Free Speech Censored!
By Pastor Hal Mayer
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry once again as we look at another sobering sign that Jesus is coming soon. While social media sites claim to be a platform for all opinions, ideas and information, if you rely on someone else’s platform to express YOUR beliefs on social media and even the internet, particularly your belief in the Seventh-day Sabbath, or the identity of the two beasts of Revelation 13, or other Bible doctrines, you are now at risk. We are now seeing a massive change in the way private business deals with those who they want to silence or whose message they do not want to be proclaimed. This raises troubling questions about the future of free speech and also the freedom to unpopular ideas, especially the end time warnings of God’s word. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. My message today is about how the enemy will use the merchants of the earth to silence God’s people and His message.
As we begin, let us pray. Father in heaven, we see so many evidences that the end of probationary time is near. Your coming in the clouds of glory is very soon, and so many of us are not ready. Father, please send Your Holy Spirit to teach us today as we study the coordinated censorship that is going to limit our ability to give the three angels messages. We know You have a plan to work around the censorship. So, please Holy Father; teach us how to have faith and also to understand our times and how to live for You. In Jesus name, amen.
You might not have heard of him. And if you have, you might not care about his message. But whether you do or not, you had better care about what is happening to him. Because if you are a true Christian, the censorship of Alex Jones and a host of others is likely to happen to you. Censorship, especially non-governmental censorship of unwanted viewpoints and ideas, is a growing challenge to anyone that is willing to publically state politically incorrect views.
During the middle ages, censorship of the press was a powerful feature of the inquisition and Rome’s control over society. It gave Rome enormous power over individual lives through their local governments. In part, it had a big part to play in the conditions that led to the Reformation. People were in darkness because the Bible was even censored and sequestered. The only source of information about salvation was Rome’s false teachings. Censorship is now a feature of our online society where most people go for information. And the battle is pitched strongly as the culture wars expand to the next level.
Can you think of any unwanted viewpoints in the Bible? I certainly can. Some of them are even being censored now. The whole Bible, in fact, is increasingly politically incorrect. But there are some key ideas the Bible proclaims that are not yet on the radar of the “speech police.” What about the three angels messages of Revelation 14 and the fourth angel’s message of Revelation 18? These are very pointed if they are understood correctly, but they are shrouded in symbolism so that the casual reader does not easily understand them.
Censorship is key to the end-time conflict. Without censorship of the press, social media and any other digital platforms, the enemy would not be able to prevent God’s people from presenting the truth in opposition to his lies.
Let us begin by reading Revelation 14:6-10 and Revelation 18:1-4.
Here is Revelation 14:6. “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people…”
To preach usually means to speak (and act) in such a way as to give the message of salvation to a lost world – the everlasting gospel. That message is to be given to everyone on the whole planet. So the enemy wants to restrict speech so that God’s message cannot be given. And when the last message of warning is given to the world under the power of the latter rain, the enemy will try to prevent that preaching from being heard. He has done it in the past by the inquisition, by censorship laws, prison, burning at the stake, and brutal torture, because the Waldenses and others refused to stop spreading Bible truth everywhere they could.
The enemy will use every tactic he can in the war for supremacy of the world. And he is developing the tools right now to censor anyone who he chooses. One of them is direct censorship of the press and of free speech online and in other places. The problem that the enemy of your soul faces is the growing and increasingly bitter controversy between the followers of Jesus and the followers of Satan. But it is not focused on God’s last generation yet. At the moment it is a culture war between liberals and conservatives, between the left and right, between the followers of Jesus and the followers of the enemy.
But above all of Satan’s distractions, deceptions and devices to confuse and keep people locked in his clutches, the loud voice in verse seven is heard. God will see to it. Let’s read it. “Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
This is not some wimpy, lifeless message that you often hear today from the pulpits of the land. It is not an ecumenical message about uniting all religions into one grand global religion. It is not some careful suggestion so as not to offend anyone who has a different religious point of view. It is a direct and startling invitation to separate from apostates and false worship and join the worship of the Creator. It is a call to reunite with Christ, separate from his religious and worldly enemies, and keep His seventh-day Sabbath and all of His Ten Commandments.
