Steemit and the Steem token is still fairly new being found in 2016. Since then the number of users has rocketed to approximately half a million users (upvote for anyone with a source to the actual statistic). The basic concept of Steemit is a decentralized social network where users are monetarily compensated for authoring and curating posts. Since it's inception the platform has been a havon for the silenced voices and the unheard. Because of the nature of such a platform I truly believe we have yet to realize it's true potential. However, the latest scandal in the realm of typical Social Networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have begun to shine light on why Steemit is so important.
"Shadow Banning" as described above has been a topic of discussion recently in news articles and videos. A Project Veritas report released this week zeroes in on Twitter's little-known practice of “shadow banning,” which turns out to be a rather surreptitious, stealth method of censorship.
“Shadow banning is a way of blocking users from a social media platform without notifying them,” explains PV founder, James O’Keefe.
“Tweets from a shadow-banned user still appear to their followers, but don’t show up in search results, or anywhere else on Twitter,” he said.
“Although Twitter presents itself as politically neutral, its culture behind closed doors is one of blatant censorship, systematic bias, and political targeting,” according to O’Keefe.
Through shadow banning, “you have ultimate control,” said Abhinav Vadrevu, former Twitter software engineer. “The idea of a shadow ban is that you ban someone but they don’t know they’ve been banned, because they keep posting but no one sees their content. So, they just think that no one is engaging with their content, when, in reality, no one is seeing it.”
“At the end of the day, no one else interacts,” continues Vadrevu. “No one else sees what you’re doing. So, all that data is just thrown away.”
Conrado Miranda, a former Twitter engineer, says shadow banning is happening at Twitter, acknowledging that the procedure is often used to silence conservatives or Trump supporters.
Clearly this type of censorship can have devastating implications for our rights to free speech. You may think you are being heard, but in reality if your opinion isn't in alignment with the network you choose to use, you may be censored without your notification or knowledge. This is where Steemit comes in and can play a vital role. As more and more people turn to Cryptocurrency to regain financial freedom, now we will turn to the same space to take back our voices. I hope that you upvote and share this post with your friends and family so that we can increase our awareness to this issue and build a truly free community where everyone and anyone can have a voice no matter their creed or color. Without Steemit, and decentralized platforms of a similar nature, we run the risk of every voice that does not meet the status quo being silenced. We run the risk of never being able to fully trust that we have the ability to be heard!
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