Thread by @jlakely

THREAD: A while back, @LinkedIn suspended the account of my friend @GWrightstone over his posting of this chart, showing that polar bear populations have increased since 1960. 1/

This is (1) a fact, and (2) good news ... unless you care more about the alarmist narrative that human activity is threatening the climate and, especially, the very survival of their mascot, the polar bear. Then that news is, as Al Gore would say, inconvenient. 2/

Gregory told me: "The only way I got back on was to beg forgiveness and promise never to violate their terms again." For what? What terms did he violate? Telling THE TRUTH about polar bear populations, apparently. 3/

This kind of BS is scary & spreading. I don’t mean to sound like someone who lists his tinfoil hat size in his social media bio (7 ½, BTW), but the “powers that be” are extending the definition of “disinformation” or “misinformation” to include absolutely anything they want. 4/

The expansion of the definition of "misinformation" to the leftists who control social media will get progressively worse, and (naturally) only and always applied to the right and never applied to the left. 5/

Hunter Biden is under federal investigation for misdeeds that the social media giants (and CNN and MSNBC and the NYT) were calling “misinformation” and “the work of Putin” and a “debunked conspiracy theory” two weeks before the election. 6/

The NY Post stories that told the truth were banned from Twitter, and even those who tried to share the story without linking to the NY Post saw their Twitter accounts banned. The Biden story was shadow-banned (at least) by Facebook. 7/

Any videos on YouTube talking about it were suppressed by Google, and certainly they did not let their search engines make it easy for people to find out THEN what is the truth NOW about the Biden family leveraging Joe to enrich themselves. 8/

This week, YT warned all its users: If you post a video that raises questions about the validity of the November election, we will not just shadow ban you. We will take it down. (So watch the latest @InTheTankPod while you still can: ) 9/

It that wasn't so serious, it would be hilarious ... after four years of real misinformation and conspiracy theories about Trump and Russia and Ukraine that, by these standards, should have been taken down from the YT accounts of CNN, MSNBC and other "esteemed" MSM outlets. 10/

Also this: Hunter Biden is under federal investigation for misdeeds that the social media giants (and CNN and MSNBC and the NYT) were calling “misinformation” and “the work of Putin” and a “debunked conspiracy theory” two weeks before the election. 11/

These lies by the left and the MSM and prominent Democrats was free to flow, and still are. The left's claims claims of an impending climate catastrophe are too. But any information countering the narrative, even when supported by actual facts, is suppressed or just banned. 12/

And those who dare to speak about it are punished. The time of trying to shame those who control speech and media and social sharing in this country on free-speech grounds was never going to work. And is now a dead letter. 13/

When it was unpopular, but beneficial to the digital economy and the winners of the "Wild West" that gave us the digital wonders we now enjoy, I, as a libertarian, insisted that government be kept out of the way so the digital revolution would empower the individual. 14/

It is a lot harder to make that case today because the "Wild West" in the last decade became a tightly-ordered closed garden. Closed not only to competitors that threatened the "winners," but now closed to any individual who differs from the dogma of those winners. 15/

Threats to invoke Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act have not done the trick. It has not scared the tech giants to value free speech over their own desires or ideology, as we trusted they would do. It is now time to invoke Section 230, strictly and brutally. 16/

.@BillWhittle noted in a recent vid that when the Iron Curtain was lifted in Poland, shopkeepers put signs in their windows that said “2+2=4.” It was a not-subtle signal that with the commies gone, they could state the truth again. 17/

They could state the truth without fear of harassment or punishment by those who policed speech. But today, in America, @GWrightstone can’t share data stating the fact that polar bear populations have increased since the 1960s without punishment by the social media giants. 18/

Without 230 being invoked, the social media giants of Twitter, Facebook, Google/YouTube, LinkedIn know they have the approval of the government to punish a once-free people for "wrong-think." 19/

With that being the case, how much different is our situation now from that of a Polish shopkeeper in 1985? How long until the power abused by the social media giants, with the winking approval of our rulers, simply eliminates the middle man, and our govt just does it? 20/end