Activists content censorship is real and it sucks. Thank the gods for Steemit-A Life Series by Barry Cooper-Humanitarian/NeverGetBusted
I'm less rich yet I remain Steemit fan. I miss the monetary rewards authors earned before Steem prices dropped. The rewards are not what initially lured me here. I arrived here over three months ago for another reason. A bigger reason.
The platform's promise that my content cannot be censored is just as valuable to me as the monetary rewards. It's reassuring to know this publishing will never be deleted and all my followers will receive it on their Feed.
Over the years, activists have suffered from privately owned sites such as Facebook, Youtube, and Reddit, censoring their material. Our content is often slowed and sometimes completely stopped from reaching a larger audience.
I was first attracted to Steemit because of the block-chain's no censorship promise. Apparently other activists are being driven to Steemit for the same reason.
Recently, famed independent journalist, @lukewearchange published "How I got censored on twitter and now running screaming back to steemit," after Twitter deleted one of his viral publishings.
I didn't notice any censorship in 2006 when my work received online and mainstream global attention. NeverGetBusted.com was notorious for crashing servers, landing on the front page of Reddit and ranking in the top-twenty of most talked about stories.
The viral content I posted always related to freeing drug war prisoners, exposing government corruption or teaching citizens how to counter government enforcement tactics. Apparently, the government does not like person's becoming famous for opposing their institutions.
I first noticed online censorship in 2008 when I launched Kopbusters.com. At the time, KopBusters.com was one of only a few sites featuring a collection of cop abuse videos. I also featured my online reality show documenting traps I set for crooked cops.
The stings featured cop's willingness to illegally raid homes and make arrests. According to the news-tracking website, Digg.com, KopBusters led the world as the most talked about story on the Internet and ranked #10 in most searched-for words on Google.
I noticed mainstream media's censorship of my content first. Although the cop stings were the most talked about stories in the world, I never received an invitation from any television or mainstream media to discuss the operations. It's obvious mainstream media was and still is "cop friendly" and allows very little anti-government content to be aired or published.
Online censorship was harder to spot but after some time, easy to prove. Soon, my films were banned by Paypal, Google Pay, Amazon, Ebay and other privately owned sites. For months, I was unable to collect online revenue because Internet banks rejected my applications and banned my content.
I continue being targeted for censorship. For a number of years, "How to pass a drug test by ex-narc, Barry Cooper" dominated similar publishings and ranked #3 on the first page of Google when searching the common term, "How to pass a drug test."
The traffic generated by the high-ranking article earned us a nice monthly check because it was sprinkled with affiliate links to a drug detox vendor. Google deleted the publishing after claiming an image in the article was a copyright violation. I had been using the same image for over three years.
Apparently, someone purchased the image while it was considered "fair use" and being used in my article. The person then submitted a copyright infringement complaint to Google who stripped my publishing. Google made the source of the complainant almost impossible to track. Any attempts to find the ghost were thwarted by Google’s circle-looped instructions.
I hired lawyers as we followed through with all of Google's Ping-Pong and vague requirements. They finally undeleted my publishing but did not restore it's ranking. It's now over ten pages deep and earning nothing.
Another example of online censorship can be found when looking at Facebook. At one time FB allowed me to send a post to over 10,000 fans simultaneously. Earning ad dollars was the motive FB used to overshadow the darker motive of censorship for flip-flopping their algorithms.
I often wielded this power by asking my fans to slam courthouse phones with requests to free prisoners who were unjustly incarcerated. Hundreds of activists and myself were stripped of this privilege overnight when Facebook began delivering only a tiny percentage of our content.
Although authors are struggling with Steems falling prices, Steemit is still a fantastic place to publish your material...especially if you are concerned about being censored.
UPVOTE and FOLLOW please.
Vote for this witness tdv.witness by Click here and place your vote for tdv.witness Scroll down and find "tdv.witness." Now click the arrow next to it. Two personal friends who are both geniuses and have a deep passion to see Steemit dominate the market operate this witness. This witness also funds SteemTrail.
