by Chris Black
According to Twitter’s CEO official announcement on Thursday via a blog post, the US social media giant took the decision to ban the Kremlin-backed news outlets Sputnik and RT from advertising on their platform.
Twitter’s move on Thursday makes for one of the most aggressive decisions ever made by a US social media company against news outlets which are claimed by various intelligence officials to be linked with Kremlin’s efforts to meddle with the 2016 presidential election.
It’s interesting to notice that RT, also known formally as Russia Today, is currently being squeezed by US officials to register as a foreign agent as per a WW2 era law, which at the time was aimed at mitigating Nazi propaganda. Following the advertising ban, both RT and Sputnik News will be able to keep and to use their official Twitter accounts, as their following-base will not be affected.
It’s also worth mentioning that Twitter representatives are set to testify about the claimed Russian election meddling in the 2016 election cycle next week on Capitol Hill, together with their fellow colleagues from Facebook and Google. RT fought back against Twitter’s decision by asking a weird question:
Hope @jack won’t forget to tell @congressdotgov how @Twitter pitched @RT_com to spend big $$s on US elex ad campaign.
twitter.com/M_Simonyan/status/923519609269116928
It’s going to be interesting to see Vladimir Putin’s response to this “online-aggression” and also whether Google (including YouTube which is Google owned) and Facebook will take similar steps, thus following Twitter’s lead in denying Russian news outlets from advertising on their platforms. I bet these guys never heard of the Streisand Effect, i.e. the harder you try to censor, remove or hide information, especially in the Internet era, you’ll discover that your attempt will have the unintended consequence of getting the respective information publicized more widely.
If Twitter seems to believe that buying a few adds on their platform constitutes election-meddling on RT’s part ( by the way, the United States is well known for using CIA front groups to organize mass protests and coups in foreign countries), using the same logic, Twitter should ban AIPAC, which is one of Washington’s DC’s largest lobbying groups (lobbying for a foreign power, mind you), that has far greater influence on US politics than any other entity (just look at the number of Israeli dual citizens which make for the top donors for both REPs and DEMs) from advertising on their platform.
If you ask me, Twitter, YouTube et al are already censoring and banning their way into irrelevance.
Here’s from the Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey’s blog post, as he explains the reason for which his company chose to declare cyber-war on Russia’s biggest news outlets:
“Twitter has made the policy decision to off-board advertising from all accounts owned by Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, effective immediately. This decision was based on the retrospective work we’ve been doing around the 2016 U.S. election and the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that both RT and Sputnik attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government. We did not come to this decision lightly, and are taking this step now as part of our ongoing commitment to help protect the integrity of the user experience on Twitter.
Early this year, the U.S. intelligence community named RT and Sputnik as implementing state-sponsored Russian efforts to interfere with and disrupt the 2016 Presidential election, which is not something we want on Twitter. This decision is restricted to these two entities based our internal investigation of their behavior as well as their inclusion in the January 2017 DNI report. This decision does not apply to any other advertisers. RT and Sputnik may remain organic users on our platform, in accordance with the Twitter Rules.
Twitter has also decided to take the $1.9 million we are projected to have earned from RT global advertising since they became an advertiser in 2011, which includes the $274,100 in 2016 U.S.-based advertising that we highlighted in our September 28 blog post, and donate those funds to support external research into the use of Twitter in civic engagement and elections, including use of malicious automation and misinformation, with an initial focus on elections and automation. We will have more details to share on this disbursement soon.”
Twitter Bans Kremlin-Backed RT & Sputnik News Outlets Ads on Its Platform
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RT will just use a third party to buy ads if they so wish, just like the Clinton Crime machine and the DNC have done. RT has proven that is it far more unbiased than CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS that are not but mouthpieces for the kleptocratic corruptocracy. The cold war is over, but the power brokers are sore winners and want it all, submission of all countries and peoples to their debt servitude system. Russia is now a state where Christianity can flourish again and that is unacceptable to the Luciferian Talmudists. “Russia is the hope of the world.” Edgar Cayce
“Hope Jack Dorsey [Twitter CEO] won’t forget to tell Congress how Twitter pitched RT to spend big $$s on US election ad campaign,” tweeted Simonyan.
RT turned down Twitter’s advertising pitch, which proposed potentially investing millions of dollars. In fact, it spent only $274,100 on all US Twitter ads in 2016 – not just during the election campaign – and has further cut the ad budget on the site this year.
There’s no rhyme or reason to Twitter’s decision. It’s purely arbitrary: classic corporate cowardice to appease jingoistic pressure.
FACEBOOK, TWITTER, YOUTUBE, REDDIT, GOOGLE are PLACES OF PUBLIC GATHERING, “SOCIAL Media”, and ADVERTISE themselves as PUBLIC places.. They are also PUBLICLY TRADED CORPORATIONS, unlike the PRIVATELY owned and operated “Mom&Pop” Bakery and Party Planner SUED by homosexuals.
FACEBOOK is a PUBLIC SPACE therefore it has no right or legal option to censor participants. FACEBOOK is a PUBLICLY TRADED company, NOT a “private entity” and it solicits PUBLIC memberships.
Just as the “courts” say cake bakers HAVE to bake homosexual cakes, and wedding planners HAVE to “accept” homosexual weddings, ZUCKERberg has to accept opinions, videos, and pictures he does not like. These Social Media/Meeting Places must accept anything which is Permissible under the First Amendment.
A lowly COUNTY CLERK was jailed for refusing to “do her duty” by not issuing homosexuals marriage licenses The Baker, Planner, and Clerk SHOULD have just said: “You homosexuals VIOLATE OUR COMMUNITY GUIDELINES” !!! They advertise themselves as “Social Media & Public Spaces” so everything that is covered under the First Amendment can be posted there. A Party Planner and a Baker were successfully sued for refusing service to homosexuals ….. these “Social Media” can & should also be sued for violating People’s 1st Amendment RIGHTS to speak freely in PUBLIC SPACES.
Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc. engaging in politically motivated censorship is like your meter reader shutting off your electricity because you have a Trump sign on your lawn. These social media have become like public utilities and therefore have no right to engage in political censorship. It is way past time to impose common carrier status on social media. Just like the phone company cannot censor your conversations there, social media should not be allowed to interfere with content there. Social media is the modern day phone company.