Hypocrisy and Censorship – USA Gov Policy

Youtube has informed many of its uses that “Content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches changed the outcome of the U.S. 2020 presidential election is not allowed on YouTube. “

Interesting. YouTube continues to publishes the now totally disproven allegations of Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, and others that the President Trump engaged in Russian collusion.

It’s not just YouTube. An impartial Gizmodo study found that “Facebook workers routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers from the social network’s influential ‘trending news” section…workers prevented stories about the right-wing CPAC gathering, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, and other conservative topics from appearing in the highly-influential section, even though they were organically trending among the site’s users. Several former Facebook “news curators,” as they were known internally, also told Gizmodo that they were instructed to artificially inject’ selected stories into the trending news module, even if they weren’t popular enough to warrant inclusion—or in some cases weren’t trending at all.”

Increasing attention is being paid to the censorship of social media sites. Brad Pascale, writing for USATODAY found that “Americans must be wary of powerful institutions that seek to control what we see and hear.…Big Tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Google have increasingly sought to become the gatekeepers of the internet and political discourse. Without any sort of democratic mandate, these companies have appointed themselves the arbiters of acceptable thought, discussion and searches online. These companies’ pervasive command of the internet… is a direct threat to a free society. And arguably the worst offender is Google. Google & others are suppressing voices of conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. Google has directly targeted Republicans…research at Harvard University found that Google’s search rankings are not objective, and in 2017, the company was fined billions of dollars by the European Union for manipulating search results…When it’s not manipulating the internet to prevent users from viewing right-wing content, Google is directly attacking that content. A report by The Daily Caller News Foundation revealed that Google’s fact-checking service “fact-checked” only conservative news websites, and that in many cases, these fact-checks were outright wrong.”

It is tempting to believe that it is only biased social media sites, or the media in general, that attack those not conforming to leftist ideology. Far more insidious, however, is the reality that the machinery of government is wholly invested in suppressing moderates and conservatives.

The Internal Revenue Service has admitted that it blatantly assaulted conservatives during the Obama presidency, as did the Department of Justice during that era. The former head of the CIA and FBI agents essentially did the bidding of the Clinton campaign in 2016.

Despite the Left’s long history of engaging in outrageous, blatant violations of laws and ethics, their leaders remain unprosecuted by the courts. The orgy of violence, destruction, and rebellion that has dismayed America for years, the attempt to destroy a presidency based on sheer lies by Hillary Clinton, Adam Schiff and others remains unpunished.

Radical district attorneys who intentionally avoid prosecuting criminals retain the support of progressives. The extreme leftist former New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio allowed $800 million to vanish during his administration. There is not even a hint of an investigation upcoming. Meanwhile, while crime rages, the state Attorney General commits time and resources to what amounts to nuisance lawsuits against Donald Trump.

The recent Sussman trial made a mockery of the concept of equal justice. Partisan jurors were allowed to serve, and the judge had a clear proclivity to favor the defendant. If the roles had been reversed, there is little doubt the overt bias would have been non-stop headline news throughout print, internet, and electronic journalism.

Quick Analysis

Russia Expanding Aggression

President Putin is using more than one pathway to enter Europe and undermine the West. While most of the world watches the conflict he initiated in Ukraine, the Russian government is actively pursuing a second front in a little noticed campaign in Cyprus. Although the corrupt Cypriot government ended its issuance of “golden passports” in 2020, Russian intelligence is functioning quietly there to transform this EU country into a Russian beachhead of illicit economic activity aimed at penetrating the capitalist West, according to Paul Goble of the Jamestown Foundation. Cyprus is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nor does it receive as much attention as those countries who are member states. That adds to its allure as a prime location for Russia to attempt to gain a European foothold. Last week a NATO report, cited in the European Daily Monitor, noted that Russian intelligence agents have been plotting to destroy European infrastructure across the continent to disrupt states supporting Ukraine. It further suggests that Putin’s immediate goal is to lay the framework for a future move against the security organization’s members. Hungary, in particular, is another country garnering Moscow’s attention as it opposes the Western response to Russian aggression. Russia is focusing its intelligence efforts on other European, non-NATO member countries in addition to Cyprus, including Austria, Malta, and Ireland. The NATO report suggests that Moscow has had success in disseminating the Russian political narrative in these states to advance its campaign against the West. The island of Cyprus is proving to be a good target for Moscow as it is an ethnically divided island that is part of the EU since 2004. Northern Cyprus, officially called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that is only recognized by Turkey. The division precludes it from joining NATO. As Goble suggests, “it offers Russia troubled waters in which to fish.” Over the last 20 years, he points out, Cyprus’ challenges have opened it to a massive influx of Russian citizens, who now comprise approximately 10 percent of the island state’s population. Over 2,900 residents are Russians who entered until the “golden passport” program that allowed wealthy or well-connected Russians to move to Cyprus. It also provided them with documentation to travel freely throughout Europe! Although less visible on the world’s radar than the war in Ukraine, Moscow is also being helped by Cyprus’ banks opposition to seizing Russian assets and its support in evading Western sanctions. Russia has placed tens of billions of US Dollars there for money laundering. It has been more than two years since a single Russian “diplomat” has been deported and, in fact, the Embassy has grown to over 300 staffers on this tiny island state of only 1.2 million people. The Russian embassy in Nicosia has advanced communications antennae on its roof and opened a consulate on the northern end of the island. Moscow’s Ambassador, Mura Zyazikov, is a lieutenant general in the FSB with no diplomatic experience. The FSB, SVR (Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service), and GRU are actively using the island as a base of operations against NATO Member states, Israel, and other Western allies. Moscow backs pro-Russian political parties who in turn influence Cypriot decisions on education, language, and other issues. “Dmitry Khmelnitsky of the Dossier Center says that its findings should be of concern not only to Cyprus but to the West as a whole. Those who ignore what Moscow is doing because Cyprus does not follow the EU sanctions regime are missing something critical,” says Goble. “Cyprus does not seek to get rid of Russian agents and does not interfere with their work,” Khmelnitsky concludes, “despite the fact that what the Kremlin is doing is so clearly visible.” This has an impact not only on the small island but on the EU, NATO, and the West in general. Earlier this year the Moscow Times reported that when the FBI became more interested in Russian business and oligarchs in Cyprus, at least 10 of the major Russian businesses operating there left. Despite the government of Cyprus’ vow to implement plans for new sanctions against Russia, it continues to ignore Putin’s atrocities in Ukraine and to shield the wealth of the 50,000 wealthy Russian citizens and oligarchs residing there. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept. Illustration: Pixabay