The following is a news analysis.
In a recent live chat on Periscope, I suggested steps people can take now to overcome Big Tech censorship while the situation shakes down and solutions are sought. Here is a summary.
Watch the full live chat at the link at the end of this post.
What can I do about Big Tech censorship now? Decentralize.
- Diversify by learning about and joining other social media and Internet services such as Parler, Gab, DuckDuckGo, and Reddit. It may seem like a lot of extra work initially, but if you slowly shift your reliance away from the same handful of companies, it will be worth it in the long run.
- Learn about ham (amateur) radio. I'm told the online test for a license is cheap and easy to get. Find out more in the large group "Ham Radio" on Facebook.
- Join the "Decentralizers" forum at LarrySanger.org. (Sanger is the co-founder of Wikipedia who parted with the project over it becoming a propaganda tool of agenda editors for corporate and political interests.) He's among a group of people working on solutions and if you want to stay abreast of any developments or share ideas, you can do it here.
- Subscribe to SharylAttkisson.com (see the subscribe form on right sidebar of the home page or scroll down on mobile site). You will get news about this topic and other matters delivered directly to your in-box. I am trying to aggregate and publicize a lot of material about censorship.
- Read and circulate items under the "Censored" tab at SharylAttkisson.com.
- Start your own website. It's cheap and easy.
- Watch "Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson" live Sundays on TV, or replays on the app STIRR, or online anytime at FullMeasure.news. I'll be starting a new feature highlighting censored topics, people and studies. My two part investigation on Big Tech censorship can be found here and here.
- Call out and speak out against censorship whether it's conducted by Big Tech, pushed by propaganda groups such as Media Matters, or executed by the news.
- Read and share my new bestseller that dissects this topic and tells more about what's behind it: "Slanted: How the news media taught us to love censorship and hate journalism." Find it at your local library or ask your library to purchase copies.
- Communicate with people in the real world outside of the Internet. Like we used to.
- Watch original unedited hearings and news conferences on CSPAN or other places you can find them.
- When you see news outlets, "fact checkers," Internet companies, and others working hard to keep you from seeing or believing something; or controversializing a news outlet, reporter, or other person; use that as a cue to understand that the item/fact/study at issue may actually be true and worthy of further inquiry on your part. The attention giving to censor or controversialize typically signals that powerful interests are trying to hide something or attempting to further a narrative that may be false.
- Listen to the Podcasts: "The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast" and "Full Measure After Hours"
- Don't be discouraged; be motivated.
Watch the live chat:
https://www.pscp.tv/SharylAttkisson/1yoKMALljYwKQ
Hi Sharyl A, and her readers,
I really appreciate your educating people about the possibility/necessity of decentralizing media. I think more solutions will be built in the months/years to come.
I see your encouragement to join Parler, and I just want to add a caveat about that. I found this at Jared Beck's twitter acct (For those not familiar with Jared, his firm sued the DNC for fraud after it was discovered (through wikileaks) that the DNC never intended to nominate anyone but H. Clinton. Even though the judge practically admitted that Beck had demonstrated corruption in the party, he ruled the plaintiffs did not have standing. Beck has continually warned those hopeful for the various lawsuits showing election fraud that the rulings would be the same-- no standing. But most don't know about him. I digress...)
Anyhow, Jared posted this about parler's owners.
https://twitter.com/ai_jared/status/1347924152188071937
What he said reminded me of I heard long ago by an employer, presumably about a civil war battle (though I don't know which one). A commander told his troops to build a fence to slow the approach of enemy troops, making sure to maintain openings the width of one man between each fence section. His troops were skeptical, but they complied.
When the enemy approached, what do you think happened?
The enemy soldiers clustered at the open spaces, where they could more easily be picked off.
My employer told me this when we were talking about adopting technology (or anything, really) simply because it made our lives easier, more convenient.
"We are the ones we've been waiting for."
all best,
Shannon
Yes, and here we are. Both sides looking in a mirror seemingly not knowing where this ends up?