Listen to this from the Great Controversy, page 606. “By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred. Thousands upon thousands will listen who have never heard words like these. In amazement they hear the testimony that Babylon is the church, fallen because of her errors and sins, because of her rejection of the truth sent to her from heaven.”
When the latter rain is poured out upon God’s people, the Holy Spirit will come in such power that there is no way to stop them other than to kill them. And even that doesn’t stop their message about the importance of loyalty to God by keeping His everlasting law. It just makes them examples of how His grace and power can transform even the weakest of sinners and make them loyal subjects of heaven.
Our mortal enemy knows that he has to develop a coalition of evil forces, national and religious leaders, mega-corporations and mega-churches, central banks and economic systems, all of it and more, in order to keep the people’s attention on him, not on Christ’s true followers. He has to get the Americans, of all people, to mix church and state and begin to enforce his agenda as god of this world.
Now let us read verse eight. “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
Again, notice that it is spoken. Babylon is referring to the apostate Church of Rome. People that give this message need to be able to speak freely. The enemy is in competition to the God of heaven for the loyalty of fallen human beings. So, he hides information or disguises it so that God’s love is misunderstood.
No book, other than the inspired word of God can so ably expose Satan’s deceptions. Tragically, most people don’t read their Bibles very much. They aren’t interested in the things of God, and they don’t want to purify their minds and hearts to get right with God. But it is the last warning message of the Bible that must be proclaimed with a loud, clear voice or with great power.
Now, verses nine and ten; “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.”
Notice that again this last message is given with a loud voice. Again this is the powerful condemnation of Rome because it is always trying to undermine God’s law in the minds of the people. Rome claims to forgive sins. Only God can do that. Rome claims to be the moral voice for the people of this world. God says that the Bible is the moral voice. And Rome distorts the truth of the Bible through the mass, the worship of the so-called Virgin Mary, confession, pilgrimage, penance, indulgences and much, much more. Rome is fingered in these verses as the enemy of salvation and is the only possible entity to which they apply.
So Rome has to do all she can to silence the voice of rebuke. She works with the political leaders, business leaders and religious leaders to control the social system to her advantage.
And when the angel of Revelation 18 begins to sound it is the time of the latter rain. Here it is from verses one and two. “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”
Notice that these messengers had great power and the earth was lighted with bright glory. Keep in mind this is the darkest time ever on planet earth, so this message will surprise the people in darkness. They bring great light from the scriptures, expose Rome’s corruptions and pointedly warn the people to get out of Rome’s communion.
Let me read on in verse three. “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.”
This condemnation of Rome’s meddling in global political and economic affairs is leading to punishment for her sins. God is merciful and pleads with any true follower of God to leave Rome and join His true people. Here it is in verse four. “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
These voices offer a stern message, like John the Baptist in the wilderness. The message is full of hope. If they obey it, they will be saved. Sin-sick souls who cannot find peace under the so-called “spiritual care” of Rome will hear the message and will leave her communion and find the true Christ. They want to be free of their sins, but Rome doesn’t offer them a way to overcome them. It only gives them fake absolution and deceives them into thinking they are no longer under condemnation of God. Instead of true repentance, Rome teaches them penance, etc. But Christ teaches that true repentance is a heart-sorrow for sin that results in a turning away from it. Christ offers them hope of being with Him eternally.
Because of these messages and the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit, Satan is doing all he can to make it very difficult for God’s message to get out. He will censor it. He will ban God’s people from social media platforms. He will take down videos and other media that doesn’t fit his modern political correctness. But the message will still be given somehow.
And since he knows the future because of Bible prophecy, which he understands far better than you and me, he is working to counteract everything predicted to take place. Even the pope recently said the death penalty should not be a legal form of punishment and he went so far as to put it into the catechism. This flies right in the face of Revelation 13:15 which says that those who do not worship the beast or his image, will be killed. Since I believe the Bible is more accurate than the pope, his words are just fake news, or propaganda, to make you think Rome has changed. A whole bunch of priests and scholars have asked Pope Francis to backtrack on this teaching. In other words, they don’t want to see the death penalty disappear.
But really it is just a teaching to give Rome a leg up in social influence and power. When the time comes for the death penalty for disobeying Rome’s worship laws that will be enforced by the United States, Rome will actually support the death penalty for the “crime” of keeping the seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord.
