In another startling twist in this chapter of the dystopian novel we seem to have found ourselves living in for the past several months, Parler has been removed by Apple, Google, and Amazon, causing CEO John Matze to consider building his own provider in order to keep his business alive.
This comes after the Big Tech mafia realized that many Trump supporters were flocking to the app after President Trump was banned from essentially every mainstream social media platform available. With further news of right-wing social media accounts being purged on top of the heavy censorship so many have already faced, Parler had been on the rise as an increasingly popular alternative.
The decision to remove Parler was based on the objection that the app could cause the spread of “violence.” This baseless excuse is the same one with which social media platforms justified banning President Trump after the January 6th storming of the Capitol Building.
If the concern of these media companies is truly the potential spread of violence, then why are groups such as BLM and Antifa still freely using their platforms? Furthermore, why is the BLM app still available?
By September of 2020, it was reported that the damages caused by the riots that were carried out in response to the death of George Floyd in May would cost up to $2 billion in insurance claims, the most expensive since the Rodney King riots in 1992. This should come as no surprise considering the well-documented destruction of hundreds of cities across the country on the news and social media. Day after day, we witnessed horrendous images and videos of people running wildly through the streets, screaming and chanting, buildings ablaze all around them, glass shattering over the sidewalks, and fights involving various makeshift weapons occurring in the middle of the road.
In several of these scenarios, individuals were violently attacked and beaten by the mobs, many to the point of hospitalization. At least 19 people died during these protests, while countless others were injured.
But of course, despite the shocking and prolonged chaos carried about by BLM last year, the mainstream media remains hesitant to label any of this as anything other than “peaceful protests”. Thus, it is totally fine for them to remain active on social media platforms and have an app dedicated to their activities.
It seems that, rather than being based on a standard, bans and censorship are handed out according to the media narrative attached to the groups or individuals in question.
It is no secret that the mainstream news media has been against Trump since the beginning. They have frequently attempted to paint him and his supporters in the worst light possible, so for them, the storming of the Capitol Building was the perfect chance to sell “proof” of their negative assessment of him. The fingers pointed to him with lightning speed. With the blame placed so quickly, the Big Tech Mafia was finally able to justify booting him from their platforms and further suppressing his supporters.
Parler then found itself at the top of their hit list due to its popularity among Trump supporters and those with right-wing political views.
There are many issues with this. For one, at no point did President Trump ever call, explicitly or implicitly, for his supporters, and more specifically those present at his rally on January 6th, to carry out the actions that took place that day. The only people who should be held accountable for forcefully entering the Capitol Building are the individuals who did so. Furthermore, while this event did cause violence, injury, and death, I do not believe it surpasses last year’s riots, which went on for weeks and caused exponentially more violence.
It is extremely hypocritical to demonize the storming of the Capitol Building while refusing to hold riots that were objectively more violent to the same standard. This also applies to the people involved. While Trump supporters who were neither involved nor present in the events of January 6th are facing backlash and suppression on social media, BLM protestors who actually did take part in violent and destructive behavior hardly receive any mention whatsoever and remain untouched on their social media accounts.
The BLM app has received no criticism after the months of violence that members of the organization created in 2020. No media company has expressed concerns that its availability could lead to the spread of more violence in the future.
The left is full of so much hypocrisy that it has become hard to keep up with, but the double standard we are seeing in regards to political speech on social media is unacceptable.
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About the Author:
Erin Fitzgerald Adair is a political commentator known as @Always.Right on Instagram. She attended college for Political Science and History, formerly hosted a weekly podcast, and most recently worked on a congressional campaign. Erin is a “Cav Kid” from Georgia who now splits her time between there and Florida. She is passionate about advocating for gun rights, free speech, and our constitutional liberties, while speaking out against abortion, censorship, and cultural marxism.