, LeeAnn Miller, was unable to identify what policy they were not complying with. “I have to believe that in the current climate they were taken down because a lot of people think patriotism is bad,” Miller told The Blaze in an interview.

Yet, Facebook is not the only big tech giant continuing to ramp up their censorship efforts. Twitter has also increased its pattern of suppression.

Conservative legal group Judicial Watch’s president, Tom Fitton, has been suspended from Twitter for a tweet about Hydroxychloroquine, according to Just The News.

“Twitter said in September that it received a complaint regarding a tweet posted on Fitton’s account that said, ‘#Hydroxychloroqine is a safe drug,’ but the social media platform said that it did not find that the post had violated any rules,” JTN reports.

“But now Twitter has suspended Fitton for tweeting the same message that it previously said did not violate its rules, a message which Fitton has posted repeatedly on the platform. Fitton says that even if he deletes the tweet, he would remain locked out of his account for seven days.”

Additionally, Twitter banned and then reinstated Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer, two producers on the 2018 pro-life movie “Gosnell.”

On their Twitter account, they wrote on Monday, “What on earth is happening at Twitter? In less than a few hours we’ve been: 1. Banned 2.  Reinstated 3. And now it says we have no followers.”

They posted a screenshot of the notification they received from Twitter saying they were suspended for violating Twitter’s rules against “platform manipulation and spam.”

Normally, censorship from big tech companies like Facebook and Twitter would have millions flocking to download alternative social media platforms like Parler. Yet, due to Amazon’s decision to pull Parler from AWS, the app is still offline as of publishing time.

You can follow this author on Parler (whenever it’s back up and running) @ZacharyMettler

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