Discus dumps Frontpage…
…on the say-so of ye olde Southern Poverty Law Center:
As of today, Disqus is de-platforming us. They have refused to respond to inquiries seeking further explanation. Disqus has taken on faith the libelous accusations of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a widely-discredited, partisan group that frequently characterizes mainstream conservative organizations as “hate groups.”
As loyal and dedicated readers of FrontPageMag.com, you know how vital the comments section is to a website…
Rest assured, we will still have comments flowing soon. We are switching to a new service…
That new service is apparently now in place there.
More:
In just the past couple of years, MasterCard temporality shut us down, one of our local banks closed our account due to our “controversial positions on issues,” and a brokerage firm closed our account for “unknown reasons.” Amazon will not allow the Freedom Center, a 501 c3 IRS designated nonprofit, to participate in their Amazon Smiles charity campaign because of the SPLC’s designation of the Center has a “hate group” and now Disqus, the largest networked community platform on the Internet, has canceled our service.
The SPLC has a lot of power, doesn’t it?
I don’t use Disqus. I’ve never liked it, and I prefer to monitor my own comments. That takes time and effort, but so far it’s been worth it. Of course, I don’t have the traffic of Frontpage, so I assume they get more comments than I do and therefore the task of monitoring them would be greater, and so they delegate the chore.
Disqus was acquired in 2017 by Zeta Global, which also has a collection of other Internet-related businesses.
Well, it’s simple, FrontPage should just start its own Disqus and its own hate-group monitoring nonprofit that all the progs will agree is the final authority on what opinions can be expressed or must be suppressed. Free market!
There exists perhaps no more corrupt and no more vile supposedly “respectable” organization in the country than the SPLC, routinely cited for its vicious propaganda by the MSM as though it were reliable and credible information. Goolag and Amazon (and others in Big Tech) also rely on this odious group (with hundreds of millions in offshore accounts, lavish spending on salaries and perks, not to mention numerous scandals involving Morris Dees and others), while its falsehoods have even found their way into Congressional testimony. In a sane country, no-one in a position of authority or power would pay any attention to the reprehensible racket run by the grifters of the SPLC.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
That tells you a lot about Zeta Global.
One of my favorite Freedom Center operations has been, discoverthenetworks.org.
Several years ago when I first heard about BLM I was able to learn about one of its founders Alicia Garza, and how she had spent much of her life involved in organizations that promote communism under the guise of “sheep’s clothing” front groups. From DTN:
In his January 2016 article, “Reds Exploiting Blacks: The Roots of Black Lives Matter,” author James Simpson notes that four of the groups with which Garza has been affiliated—NDWA, SOUL, RTTC, and POWER—are front groups for the Marxist-Leninist Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
Isn’t that rich? “Marxist-Leninist” and “Freedom Road” in the same phrase. Actually, many Marxist anarchists take the idea of individual freedom quite seriously, but Marxist-Leninists?? How ignorant do you have to be?
I think this was asked and answered before (perhaps several times) but out of curiousity, who hosts TheNewNeo? (On second thought, maybe don’t answer LOL in case there are spies among us).
Is there a backup plan in case of being de-platformed?
Quite a few people I know are getting the Signal app for text messaging, ProtonMail for email, moving to credit unions from Big Banks, using Brave instead of Chrome or Safari, exploring private schools over public, reducing or eliminating usage of Amazon and so on.
I think I recall someone saying that Epic (or Epik?) will host sites that have unpopular viewpoints. Won’t hurt to think about it, make a list of options.
JimNorCal:
I’ll never tell 🙂 . So far they’ve been fine, but you never know what the future holds.
I do back up the blog periodically, but probably not as often as I should.
The $PLC was exposed as a skeezy direct mail mill 25 years ago by local papers in Montgomery, Ala and 20 years ago in Harper’s. Reputedly serious commercial corporations willing to rely on it are telling the world they assign these tasks to nosepickers unwilling to do minimal due diligence.
I think Disqus stinks. I’ve never liked it when sites I frequent switch to Disqus and have ceased to comment at several places which adopted it.
MasterCard temporality shut us down, one of our local banks closed our account due to our “controversial positions on issues,” and a brokerage firm closed our account for “unknown reasons.”
MasterCard is especially disconcerting and this has happened to others. An you note all these places respond with the same passive-aggressive stonewalling.
The others you have to ask them ‘are you in business or not’? I have a suspicion that this is downstream of Obama-era efforts to exploit the financial regulatory apparatus to harass gun shops. OTOH, it could simply be another principal-agent problem – some quondam barista employed in one or another place violating company policy. At this time, there are enough banks around that you can open another account somewhere else and use cut-outs if necessary.