75 Catholic priests and scholars ask Francis to backtrack on death penalty
But many of God’s people fall for the idea that Rome has changed. They actually believe and teach that Rome has fundamentally changed. They do not see that Rome is like a chameleon that changes his skin color to blend in with the environment around him. Rome does the same thing with her teachings and practices.
Listen to this statement from the book The Great Controversy, page 571. “The papacy is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the apostasy of the latter times. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4. It is a part of her policy to assume the character which will best accomplish her purpose; but beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon she conceals the invariable venom of the serpent.”
In other words, Protestants who are uniting with Rome in an ecumenical alliance are in for a huge surprise. They will be drawn into doing things that they would never otherwise do, except for their friendship, their fascination, with Rome.
I would like to point out that as we rapidly close in on the last moments of earth’s history, Satan is working to organize everything so that God’s people cannot move, they cannot speak, post to social media or the web, they cannot escape the global onslaught against anyone that keeps God’s holy law, especially the fourth commandment. Right now, there is not much discussion of Sunday laws in the news, but each day seems to bring more news about the loss of constitutional and/or God-given rights. This is staging for the end time crisis. Listen to this statement from Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, and page 22.
“We have no time to lose. The end is near. The passage from place to place to spread the truth will soon be hedged with dangers on the right hand and on the left. Everything will be placed to obstruct the way of the Lord’s messengers, so that they will not be able to do that which it is possible for them to do now.” Does this include censorship?
Let me continue reading. “We must look our work fairly in the face and advance as fast as possible in aggressive warfare. From the light given me of God I know that the powers of darkness are working with intense energy from beneath, and with stealthy tread Satan is advancing to take those who are now asleep, as a wolf taking his prey. We have warnings now which we may give, a work now which we may do; but soon it will be more difficult than we can imagine. God help us to keep in the channel of light, to work with our eyes fastened on Jesus our Leader, and patiently, perseveringly press on to gain the victory.”
Do you get the sense of this? This is urgent. We have to work now while we can, because the enemy is doing everything he can to prepare for the final conflict to censor your voice and prevent you from speaking the truth.
Think about it. Since 9/11 he has been able to strip out most of the provisions of the U.S. Constitution (without changing a word of it) and, more recently, he has even begun an assault on religious liberty by the socialist and secular left. He has encouraged legislators, judges and executives in government to find excuses to ignore or supersede those rights that are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and which made America great for a long period of time, all in the name of fighting terrorism.
But now we are starting to see a change. Instead of merely security matters, the media giants have engaged in a techno war against conservative thoughts and views. Yes, that’s true. It is a war on conservatives, for now. Because of the direct attack on religious liberty in the marketplace, the religious right has become far more united, and as I said in a previous message, they learned how to lay aside their doctrinal differences and work together from Rome. They are now moving to take on more power and restore those liberties they have lost. While the left want all Christians to accept their lifestyle, the right wants to enforce morality on America. They will eventually think it entirely appropriate to enact Sunday observance and worship laws in violation of the Law of God to get those wicked secular leftists some religion.
Friends, let me throw in an appeal to you at this juncture. Please don’t get involved in politics. That only leads you to sin against your fellow man. Plus it limits your witness. How can you win someone to Christ whom you hate or are angry with because of their political views? Politics is a distraction from the real everlasting gospel. Getting involved in defending your particular political viewpoint or mine, will not get us closer to heaven. It will just stir hatred and animosity, or at the very least, anger at those whom we perceive to be on the other political side.
Here is statement from Selected Messages, Vol. 3, and page 414. “We are nearing the most important crisis that has ever come upon the world. If we are not wide awake and watching, it will steal upon us as a thief. Satan is preparing to work through his human agencies in secrecy.”
Did you catch that? “Satan is preparing to work through his human agencies in secrecy.” He is organizing governments, social structures, the economy, and the attitudes of people in society quietly, behind the scenes, to shut down the voice of God’s people warning the world of the coming judgment.
And now he is bringing the social media giants and mega-companies into his corner. Alex Jones has been proclaiming his message for quite a few years on the web and especially on social media. Millions of conservative people listen to him. He has exposed some rather serious hypocrisies, lies and scandals and has been one of the voices that has helped to solidify his conservative supporters behind Mr. Trump. He speaks boldly and without fear. He criticizes, accuses and makes all manner of remarks about liberals and leftists. Alex Jones has been branded with all manner of epitaphs by the mainstream news media. And no wonder, they hate what he stands for.
