These days, it's easier to list the tech giants who have NOT de-platformed conservatives than those who have. Conservatives have finally had enough, a point they emphasized at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in a panel moderated by Tony Perkins. "Heading into Covid," said Washington Times President Chris Dolan, "we were ranked the fifth most reliable newspaper in America from a national survey of households.... Three years later, we're being knocked off platforms because we're not trustworthy. Nothing's changed besides the interpretation of us."
"Google is the biggest problem," Dolan explained. "If you're a legitimate outlet with information that they don't want out, then they find ways to silence you... I have lost, in the last eight months, 90 percent of my Google traffic." Thus, the Washington Times joins other conservative news websites like Breitbart.com, The Federalist, Western Journal, in experiencing deliberate suppression in Google search results. Perform a Google search on any issue, and you'll almost certainly find only approved, Leftist sources on the first page. Losing views not only muzzles a news website but strangles its revenue. "The contraction of the newsroom is massive," complained Dolan.
Dennis Prager also survived Google's business assassination. YouTube (which Google owns) labeled hundreds of PragerU videos, including one on the Ten Commandments, as restricted, a category reserved for inappropriate content. This barred many young people, PragerU's target audience, from viewing them. When a Senator asked a Google spokesperson why the Ten Commandments video was censored, the answer was as simple as it was shocking. "Because it mentions murder," came the calm reply. Just think about that for a second. Either they think Americans are too stupid to notice their double standards, or they feel too secure to care.
Silicon Valley, Corporate America, and the legacy media display increasing intolerance to anyone voicing conservative values. "Talk radio in some ways is the last bastion for free speech," said Prager, because Big Tech can't control it. When institutions grow intolerant, that's a symptom that they have been captured by the Left; they have become post-Liberal institutions. "Liberals allow dissent. The Left does not," Prager summarized.
The gangrene of Leftism has spread from institutions that used to stand for free speech to institutions which used to stand for free markets. Private crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe have taken to blocking contributions for political causes they dislike. Again, the justifications are as flimsy as their race-colored glasses. Earlier this year, GoFundMe cancelled a fundraiser for the Canadian Freedom Convoy, alleging violence, although they raised millions for BLM rioters and Seattle's "Autonomous Zone" during the summer of 2020.
In response, Jacob and Heather Wells had a solution: an alternative, Christian crowdfunding platform called GiveSendGo. Jacob Wells sees increasing decentralization in online platforms as established players willingly surrender their market share through deplatforming. What's important, he said, is "people being willing to pioneer into new companies." Heather agreed. Their platform stepped into the gap left by GoFundMe -- at least until the Canadian regime made a criminal offense. "Givers will find alternative individual methods," she said, which are "more decentralized."
Of course, intolerance is nothing new. Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah were deplatformed. The apostle Paul was mobbed in the temple and arrested. "And what did he do?" Heather Wells asked. "He spoke in the jail. And then he spoke on the island, and then he spoke on the boat... He couldn't be deplatformed until he died because his platform was to share the hope of Jesus." Let that be our message, too. And let's take a stand for truth, whether we have a platform or not.