The future caught us unawares. Now that its here, many are looking for the escape hatch.
That's the thing about Pandora's box. Once opened, the lid transfigures into something altogether different and acts as if it never fit to start with.
I pray we bring wire and bolt cutters to any fence we come upon.
This explains in detail the problems with starting your own sociual media and the roadblocks that are pretty big to do so.
https://www.nationandstate.com/2021/01/19/why-you-cant-just-build-your-own-twitter/
It would be great if you investigated something before posting it, Sharyl. Ham radio is not an environment for political discourse nor is it welcomed. Ham radio has a long history of genial communication among licensed operators with a decided technical and electronic experimentation bent. While hams respect the political opinions of everyone, they keep the ham airways free of the discourse often seen on the forums you might enjoy.
Btw - Ham Radio has a detailed code of conduct that is available online.
And unknown to general pubic, the license is for broadcasting. Anyone can buy a dual band hand held, get Repeater Book on their phone and listens (WITHOUT Talking ) conversations running off the repeaters. I feel like - more people doing this would encourage the study gain at least the basic license.
Yes, ham radio is a like group of folks who enjoy communicating with various constituencies around the world. and assisting in times of emergency.
So, they have everyone who has a right leaning thinking are being censored by big Tech HAM radio will not let their news and or messages be heard when HAM might be the only means of communication? That sounds like another form of censorship. Just saying....
Roughly half of the available electromagnetic spectrum is reserved for radio amateurs. We are hobbyists of all things electronic. Inasmuch as political discussions all too often devolve into loud-mouth arguments everywhere, they are discouraged on the radio. Commercial use is prohibited; there are plenty of allocations for commercial enterprises. Best way to learn about Amateur Radio is to find that neighborhood house with All Those Antennas in the yard and knock on the door. Be prepared for a tour and a long conversation with the friendliest person you'll meet all day.
73! (Best wishes),
Ken KB3JA
The people who enjoy non-political discourse exist on social media platforms. Ham radio might be appropriate for some. It is a nice option that some might have not considered. The idea of moving away from social media is welcomed by people of all kinds.
Yup....Amateur radio is not exactly a good medium to have political discussions on, nor was that the reason the FCC allocated the bandwidth for ham radio. Also, ham radio tests are for the technically inclined. If you were the person that didn't take a real physics class in high school because it was "too hard" you're not going to find ham radio interesting or easy. #2 is exceedingly bad advice.
Yeah, couldn't possibly have people trying to communicate with each other via ham radio
Konrad does not speak for the entirety of the Amateur Radio community.
PATRIOTIC... His station and skills are always ready for service to country and community.
Ham radio would be backup comms in case mobile accounts begin to be suspended.
Problem is that to get any kind of range requires relatively expensive equipment and at least a modicum of technical expertise.
Konrad, it is the intent to use HAM radio to remain in contact when the SHTF. Communities will need to communicate with other communities. Stop thinking everything is for political purposes.
Ham radio was also a backup for communications disruptions from events such as war or natural disaster.
While unnatural, many consider what's happening to be a disaster. You may not, and perhaps ham radio is your genial hobby, but that's not all it's there for. Just stay on your frequency and send out your postcards and live with whichever side wins.
Have a nice day.
well Kommyrad keeping ham airways free of discourse as you call it sounds just like censorship. If you have a ham radio you can pretty much say what you want with no censorship. the whole point of this posting.
I am the trustee of two amateur radio repeater systems and I allow both political and religious discussions on them. The only thing I ask is for any such discussion not to escalate into a demeaning fight.
Konrad - where did Sharyl mention political discourse?
Ham radio (and other 2-way radio) is a great way to stay informed and in contact.
When the cellphone towers are down and the internet is censored, vhf ssb and other radio tech is free and vital.
Considering social media censorship is directed at political opposition the recommendation to use ham radio strongly implies it to be used for unfashionable political discourse which typically conflicts with ham radio etiquette and the purpose that the FCC allotted the bandwidth.