By the same token, many on the left hate Alex Jones. They take issue with his conservatism and with his popularity. They try to paint him as a right-wing conspiracy theorist that is deranged and sick.
It happens that Google, and its wholly owned company YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and a number of other large platforms that are run by leftists had censored and banned him from posting on their platforms. They claim he doesn’t meet their guidelines, but don’t explain what precise guideline he has violated.
By the way, I am not defending Alex Jones. I don’t bother to listen to him. I am not interested in the political angles he discusses, mostly. I’m saying that the mega tech firms have started to demonetize, shadow ban, and outright remove conservative content from their platforms so that their voice is essentially unheard. And this is while they claim their platforms are open to all view points.
The fact is, that these companies are run and staffed by left-leaning young people. Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that Silicone Valley is “an extremely left-leaning place.” Zuckerberg was appearing before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees to discuss privacy issues, but was asked by Senator Ted Cruz about censorship. “A great many Americans are deeply concerned Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship,” Mr. Cruz said. After Zuckerberg said that his company tries very hard to be a platform for all viewpoints, Mr. Cruz pressed him further, pointing out that content from conservative companies, including Chik-fil-A had been censored. Mr. Cruz has also pointed out in the past that Facebook has policies and algorithms that ‘shadow ban’ conservatives.
Silicon Valley an ‘extremely left-leaning place,’ admits Zuckerberg
Facebook and other social media platforms would have a natural bent to promote their left-leaning ideology limiting conservative views. They have now developed tools to take down sites that promote messages they don’t like.
Silicon Valley an ‘extremely left-leaning place,’ admits Zuckerberg
Did you notice some time ago that Eric Schmidt paid a rare visit, for a business leader, to Pope Francis? I reported on this shortly after it happened. But now it is becoming more significant to me as I watch what these companies do. Do you know who Eric Schmidt is? He is the CEO of a massive, international company – Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Why would the pope want to meet with Eric Schmidt? As he was leaving his 15-minute meeting with Pope Francis, he said “I want to work with you to make these points… We will make it happen.”
Google’s Eric Schmidt Meets with Pope Francis at the vatican
I wondered what they had been talking about. Pope Francis had been expressing himself a lot about extremism. Could they have been talking about how to stop extremists from using Google and YouTube?
But Eric Schmidt was not the only CEO of the Internet giants invited to the Vatican for a meeting with the pope. Tim Cook the CEO of Apple also had a meeting with the pope for about 15 minutes. Keep in mind that Tim controls iTunes as well as the apps and the systems that come embedded in Apple iPhones and other devices. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook and Kevin Systrom, the co-founder of Instagram also met with the pope, all on separate occasions.
Pope Francis said on the day that Tim Cook was with him,” “Social networks can facilitate relationships and promote the good of society, but they can also lead to further polarization and division between individuals and groups.”
The media had pointed out that the terrorists, ISIS, Al Qaeda, etc., had been using the Internet to cultivate extremism and terrorism. It became clear to me within a couple of weeks that Eric Schmidt, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg and Kevin Systrom, had been invited to the Vatican to discuss control of terrorist content. They likely discussed developing tools to identify and take down extremist websites. Google announced that it would start to address this type of content.
I realized that though this is ostensibly about controlling terrorists, I also know, from my study of scripture that the tools they develop to control the content of terrorists on social media and the Internet, will one day be used to censor and filter out God’s last message of warning to the world. After all, it is focused on Rome.
Pope Francis Met with Apple CEO Tim Cook
Pope meets with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
Pope Francis, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom Meet at Vatican, Discuss ‘Power of Images’
These CEOs of the largest and most powerful and leftist social media platforms have enormous influence. They are now, essentially, the public square. They now control most speech because they are so large, and other forms of communication are on the decline. “This is a day when platforms like Google and Facebook have more power over who can speak and who can be heard than any king, or president, or Supreme Court justice,” said Jeff Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center, lamenting the control they now wield. “And yet as private companies they’re not bound by the First Amendment.”
