Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
How I’m Responding to Facebook and Twitter Censorship
The previously clandestine and now quite overt censoring of conservative voices on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Platforms has now reached dangerous levels. This is not just about Trump. Social media is critical to modern political discourse. The censorship must be resisted. That means targeting profitability, and that means boycotts. But I won’t cut off my nose to spite my face.
I will continue to use these platforms in the short term while taking the following measures to abandon them as soon as it is practical.
1. To the greatest extent possible, I will try to post nearly exclusively on Parler and MeWe
2. I will post on Twitter and Facebook only links to those Parler and MeWe posts
3. You are not forced to join those sites to view my posts, but I hope once you are on the sites reading my stuff, you will take the opportunity to join those communities. Please join/follow/friend me when you get there.
4. Eventually, once those alternative communities have reached the critical mass needed to function as effectively as Twitter and Facebook once did, I will abandon those legacy services entirely. Ironically, with their recent actions, those legacy companies may have accelerated the realization of that network effect functionality.
In the meantime, here is what else I am doing:
To the extent possible, I am viewing my favorite video podcasts on Rumble instead of YouTube. They don’t censor political speech and their terms are financially much more appealing for content creators. Also, they have plans to incorporate live streaming in the new year.
I have abandoned Google as my search engine on all platforms. I use Duck Duck Go
I am researching my options for switching email providers to jettison G-Mail. Looking at Protonmail which offers end to end encryption. They don’t mine your emails for data about you to sell. Even if privacy isn’t your primary concern, you’ll be incrementally robbing Google of a source of revenue.
I’m @Exaeroman at Parler https://parler.com/profile/Exaeroman/posts
I’m Jesse McVay at MeWe https://mewe.com/i/jessemcvay
https://Rumble.com https://rumble.com
https://DuckDuckGo.com https://duckduckgo.com
https://Protonmail.com https://protonmail.com
Feel free to comment on this post if you have other suggestions for alternative social media platforms.
If you agree with this approach to taking back Social Media Freedom, please share and ReTweet (Echo) this post.
Published in General
It has been a while since I last heard about it, but Twitter has been accused of manipulating the numbers of users it has in order to look better to investors.
I believe he’s referring to a group blog site started recently by a former Ricochet member.
Excellent.
I am on MeWe at https://mewe.com/i/hankracette
I’m also on Facebook, but Facebook is evil.
I would call it tortious business interference.
No way, absolutely unheard of in Silicon Valley etc…
Done. I also quit Amazon Prime after learning they have kicked Parler off their cloud servers.
I just now did the same.
One of my favorite things is to use Amazon for “window shopping” and then when – if – I find what I want, look for that seller’s independent web site. Then I buy it from them directly, which usually saves me some – what they would give to Amazon for being their “catalog” – and I haven’t supported Amazon.
I completely understand the concern that social media companies are directing content to reflect their own biases. I do wonder if we, as conservatives, should keep isolating ourselves more and more? Only exposing ourselves to preconceived realities doesn’t really help us make the persuadable argument.
People should also use Gab. It’s even better because it’s 100% a web site, as they’ve already removed the apps from the stores. They’re just now banning Parler and soon will hit MeWe. You can place an “app” of Gab.com on your home screen on your iPhone, and it looks and acts just like an app.
Valid point, but it’s more like we’re being driven out. Hour by hour, we are being declared unclean, and removed from the culture that is now dominated by social media.
Who hosts Ricochet?
Another thought: I wonder how much difference this present situation will make, given that “net neutrality” is basically a done deal. Censorship is now the thing. I remember well A.M. radio under the “fairness doctrine.” It was nice hearing the recipe of the day around noontime, Arthur Godfrey, etc. I’m not really sure how Paul Harvey was permitted. But that’s where we’re going, except that the net will be neutral, but some people are more neutral than the others.
Max says it’s a conservative-owned hosting business, but they could still be operating through Amazon or GoDaddy or something, which could shut THEM down.
It’s the Big Tech companies that are driving us underground, where the crazies can then give the state an excuse to come after all of us. That’s sort of what happens in Europe.
That’s a good idea. I’m curious if there are other online shopping sites people have used and would recommend?
Well ebay doesn’t seem to have gone bat-guano crazy, at least not yet, and even if they did I don’t think they can shut down anyone’s internet access. At first ebay was almost entirely about “auctions” between private parties but a lot of their business has morphed into “online stores” with similar brand-new items that you’d find on Amazon, but not with next-day shipping etc.
There’s also walmart.com but since the Walton heiress seems to be supporting BLM that might not be a good idea.
Home Depot, Lowes, etc have their own sites. And they don’t seem to have third-party sellers like Walmart does.
For book shopping for old out of print books, you could try ABEBooks.com. Or just Barnes & Noble for newer books. Both Amazon and ABEBooks seem to have big networks of sellers of used books that stretch across the Atlantic.
But again, if you see the book offered on Amazon by someone that isn’t itself Amazon, try to find the seller’s own web site if it exists, to buy the book. That way Amazon doesn’t get a cut.
And if you have the option to get it from a non-Amazon seller at a higher price, it’s still worth it.
Concerning “censor”, welcome to the English language, friend:
So not only are the above Ricos rightly using the word censor and censorship, but your comment is one more example of attempted censorship.
That could be b/c Amazon owns AbeBooks.
I buy some things from REI and B and H photo. Their delivery services are generally more reliable than Amazon’s. I’ve had good luck with things I’ve bought online from Home Depot. Menards and Lowes don’t seem to have this internet commerce thing figured out as well as HD. And I occasionally buy from Walmart. My favorite online purchase was the battery-powered lawn mower that I’ve used a lot since I got it in 2017.
Mozilla is threatening the same kind of action (or at the least encouraging it.) My favorite web browser and email client are Firefox and Thunderbird. Anyone have a preferred browser?
I’m using Brave, a branch off of the open source code base used in Google Chrome (called Chromium).
It’s like Hotel California in that way.
You should consider switching your web browser to Brave.
If one of you would be so kind as to PM the site information to me, I am interested.
You are among the few people keeping me there. I am weighing the decision to take down my author page on FB.
I’ve been on Brave for several months. I like it. I’ve dumped Firefox and Chrome.
I’d like to abandon facebook and twitter, but I haven’t used them in ages.
I left twitter about two years ago and never developed any interest in Facebook because it was and is a clunky ugly mess. My experience is the Twitter/Parler paradigm is flawed because it requires too much attention and time to engage in distracting discourse with too many people. One thing I recommend to all my family and friends is to get your own domain name and inexpensive hosting that provides email.
Nicely played… Cheers.