Censorship Controlled Image source: http://arcanacreations.blogspot.mx/2015/09/censorship-and-obs.html
Facebook/Twitter meme source: https://memegenerator.net/instance/19912612
UPVOTE and FOLLOW
TV channels need licences from the government, which is a massive violation of free speech and why they're just as corrupt as the government
Agree 100%!
fantastic post!
hahaha. love the truck! Thanks @doitvoluntarily.
Bucket list item: have a book or published material on any kind of "banned" list. Steemit obviously is incredibly intimate in this sense that I feel like you just told me this story and now I'm writing you a response, but if what you created was SO GOOD that they're banning it? Well done, good sir. Well done. Upvoted and followed! Much respect for what you do.
Edit: Additionally, we need all the champions opposing censorship now more than ever. Thank you for standing up.
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Censorship does exist here. A subtle approach. It seems we vote on it. Though some can be slightly trigger happy, my personal experience has been fair, so far.
Abuse of this subtle approach does cause a few people problems or at least could, at some point.
As someone who speaks freely, I suggest everyone be considerate with their voting rights. Abuse of Steemit should be at the top of the list when choosing to censor. A difference of opinion, preferred information or entertainment should remain at the very bottom of this list, in this honest man's opinion.
Life without the censor opens many avenues, for many walks of life. Here, we can run.
Not long after writing this comment, a censorship robot attacked my blog. It applied 11 flags within a matter of seconds to one of my articles. I feel a bit out of place mentioning this here. I'm not promoting anything or trying to make a quick buck. This could get out of control if we're not all informed.
I spoke out about this instance of censorship immediately. I wrote two quick, poorly thought out articles in an attempt to drum up support and find answers. Many people came to the rescue and did everything they could to negate the effects this bot imposed on my reputation. I've since gained one reputation point, assisted by the community of Steemit. The real community.
I only write this here to inform everyone of the events that took place. It's not a big deal for someone like me, it was only a few flags, everyone helped. My stuff is still censored though. It looks like crap on my blog. The art contained within was not offensive. I spend my time here attempting to entertain. If the entertainers get censored, what happens to the activists in the future if someone feels like disagreeing with their form of information.
Thank you to everyone who helped and thank you @barrycooper for the impeccable timing of your article. I could not have planned all of this even if I tried.
Some people just don't understand the versatility of the word fuck. Flagging should be the communities means to stop plagiarism and illegal materials from gaining traction on the site. Its not a disagree or "I don't like this button" and I am not certain why people use it like it is.
This, I can only agree with. It's there to flag abuse, it's not there to abuse.
There are many other options. Speak to the person, maybe try to level with them. Ignore it, move on. Mute button for instances of constant annoyance. I usually do it in that order. We're not obligated to be nice. Being reasonable should be enough.
Indeed, this is a social media platform. Some people are going to make things you like, and some will make things you hate. Ignore what you don't like and focus on what you do. It's not hard to treat others with a modicum of respect and let them do their thing so long as its not abusive. Keep on keepin' on man and have a good night.
@nonameslefttouse,
I upvoted your article. I am a fan of "that word" so I thought it was funny. Yes, you should be able to entertain without being censored.
I thank you for your "fucking" support.
dont let the buggers grind you down - keep going content is always great to read :)
Thanks for writing this! People like you are great early adopters for Steemit!
We should try to get more users onboard who are censored or shadowbanned in other platforms.
upvoted and followed!
Thanks!
Facebook, Twitter and all that crap are private sites. Of course they sensor everything that harms their image (although they somehow refuse to remove most ISIS accounts to this day). All you can do is publish your own content without relying on any other platforms, kinda how political activists published their literature even in the gulags. Steemit is great for now, we don't know what will happen in the future. Either way, I've seen a lot more former or even current government/law enforcement insiders speaking out against it, mostly on LinkedIn (go figure) and their own sites.
@saiku "speaking out against it." Against what? Steemit? And thanks for commenting here. I'm learning more from my comment strings than I am from browsing articles...lol.
No, against the government and former employers. Sorry if I wasn't clear, it's quite challenging to be coherent while holding a screaming kid.
hahaha. You're doing fantastic under your circumstances. Lol. My love to the kiddo.
Great post!