Taps Coogan – January 19th, 2020

Enjoy The Sounding Line? Click here to subscribe.

I first came across YouTuber ‘laowhy86‘ a few years ago after seeing a video he posted exploring China’s crumbling ghost cities (which I posted in the Top News column at the time). Though the vast majority of his content is non-controversial, the long time China resident has slowly turned into a CCP critic as China transformed under Xi Jinping.

That has not only made life difficult for him in China, but it is increasingly making his life difficult on platforms like YouTube.

For readers that are not aware of just how much censorship and demonetization is going on in Big Tech, the following interview with China Uncensored’s Chris Chappell may be illuminating. Videos from ‘controversial’ YouTubers (that includes CCP critics) are actually pre-screened by YouTube’s moderators before they are posted. Even then, attacks by China’s online troll army (the 50 cent army), results in them getting banned or demonetized anyways.

Listen below for the details:

Big Tech is framing its censorship push as focused strictly on violent domestic radicals but the reality that millions are coming to understand is far from that. The list of Big Tech thoughtcrimes now includes: conspiracy theorists, crypto currency advocates, being too conservative, disagreeing with the WHO, being the wrong kind of feminist, and increasingly, being critical of China.

It’s time to move to better platforms. By definition, those platforms will contain people that hold opinions that you don’t like. Some of those opinions will be objectively wrong. Annoying as that is, you may chose to engage with those ideas and explain why they are wrong. You can report speech that incites violence to the platform or the police. That’s not the nightmare that Big Tech makes it out to be. It’s what’s needed to end the balkanization of political discourse. Indeed, it’s Big Tech’s targeted content recommendation and overtly partisan censorship that is creating the echo chambers and sense of embattlement that is feeding the fringes.

Would you like to be notified when we publish a new article on The Sounding Line? Click here to subscribe for free. The Sounding Line is now ad free and 100% reader supported. Thank you to everyone who has donated.