This link has been removed
https://sharylattkisson.com/2021/01/14-things-you-can-do-about-big-tech-censorship-now/How%20the%20news%20media%20taught%20us%20to%20love%20censorship%20and%20hate%20journalism
(12)
"When you see news outlets, "fact checkers," Internet companies, and others working hard to keep you from seeing or believing something; or controversializing a news outlet, reporter, or other person; use that as a cue to understand that the item/fact/study at issue may actually be true and worthy of further inquiry on your part. The attention giving to censor or controversialize typically signals that powerful interests are trying to hide something or attempting to further a narrative that may be false."
That should be number 1.
I'm with you. This is my #1.
I have been on Twitter for only 2 months and have no other social media accounts. I was incensed when the access denials started happening and I was getting somewhat anxious as to my options. Then it hit me last night. I was a very well informed person before November, and with no social media. Twitter was becoming my primary source of information, and it need not be that way. As long as we stay informed from a diversity of sources (US and international media, opinion pieces, journals, emails, “Full Measure”, this website, etc.), we will be fine. Fortunately, the access denials made me aware of my emerging dependency before it was too late.
Thank you. I appreciate the comment. It's been a nightmare.
Well said. But communication among lots of us is key. Not sure that can be accomplished with just a few website. Guess someone needs to build our own alternatives to the big guys. Oh wait, that was Parler. 🙁
Gotta check out jami.net
I have begun to study the mafia movies, you know about the two guys who did that thing back before
Reddit came out today against free speech. ; (
Also - the latest communication channel just getting going is to use the Telegram app as a channel to communicate w/ followers.
Gab had its funding cut off by Paypal and Visa. They managed to secure other payment processors, but most such startups can't.
Freestarter was killed by losing its financial backing and social media blockade. A different Patreon rival was threatened with loss of funding by Big Banks and a loss of ad revenue and access to social media, so it caved to the political demands by liberals in power.
Mozilla’s founder was kicked off his corporate board and founded a free commenting plugin that was banned across app stores and by social media sites.
Big Tech is attacking Parler, saying you can't access our app stores unless you submit to our ideological mandates.
This is why it is meaningless to try to create ANOTHER conservative social media tool - Big Tech repeatedly illegally colludes to kill all of them.
It's astounding to me how this is all going down. I am part of the vaccine injury aware populace.... we are used to being censored, wrongly, but to see it on this scale is astounding.
You are not alone Carol. However, our voices are no longer being squelched as they were years ago. RFK Jr., Del Bigtree (and the Informed Consent Action network) are among the many who are no longer pulling punches. Stay strong!
There are ways to put things online that do not involve "Big Tech" (FB, Twitter, Amazon AWS, Youtube, etc).
There are MANY other video sharing sites. There are literally hundreds of hosting facilities (google, or, duck duck go, rather - "virtual hosting") In Parler's case, they can move to Microsoft, or they can even go so far as putting an internet connection into their place of business and host servers there.
it's not as easy or convenient as AWS, and I certainly back their lawsuit and hope they win, but the fight is not over. Not by a long shot.
Would like to join. Thank you
Thank you, please email info@sharylattkisson.com and I will put you on any coordinated effort made...
Sharyl,
I started on Parker a couple months ago. I tell everyone about you and you have several new loyal followers. I want to comment on this post. People need to get off Facebook, stop relying on their groups. Zuckerberg and his wife are huge liberal financial backers of this meltdown. Amazon, well tonight at midnight should be enough said. I loved duckduckgo, but I believe their search results are from Google. Censored. Use Firefox instead. Independent results with many Google will not show anymore. Call your local and state reps to encourage our freedom of speech stay alive as our constitution allows. Push for those trying to stifle it to be disbanded or criminally charged. Remember there are 80+ million voices being ignored by a very powerful few. These few forget who their financial stockholders are, we are. Consider removing your money from them. Crypto, not just Bitcoin alone, but others are out there that are far less volatile and better than stocks. Invest there. Without followers and money, these powers are nothing. Take the power back America!
