acdha 11 hours ago

Citation needed for anything on the scale we’ve seen - for example, the topic of this discussion is a non-profit having their status threatened for non-specific reasons which appear to be constitutionally-protected speech. If it’s “fairly obvious”, you should have no trouble providing examples of something equivalent to this legal threat.

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Tycho 11 hours ago

I recall right-leaning social media sites like Gab, Parler, r/TheDonald, Infowars being taken offline.

I can’t read the WP article because it’s paywalled, however I have been suspicious of Wikimedia for a long time. I used to donate to them thinking I was helping to keep the severs running, then being alarmed to find the money was going on all sorts of nonsense. The former CEO (Maher) was blatantly a political/intelligence operator. Fits the pattern of the establishment/powers-that-be abusing the NGO/non-profit sector to illicitly further their aims, so I’m not surprised the new DoJ are looking into them.

kashunstva 7 hours ago

> I recall right-leaning social media sites like Gab, Parler, r/TheDonald, Infowars being taken offline.

Were these not the actions of private entities rather than official government acts?

Tycho 1 hour ago

Yes, but actions taken by corporations in concert with the government, due to pressures exerted by the government by extralegal means, which, I’m told, is the definition of fascism.

acdha 11 hours ago

Those sites weren’t taken offline by Democratic officials, they had to find new hosting after breaking the contracts they entered into with private companies. They were still free to move elsewhere, as they did, whereas in this case Wikipedia is being threatened with penalties for remaining in the country.

I would also note that the last straw for companies like Parler was involvement in a violent attempt to overthrow the government whereas in this case the objection appears to be constitutionally-protected speech. Again, those are nowhere near comparable situations. Where is something like, say, going after a right-wing non-profit because they published content which criticized Biden?

Tycho 6 hours ago

There was the whole IRS targeting of conservative groups under Obama.

And I’m sure the “government overthrowers” (lol) also used Facebook and Twitter, yet only these other ones were taken down. We later found out, of course, that the likes of FB and Twitter had embedded censorship teams working hand-in-glove with the security state and advocacy groups.

acdha 29 minutes ago

> There was the whole IRS targeting of conservative groups under Obama.

There was a lot of talk about that but I note you left out the part where it wasn’t real. The IRS investigated both liberal and conservative groups, but only the conservative groups lied about being singled out as part of a defense strategy.

https://web.archive.org/web/20180225112702/https://www.treas...