Large tech platforms such as Spotify, Airbnb, and GoFundMe have ratcheted up bans and censorship of users and organizations due to intense pressure placed on them by cancel culture, conservatives say.
Spotify recently came under fire for secretly removing over 100 episodes of Joe Rogan’s podcast, while Airbnb last week banned conservative author and activist Michelle Malkin for speaking at a white nationalist conference. GoFundMe is currently facing backlash over its decision to block contributions to the Freedom Convoy — Canadian truckers who are protesting the country’s coronavirus restrictions.
The companies, long viewed as neutral platforms and marketplaces for their respective products and services, are increasingly behaving as left-wing activist organizations due to public criticism made against them by certain social media users and influencers, conservatives say.
“Basically, they don’t want to be canceled themselves. Airbnb and GoFundMe are middlemen, marketplaces that depend on user popularity,” said Sam Abrams, a scholar on cancel culture at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank.
Former President Donald Trump called to “boycott and cancel” DirectTV over reports that they plan to deplatform the right-wing zealotry-fest OAN from its network.
Some may wonder how it is that Trump can call to cancel an outlet after vociferously complaining about the ills of “cancel culture,” and still be taken seriously? The answer is that he can’t really. This level of hypocrisy is a time-honored tradition in the world of Trump rhetoric where truth and lies comingle with nary a consequence from his most loyal followers.
www.mediaite.com/opinion/cancel-culture-opponent-trump-demands-boycott-of-directtv-over-oan-purge/