Mozilla (firefox) is worse than google whe it comes to censorship.... do a search about their recent statements, it is a big disappointment to me too!
Use duckduckgo for search and brave for a browser.
I've used duckduckgo for years.... it's been bought out. Search results for medical issues are worse than google. I recently did a comparison and got more alternative sites via google than ddg.
Guess the kickbacks were/are too much to pass up.
I've been hearing this claim for 10 years. Last I checked it is still not true and is still owned by Gabriel Weinberg. Please cite the source of your claim that it is owned by Google.
Looking for Parler on Google returns gibberish. Yahoo worked.
Pardon I meant Parler above.
The city where I live is about to grant Amazon a property tax abatement for the construction of a distribution warehouse. I have written to the governor of Texas and to my representatives in the state legislature about this. Amazon has chosen to interfere in the customary rights of the people to receive news and exchange information and opinions in a public forum of their choosing. Everybody, let your city and state officials know how you feel about the granting of special favors to abusive giants such as Amazon.
Amazon is building a massive complex here in KY, I just cancelled my prime account, and will be having discussions with the county judge executive on up to censure Amazon until they quit censuring us.
Sharyl, keep fighting the good fight. I had never used social media before joining Parler. I agree with others about being able to learn the truth using many of the venues who still tell the truth. It is up to all of us to find the truth for ourselves. Do not rely on most of what you see or read. Instead of providing the truth, most media outlets have distorted the facts, or even flat out lied.
You might want to rethink Reddit. They are playing the censorship game along with the rest.
I was surprised to see ham radio on the list, no less at number 2. I’m a “ham.” I got my first license in the early 90’s. It has taken a hit because of the internet. It played a notable part in the movie “Independence Day.” Hopefully, the FCC does not infringe on our rights of the airwaves.
I was watching Mark Levin on Fox and I saw that the Emergency Broadcast System was trying to contact me, but it didn't get through. I keep thinking, was that President Trump?
The most valuable question that people can ask when something is on the news, on a website or being promoted is "why am I being told or reading about this, and what is the angle?"
Look at the source - is it AP? NYT? Wapo?
Ask yourself -
"what is the opposite story?"
" Is this really an opinion piece or a placed story?"
Sage advice, wish more subscribed to the thought process 👍
Long ago learned that most "science" or "health" articled are copy provided by commercially interested parties, with no independent editing, critique or investigation by the publlshing media. If the article pushes a product or procedure, you can be sure who in fact wrote it.
Cancelling podcasts are next. Does anyone want to guess which will be the 1st podcast taken down by Apple?
Tragic.... 🙁
Thank you.
Never did Facebook, Twitter or even a cell phone. Don't miss it; won't miss it.
I've been exploring different options since I deleted my FB, IG, and Twitter last year. Today I canceled my Amazon Prime and Audible memberships. It's like I'm dating different platforms. I've been on Parler and Telegram for about a month. I just checked out Minds.com today and really like it. It's intuitive and so far not glitchy at all. Plus other than an email address you can share as little or as much about yourself as you would like. They don't require a cell phone number like mewe does. Face to face offline time is the best, but for some types of information and interests the internet can be great.
I'm using Minds, Gab, Telegram and a couple irc communities.
Telegram is really only useful to send and receive announcements. It's not good for 1 on 1 unless you know and trust people enough for them to access your phone #. It's not "social media" like the others. It works, but I just use it for announcement type messages.
I like Minds the most, because it's more relaxed and works better atm than Gab. I like Gab more in the sense that it's more bullet proof. I deleted my Parler account months ago; I just don't think they're what people are hoping they'll be.
Hi Sharyl - Allow me to enhance this list:
* Register a domain name - talk about cheap and easy, and use this for your Web site as well as your email. There are of course technical details to hook it all up, but this is how you can not only control your name on the Internet but move the hosting if you need to without losing traffic.