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Twitter blocked political ads from conservatives. For instance they blocked an ad by conservative Tennessee candidate Marsha Blackburn because she said, “I fought Planned Parenthood and we stopped the sale of baby body parts, thank God.” Twitter said she could run her ads if she removed the offending comment. Blackburn went on Fox news and complained publically, and Twitter backed down and let her run her ad anyway.
Facebook blocked an ad from Republican Congressional candidate Elizabeth Heng because her video mentioned the Vietnam genocide, which her family survived.
Twitter Blocks Elizabeth Heng’s Campaign Ad
Twitter, Facebook reverse ban on ad by GOP congressional candidate
Facebook recently shut down a video by Tennessee pastor Greg Locke who had “characterized transgenderism as a mental illness and that the activism supporting special ‘rights’ for the condition should not be equated with the civil rights movement.”
YouTube not only removes videos and shuts down accounts, but it also demonetizes some. This means that videos that offend their reviewers cannot have ads run on their videos (which brings them money).
Luke Rudkowski, a conservative, said he had hundreds of his videos suddenly unable to run ads. “Having had 660 of my videos demonetized in one day left me a little stunned since this is the core for my income but left me with the impression that this was done on purpose,” he said.
Facebook took down a live sermon by a pastor who criticized the LGBT rainbow and was told by Facebook that his video had violated its terms of service. Facebook also blocked about two-dozen Catholic pages with millions of followers. Facebook said their spam detection system was accidentally triggered. Why was it only triggered for conservative sites?
An activist mom was suspended from Twitter and Facebook for criticizing a Teen Vogue editor for promoting teen sodomy. Twitter said her account was suspended because she violated their standards, which forbid abuse and harassment. Meanwhile, actual videos showing teen sodomy abuse can be found on Twitter.
Facebook also censored paid ads by Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for her new prolife movie about the controversial landmark Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade. “They do not want the message of the injustice of abortion broadcast and they are trying to block that,” said King at the time. Facebook restored the ads saying they were taken down in error. Is that so? Why are so many conservative videos taken down in error but not liberal videos?
Twitter rejected an ad by a Christian radio station about an interview with a conservative author who had just published a new book on the transgender movement, because, they said, it contained “hateful content.”
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7 Times Social Media Sites Censored Conservatives
You see, today these massive Internet goliaths are treated as conduits, not as publishing companies. This immunized them from liability for what is published on their sites. Its called the “safe harbor” provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act which was designed to protect newspapers from comments made on their comments sections. But now it has been broadly applied to include any organization acting as a conduit for thoughts and ideas.
Internet platforms don’t want to be treated like publishing companies because publishing companies are responsible for what they publish. They can be financially responsible for their publishing decisions. They can be sued for libel or copyright infringement. And its reputation is reflected in what is published. But Internet platforms can’t be held liable for everything put on their platforms. So they are not publishing companies now. To get this special status these corporate titans had to agree to treat all content equally, nor inhibit the freedom of speech of those with whom they might disagree, even strongly. This means they have obligations as well as immunities that other businesses and individuals do not have.
But now they want to have it both ways. They don’t want the financial liability of publishing companies, but they are increasingly acting like publishers in deciding what views and people can be on their platforms and which ones cannot. The problem is, they play a disproportionate role in deciding what subjects are open for debate. They have taken to themselves what should belong to the legislature and the courts.
When Digital Platforms Become Censors
Do you think one day your messages about who and what is Babylon could get labeled “hate content” and censored by the techno-giants?
The way this works is that anyone can flag a video as suspicious. Facebook, Twitter and the other social media companies review the matter and remove whatever they think is offensive. This creates an opportunity for Internet troll mobs to gang up on someone and get their posts deleted and their accounts censored.
And now the social media companies have begun to coordinate between themselves, creating a cartel, to censor unwanted conservative content. They have not only learned how to censor extremist websites, but now they are trying to shape the way their servers work so that at least some conservative voices cannot be heard at all.
The censorship of Alex Jones had a major effect on social media. But Jones wasn’t the only one. Natural News, a website and social media content producer dedicated to advocating natural remedies for ailments and for speaking out against what it calls medical and agricultural fraud, was also taken off key social media platforms. Natural News is perceived by the allopathic medical society as an extremist site that advocates things that are certainly politically incorrect, medically speaking, or things that it thinks are unsound. I’m not judging whether or not their material is valid. I’m saying that they have been censored because they are not in line with mainstream ideas in the medical community and are considered extremist.
