I will share some of my firsthand experiences of social media censorship in this post.
I’ve experienced censorship from mainstream social media platforms many times. I stopped using these platforms (for a number of reasons - that I will share) 6 years ago.
I discovered a direct correlation between the amount of time that I spent on social media platforms - with the loss of brain cells and a significant deterioration in my overall mental health. I felt increasingly dumber, and more frustrated the longer that I spent time on them.
I also found them to be a great waste of my time and a distraction from far more important things.
Bottom line - I gave them up for health reasons 6 years ago while medical studies play catch-up.
Except for you tube that is, which is not any better - just different.
I don’t watch tv or movies - you tube is pretty much my tv and movie night. I like to watch good video content so you tube (and other video platforms) is what I choose to watch. It provides me with many more channels, and much more content than I could ever hope to get with a cable or Netflix etc subscription - and it’s free!
I choose to spend a lot of time outdoors - in nature. I like read to non-fiction books and well-researched content from anywhere - so long as I learn something valuable from it. I read a lot of really great content on Steemit and hopefully I am contributing to some of that great content in my little own way?
Steemit is like a breath of air as I’m scuba-diving in a hostile and unforgiving environment. It is like pure drinking water in a deep, dark swamp. It is a cleansing bath that washes away the filth that attempts to permeate my mind, body and soul.
Steemit is the current nirvana of social media platforms and that is why I have chosen a Uncensored Social Media Platform as my #3 reason for being on Steemit.
Mainstream social media channels have been censoring and suppressing people and their opinions for many years. Whether that be a content creator or commentator - they can, and have been targeted - I am just one of many - and I am not special.
They have promoted and elevated garbage to the trending feed as they simultaneously suppress truth and promote shills.
Mainstream media news websites, that used to allow comments on articles, have for the most part, stopped accepting comments - especially for fake news and propaganda articles (their bread and butter).
Many internet forums are heavily moderated, increasingly so. After quitting social media 6 years ago, I switched to forums.
The relationship started out well - as most symbiotic relationships often do.
I gained a niche audience, some respect and a small following within its confined social circles - they gained traffic and revenue from my content while I earned nothing. It was a match made in heaven - or so I thought - then I swallowed the red pill and really began to wake up at a constantly accelerating pace. As one domino fell another would soon following it and I was swallowing red pills left, right and center.
The honeymoon began to end approximately 1 year later - as I co-incidentally began sharing of my newly discovered truth. My comments started to get blocked and they did not appear on the forum feed unless a moderator/gatekeeper approved or rejected them.
Depending on the time of day that could take 12 hours or more.
If my comment was approved, people would reply. If I replied to their comments I often had to wait another 12 (rarely less than 2) hours for my comment to be approved/rejected. If my reply was rejected I tried editing it (watering it down) and re-posting it.
In the meantime, most people had already moved on to the next topic. My attempts were primarily futile, and while this was many years ago - I am certain that a few seeds were planted.
If only I knew back then what I know now!
This was, and still is, a very subtle and effective means of censorship, that I twigged on to quite early. After jumping through their hoops and attempting to satisfy their moderators for a month or two - I simply gave up on talking about truth on most forums.
I later realized that many of the more popular forums are part-owned by mainstream media conglomerates.
The men paying the bills control the content and direction/moderation of the forum in more instances than you may realize.
Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo have been manually overriding their algorithms and totally blacklisting, or re-ranking targeted websites e.g. Natural News.
In some countries (e.g France & Germany) websites are completely removed from search results altogether at the behest of the government - simply because the content does not align with government opinion e.g Storm Front.
Following is a short-list of examples where I have been personally censored:
Mainstream social media (and 99% of media) is infiltrated with shills and trolls. If they aren’t shills or trolls - they are seriously deceived. Take your pick!
I say that with the utmost of respect. I was also deceived once upon a time and I have not forgotten.
Need I mention these well recognized facts?
It would take me many weeks, probably months and possibly years - to list every example of social media censorship.
We live in a world of fake-news and comprised social media.
We are fortunate that Steemit has provided us with an uncensored social media platform to write and comment about the things that we care about.
I’m here because I believe that every individual has a voice and a right to be heard (freedom of speech) - whether we agree with that voice or not is another story - but that voice should not be suppressed.
Steemit is without doubt - the best social media platform that we have today.
My truth may not be your truth - that’s ok. I am merely sharing my truth and introducing myself to you during this series and I welcome hearing your truth.
Thank you for reading this post and for allowing me to share why I love Steemit with you!
I hope that this post has been profitable to you!
Till next time…
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