* Get an RSS reader - I get notified of new posts here in my RSS reader. After Google killed its Google Reader product over a decade ago, RSS became out of fashion, but it still works and is even the underpinnings of podcasting!
mp/m
Excellent suggestions Mike! ty
I really miss the Google rss reader. I’m not tech savvy enough to know what to replace it with. I saw outlook has one, but 1. It’s my work email, and 2. I don’t want to rely on Microsoft.
Reddit and Gab are now joining in the racketeering and blocking free speech!
Lots of links and information here about alternatives to cellphones that use Google's Android operating system :
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3924027/posts
There are reports that some people are being fired or pressured into resigning simply for being at last week's demonstration, even if they never went near the Capitol building.
Oakland California police department is currently cleansing its ranks, those who don't offer up "self-criticism" will be fired. Expect the frenzy to ramp up into rest of workplaces very soon.
There are 70 million folks wondering whats going on with very little sources to rely on. My wife and i have always thought Sheryl was the only real journalist left in america . I hope they dont try to cause her problems.
Going to? The Deep State has already invaded her work laptop, her iMac desktop and her MacBookAir.. The current state of her law suit is on this site
Gab?
As others have mentioned, ham radio IS an important tool for emergency communications. Sry - hard to cover all ham radio is in a short post. Just thought those who may want to begin political discussions to know that the two governing documents: The Ham Code Of Conduct and The Ham Code Of Ethics And Operating Procedures specifically describe that a ham is CONSIDERATE ( their caps not mine) and never knowingly operates in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others. The words friendly, kind, considerate, tolerant, polite, positive and brotherly abound in other portions.
It's hard not to get discouraged, especially in the past couple of days now that the Democrats and the media are actively working to suppress any and every narrative that contradicts theirs. It's like their version of The Handmaids Tale in coming to fruition. Gilead come to life.
One suggestion I can make is the Epic Privacy Browser, it has a built in VPN, it doesn't keep a history and claims to be private and secure (as secure as many things can be on the internet for non-tech users)
If you allow links: https://epicbrowser.com/
No support for Linux? Really would like to use this but getting away from Microsoft is just as important to me.
I looked into Epic browser. I found the Brave browser might be more along the lines of the required browser for the current internet information war. It has built in tor browser. It also kicks the big ad manager billionaires in the balls by replacing ads with its own ad network. It also pays you in crypto to view the ads. hahahaha!!! take that google and facebook!
Get the brave browser! http://www.brave.com
I don't know what it's like in US, but in Australia getting a website and hosting is NOT so cheap - unless you use Big Tech options like GoDaddy & WordPress (Sharyl!).
I agree, Mike, that getting your own domain name is a sensible way to manage your own website and even for those who don't need a site, to manage your own email.
In that way, anyone can store their emails on their own computers, rather than using an email address from the generic mail providers. Those providers retain Gb's of others' private mail on their servers. There's a reason their services are free!
If you want own website and email address: try looking for an independent web developer that offers web & email hosting on their own infrastructure, not on AWS etc. It will not be the cheapest option, but it is a step away from Big Tech.
Everyone needs to look into jami.net it is a peer to peer messaging application. It offers end to end encryption of your messages. It does video, audio and desktop sharing conference and more. It is a very capable application. It is a bit buggy from my tests but my god what a great thing to see being actively developed using old school networking method (peer to peer). This is a solution to keep big tech from censoring us. Make it popular people! Even if you don't become big users right away learn how it works and pass the word on. There is also a system available from jitsi.org. This one does not seem to be as general purpose as Jami but it is an alternative for reliable video conferencing.
Reddit is one of the most-censored sites.
You may want to explore Ruqqus and Saidit instead.
There are already some interesting solutions, like
ZeroNet (offering ZeroMe as social site) https://zeronet.io
Tox https://tox.chat
Manyverse https://www.manyver.se
all three can work in full p2p + Manyverse can have Pub servers (central nodes) too. They are open source so code can be used or forked.
Hubzilla also deserves a look for its 'Nomadic Identity' function (sharing a profile on multiple servers and modifying synchronously): https://alternativeto.net/software/hubzilla/reviews/#