There are those that claim the social media sites also censor liberal or leftist content and it may be true considering there are billions of users. But it is the conservative content that is especially the main focus of these companies with so much control over their speech. As I did research for this message, I could not find many examples of censorship of liberal content.
Let me be clear. It is not a violation of the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution for a private company to censor speech or content it does not want on their platform. The U.S. Constitution and its amendments apply to government, not private industry, churches, business, etc.
But these media behemoths are actually breaking the law every microsecond because of their algorithms that are working all the time, every day, 24 hours a day. They take away the privacy of all of their ‘customers’ in ways that would make the NSA blush. They have immunities and protections from the government that other private companies don’t have. Meanwhile, they have become the controllers of most online speech. They have found ways to bully, blacklist and “shadow ban” conservative content, while denying that they are doing it, or that it was done by accident or in error when challenged. They have a corporate exemption, which eliminates their legal risk.
But Google and Facebook and other social media platforms, by means of the algorithms they have established, boosts one side of a debate while restricting the other. The social media cartel is using their special status to promote partisan politics, adopt a consistent left-wing lens in its presentation of the news, banning conservative and religious content objectionable to the liberals and using algorithms in search and display that punish pastors and churches as well as secular conservatives and other non-leftists. That’s why independent media is under siege and faced with dwindling traffic and revenues. It’s not so much that the independent media cannot be found on Google and Facebook or other platforms. It’s just that they are buried, while the left-wing media is advanced. Don’t expect these media behemoths to respect your religious convictions either.
They can also coordinate with the Vatican or with any other government if they want to. For instance, Google has been working with China to structure their platform as a censored search engine to limit what Chinese citizens can access by way of its content in the hopes these Chinese government will let them operate in China.
The reason is that China censors western content and does not let its citizens access content from western sources. People living in China cannot access Google, Facebook or Twitter and other western social media sites. They have their own alternatives to these very same services from Chinese companies that restrict access to western content. This is true censorship because it is official government policy. But Google is willing, apparently to collaborate with the Chinese government so that it will let Google provide search services there.
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And some believe Germany’s new censorship law that legally requires these global networks to purge any alleged “extremist content” that is reported to them within 24 hours is similar to the censorship laws the Nazis enacted in 1933.
The new German law says that the tech giants must remove content that: a. is misleading to the public by mixing selfish interests with community interests; b. tends to weaken the strength of the German Reich, in foreign relations or domestically; the sense of community of the German people; German defense capability, culture, or the economy; or offends the religious sentiments of others; c. offends the honour and dignity of Germany; d. illegally offends the honour or the well-being of another, hurts his reputation, or ridicules or disparages him; e. is immoral for other reasons.
Did you get all those vague and highly debatable list of offences? If you speak out against the government of Germany, your social media content must be deleted within 24 hours, not to mention federal prosecution for offenders who post the content in the first place. If you offend anyone really, including Roman Catholic religious sentiments, let alone Lutheran or Baptist or Jewish, you can have your content censored and blocked.
Already, three alt-right politicians have had their Twitter accounts blocked, and a satirical magazine called Titanic was banned from using Twitter for two days. The new law will scare Facebook and Twitter into deleting content that would otherwise be acceptable, but for an anonymous complaint by someone who didn’t like it or was offended by the sentiment expressed. The risks have become considerable in Germany to those companies.
The realms of hate speech and defamation are quite murky. But the point that is important to us is that the German government has created a method to censor your ability to define the meaning of the Bible term “beast,” or the “mark of the beast,” or the whore or Revelation 17, etc. These are key principles in understanding Rome’s involvement in the end-time apostasy. But Germany forbids it from being proclaimed, essentially. While they may not currently prosecute someone for posting a Bible study about Revelation 13, 17 or 18 on the web, it is not at all outside the range of possibility. I dare say God has a thousand ways to get out His message that Germany hasn’t even thought of. One of them is persecution. But their new law is ominous.