It would be agreeable if someone injured in this way were to sue the $PLC into oblivion. Then I remember that the courts meddle a great deal and protect us very little. (Michael Mann’s frivolous lawsuit against National Review has been dismissed; it took 8 years and a 7-digit legal bill for the DC Superior Court to get around to it; DC is the entity, you will recall, to which the Democratic Party wants to grant statehood).
The states have to take action against social media. NE has a proposed bill but I don’t like it as only the AG can sue. I’d much prefer a private right of action with attorney’s fees to the successful party.
MN has a much better bill and John Hinderaker at Power Line helped draft it.
This censorship and cancelling has to stop.
This censorship and cancelling has to stop.
I think tort suits are fine when you’re dealing with collusive oligopolies, restraint of trade, and defamation. We have a crazy system now where these companies are permitted by law to behave in this manner and competitive small business is subject to all sorts of liability. It’s another piece of evidence toward the proposition that liberals are in favor of injustice in just about every venue.
The SPLC has been sued recently and lost. Take them to court and fight their slander.
https://patriotdetroit.com/content/all/splc-sued-must-pay-33-million-for-defamation
Just start posting a deluge of anonymous claims that the SPLC is privately blaspheming Muhammad…
It wont be long before some devout Muslims will put an end to the SPLC’s reign of terror.
They’ve “called the tune” of mendacious use of false witness.
“He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That’s the Chicago way!”
Let them pay the price. Consequences people, consequences commensurate with their hate.
The SPLC in Montgomery, Alabama has a beautiful fountain out front, designed by Maya Lin. My father helped install that feature and was (rightly) proud of it. The SPLC used to stand for something we as southerners could be proud of: fighting racism, helping those in need, etc.
Now I want to make sure my father’s name is nowhere near that fountain, and if it is, I want it removed. They have made a mockery of the biblical quote (as echoed by MLK Jr.) on it, and demeaned every victim’s name on it. I would say more, but I doubt they are capable of shame.
The SPLC used to stand for something we as southerners could be proud of: fighting racism, helping those in need, etc.
It never stood for any of that. It’s founders were in the direct-mail marketing business. It was a scam from the get-go.
I too wonder how it can be that so few of these instances are not pursued on legal grounds, where there have been damages to a business by starving its cash flow mechanisms or de-platforming via contract cancellation on the basis of poorly defined reasons tied to political viewpoints. Isn’t that discrimination? Aren’t there laws against discriminating on the basis of beliefs? Or are these contracts written so poorly as to give the Platformer the power to cancel for any reason whatsoever, including their bad mood swings? That would be a story, if so. If said lawsuits are not pursued because they cost money, then that too is a story – maybe conservative funding mechanisms need to step up! Instead we just get presented with the shocking fait accompli, which isn’t all that helpful, except for outrage clicks.
With so many successful prosecutions of race-based prejudice over the recent years, and so many precedents now set, it seems logical that these could be harnessed in the name of prejudicial conduct owing to differing political viewpoints.
Isn’t that discrimination? Aren’t there laws against discriminating on the basis of beliefs?
Anti discrimination law protects their clientele, not our clientele. Again, courts meddle a great deal and don’t protect us much.
Aggie: “… maybe conservative funding mechanisms need to step up!”
NBC News tonight said the oldest of the two surviving boys/teens of one of the Asian women killed in Atlanta yesterday had set up a Go Fund me account and he had already received $1.5M.
It would seem credible if such a result can be had there, that similar results might be obtained for funding the types of legal suits being mentioned here.
I get many email solicitations from conservative groups and think tanks, GOP and GOPe-er’s, and wanna be congressional candidates seeking money. How and when can we know that making those donations are not just money down a rat hole? I wouldn’t mind spending the money in an honest hard fought campaign where my guy/gal had lost but the contest was necessary and substantive. A candidate showing a credible groundswell? But somebody has to go first in providing support.
And then you hear about someone like Peter Thiel donating $10M to his preferred cause and you wonder why any smaller donations matter anywhere (except as a “vote of confidence” and breadth of support when a large number of smaller donations are received?).
Paul Mirengoff highlights Gupta’s obfuscation when Cruz asks her if she will use $PLC* recommendations at DOJ (among other jargon-filled non-answers).
Hint: she doesn’t say no.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/03/vanita-guptas-obfuscation.php
(*Correct spelling h/t Art Deco)
PS – I refuse to use Disqus to comment anywhere, and commend your determination to remain Up Close and Personal with the Neo Salon of Wisdom and Music (and Jello).
https://stillnessinthestorm.com/2021/02/the-comments-on-the-60-minutes-hit-piece-on-q-show-people-are-not-buying-the-msm-lies-any-more/
Conservatives were tricked by the fake news, again.
ArtDeco writes, “The SPLC used to stand for something we as southerners could be proud of: fighting racism, helping those in need, etc.
It never stood for any of that. It’s founders were in the direct-mail marketing business. It was a scam from the get-go.”
You got it right, bro!