by
Andre Damon
Media
outlets removed by Facebook on Thursday, in a massive purge of 800
accounts and pages, had previously been targeted in a blacklist of
oppositional sites promoted by the Washington Post in November 2016.
The
organizations censored by Facebook include The Anti-Media, with 2.1
million followers, The Free Thought Project, with 3.1 million
followers, and Counter Current News, with 500,000 followers. All
three of these groups had been on the blacklist.
In
November 2016, the Washington Post published a puff-piece on a
shadowy and up to then largely unknown organization called PropOrNot,
which had compiled a list of organizations it claimed were part of a
“sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign.”
The Post
said the report “identifies more than 200 websites as routine
peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season, with
combined audiences of at least 15 million Americans.”
The
publication of the blacklist drew widespread media condemnation,
including from journalists Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald, forcing
the Post to publish a partial retraction. The newspaper declared that
it “does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot’s
findings regarding any individual media outlet.”
While
the individuals behind PropOrNot have not identified themselves, the
Washington Post said the group was a “collection of researchers
with foreign policy, military and technology backgrounds.”
PropOrNot,
which remains active on Twitter, publicly gloated about Facebook’s
removal of the pages on Thursday. “Russian propaganda is VERY
VERY MAD about their various front outlets & fellow travellers
getting suspended by @Facebook &/or @Twitter,” it wrote.
The tweet tagged The Anti Media and The Free Thought Project, and
included a Russian flag emoji next to an emoji depicting feces.
PropOrNot
did not attempt to reconcile its own narrative that the targeted
organizations were front groups for the Kremlin with Facebook’s
official claim that they operated independently of any government but
sought to “stir up political debate” for financial
motives. This is because both accusations are hollow pretexts for
political censorship.
In a
separate post, PropOrNot added: “Well, look at that... @Facebook
removed some of the most important gray/black Russian propaganda
outlets from their platform! Bravo @Facebook - better late than
never, so a BIG thank you for this.”
It
added, ominously: “All of these [organizations] are cross
platform & have websites, but one thing at a time.”
These
comments by PropOrNot make clear where the censorship measures
supervised by the US government and implemented by the internet
companies are going. While these organizations still “have
websites,” the authorities are handling “one thing at a
time.”
The
clear implication is that censorship will not end with Google’s
manipulation of its search platform or the removal of accounts by
Facebook and Twitter. The ultimate aim is the total banning of
oppositional news web sites.
The
publication of the PropOrNot blacklist and its promotion by the
Washington Post helped trigger a wave of censorship measures against
oppositional news sites by the major technology companies, working at
the instigation of the US intelligence agencies and leading
politicians.
Last
year, the World Socialist Web Site reported that it an other sites,
including Global Research, Counterpunch, Consortium News, WikiLeaks
and Truthout, saw their search traffic plunge after search giant
Google implemented a change to its search ranking algorithm.
In the
subsequent period, search traffic to these sites has fallen even
further. Search traffic to Counterpunch has fallen by 39 percent, and
Consortium News has fallen by 51 percent.
These
developments confirm the analysis made by the World Socialist Web
Site in its open letter to Google alleging that it was censoring
left-wing, anti-war and socialist websites.
“Censorship
on this scale is political blacklisting,” the letter declared.
“The obvious intent of Google’s censorship algorithm is to
block news that your company does not want reported and to suppress
opinions with which you do not agree. Political blacklisting is not a
legitimate exercise of whatever may be Google’s prerogatives as a
commercial enterprise. It is a gross abuse of monopolistic power.
What you are doing is an attack on freedom of speech.”
On
Tuesday, Google admitted in an internal document that it and other
technology companies had “gradually shifted away from unmediated
free speech and towards censorship and moderation.” The
document stated that an aim of the censorship was to “increase
revenues” under conditions of growing government and commercial
pressure.
The
document acknowledged that such actions constitute a break with the
“American tradition that prioritizes free speech for democracy.”
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