Germany’s strict new law about social media hate speech has already claimed its first victim
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Is a new German law encouraging social media giants to censor opinions
The German government isn’t the only authority that is pressing hard against socially unacceptable speech. The European Union backed a directive that would require all EU member states to force online platforms to promptly remove videos containing hate speech. In Britain, conservative politicians have talked about similar regulations. And Austria’s new law demands that Facebook not just block “illegal” content in Austria, but delete it all together so that no one in the whole world can see it.
But the problem in Europe is that the onus for determining when the law has been broken has been transferred from the courts to private companies. This leads to all manner of perverse outcomes, including censorship of content that would otherwise be acceptable.
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Social media sites, after consulting the Vatican, were initially focused on terrorism content, but now that they have the tools, they are coordinating their efforts to censor conservative content they don’t want expressed. They don’t want conservative organizations using their platforms to promote what they call “hate.” That would include extremist sites like those dedicated to inciting terrorism, organizations that promote white supremacy like the KKK, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-Muslim, or even anti-Semitic organizations, but it has now started to operate against religious opinion and other conservative viewpoints.
The problem is; where do you draw the line? If these platforms developed algorithms to eliminate the sites that are the most radically conservative, such as Alex Jones, what is to stop them from banning other less radical content from conservative organizations, such as Bible teaching churches and other religious entities? It may start with eliminating content that proclaims the Bible view of homosexuality and marriage. It might then shift to eliminate content that reveals the Bible truth about abortion or other social issues that arise or have arisen. The mission-creep may not be so noticeable. But eventually, the social media cabal will eliminate content that plainly speaks Bible truth about the two beasts of Revelation 13, the woman of Revelation 17, the daughters of Babylon, or other Bible interpretations of prophecy that offend one religion or another.
That is already happening. Google’s wholly owned subsidiary YouTube has been censoring conservative websites by “demonetizing” them, which means that they remove their capability to get revenue from ads that are put on their videos when the video is watched. They have also permanently terminated some conservative Christian accounts with YouTube because their content “violated” YouTube’s vague community guidelines.
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In August of 2017, YouTube announced that it would quarantine videos that it decided contained “controversial religious or supremacist content,” even though the videos didn’t violate YouTube’s terms of service. The videos would remain on the site, the company said, but “won’t be recommended, won’t be monetized, and won’t have key features including comments, suggested videos, and likes.” In other words, they won’t take them down, but through their internal mechanisms, these religious and supremacist sites would be essentially invisible or difficult to find. I should tell you that even one of our Keep the Faith videos on homosexuality was censored by YouTube a while back.
Notice that they put so-called “controversial” religious websites and supremacist websites in the same phrase as if the two are equally bad. Also, what is the definition of controversial? That could be anything, really. Much of what Jesus said was controversial to someone. After all, it was Jesus who said in Matthew 10:34, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”
Apple Pay pulled support from websites that sell white supremacist merchandise. PayPal and crowdfunding sites did likewise. While censoring white supremacists might seem like a reasonable decision for an Internet company, it is a very slippery slope. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said “any tactic used now to silence neo-Nazis will soon be used against others, including people whose opinions we agree with.”
Google and Apple have banned the Gab app, an upstart Twitter competitor, citing “hate speech” as its reason for exclusion. Gab doesn’t censor. What very few people understand is that Google and Apple, which control 98% of the mobile phone operating systems, have revoked the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as well as similar speech found in other nation’s constitutions, on mobile phones.
How Apple and Google are censoring the mobile Web
YouTube placed the videos of conservative radio talk show host Dennis Prager of Prager University in restricted mode, meaning that only those who have opted in to the mode can see the videos. Meanwhile, similar liberal content is not restricted.
Google Responds to Lawsuit Accusing YouTube of Censoring Conservatives
YouTube also started wholesale banning of anyone who posted anything questioning the official and false narrative about the Parkland school shooting in Florida.
Click here for much more on censorship practices of the big tech companies
Net Neutrality Hypocrisy Runs Amok
Another technique used to ban unwanted content is called “shadow banning.” It means that a person can still post on Twitter, but no one sees it. The users don’t even know and usually are not told that their account is being “shadow banned.”
When Project Veritas exposed Twitter’s bias against conservatives they were shadow banned by the tech giant. Undercover operatives had filmed Twitter employees admitting what conservatives had known for a long time, a bias against them.
“Project Veritas’ videos prove what conservatives have claimed for a very long time. Big tech is more than just biased against conservatives. Big tech takes direct action to stop conservative points of view…”
Also, well known conservative blogger John Hawkins recently announced the demise of his long running website Rightwingnews.com. In a column in Townhall.com, he placed the blame squarely on Facebook and other social media giants and their war on conservatives.
Right now this may be a war by the left on conservatives, but just keep in mind that the left and the right will eventually unite against God’s true people who follow all of his Ten Commandments. Imagine, my friends, not being able to use the social media platforms to spread God’s last day truth. Can you imagine what that will do to the ability of the tens of thousands of websites and social media accounts that God’s people use to spread the message? You can expect that you will be banned for doing so, eventually. It’s already being imbedded in their algorithms and other methods to control unwanted content.
And that brings us back to Infowars and Alex Jones. When the social media companies, Google’s YouTube, Facebook, Apple, LinkedIn, Spotify, Stitcher, and Pinterest and others, who, incidentally claim to be independent of each other coordinated the de-platforming of Alex Jones, they took their war on conservatives to the next level. However, Mr. Jones claimed that in just two days after he was censored and removed from their social media platforms, that 5.6 million new subscribers joined his remaining infowars website, newsletter. That is not exactly the outcome these social media platforms were aiming at. They wanted to discredit him so much that he would have to close shop.
But Jones is quite popular with conservatives, though most liberals dislike him at best, and hate him at worst. They characterize him as hateful and a conspiracy theorist, which he disputes. Jones claims that there is a war on conservatives. And he’s right.
Infowars’ Alex Jones claims 5.6 million extra subscribers since being censored, so did he win?
The true conservatives are those who follow all of God’s commandments. They love Jesus with all their hearts, but they are hated by the world. In fact, eventually, liberals and conservatives will both hate them and they will collaborate with the beast to destroy them if possible as they have already done with the terrorists. Here it is from scripture. Revelation 13:7; “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.” But those who love God with all their hearts will not be able to use the social media platforms and probably even the web itself to proclaim the message that God has given them to share.
In response to the discrimination against social and religious conservatives, dozens of prominent conservative leaders have issued a joint statement calling for changes to the way in which tech giants Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube conduct themselves. The statement calls on the tech giants to engage conservatives if they want to remain credible with the millions in the conservative movement in the United States.
“Social media censorship and online restriction of conservatives and their organizations have reached a crisis level,” the statement begins.
The participants have called for the tech giants to address the key areas of complaint including lack of transparency when removing content and deleting accounts and the imbalance of liberal content advisers these companies use.
“The conservative leaders want the tech companies to adopt four key principles to ensure that conservatives receive equal treatment, according to the Media Research Center. The four principles are; providing transparency, providing clarity on what is considered hate speech, offering ‘equal footing’ to conservatives and a call for tech companies to mirror the First Amendment (of the U.S. Constitution).
“Social media companies must address these complaints if they wish to have any credibility with the conservative movement and its tens of millions of supporters,” the statement says. “If the social media firms engage the conservative movement with the spirit of cooperation,” the statement says, “we will do our best to assist them.”
Conservative leaders issue statement to combat bias by tech giants, including Facebook
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Keep the Faith has been warning for many years now that a time would come when you will not be able to use digital platforms and that we must work while it is day. The intensifying censorship is real and is now in play.
Yet, as we lose our ability to access the World Wide Web, God still has a plan for His people to proclaim His last message. He has a thousand ways we do not understand. I don’t think I know what they are, but I can assure that God’s prophetic promises of a “loud voice” and a clear proclamation of the last message of warning to the world will be heard. My guess is that the mainstream news will be the unwilling reporters in ways that will assist in proclaiming the message.
You and I need a powerful Christlike character and power to live for Jesus though the time of trouble and proclaim His last message of warning.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, it seems that new fronts against the truth are being opened every day. While they are not directly assaulting God’s last warning message yet, they will. We pray that we may know and love Jesus with all our hearts that we will have victory over the enemy. But most of all, we want Jesus to pour out His power upon us so that we can give the last message with full power. Please show us how to live a consistent Christian life in line with the fullness of the three angels messages of Revelation 14 and the other messages of Revelation. We thank you, in Jesus name, amen.