For some reason during the past couple months not only have all the major Silicon Valley megacorporations started engaging in a mass purging of "wrongthinkers" from their platforms, but, more scaringly, banks are joining these actions.
It's one thing if online publications engage in slanderous smearing campaigns against someone or some organization. It's a bit worse when major technology megacorporations start actively banning and shunning those people or organizations, in an attempt to purge them from the internet completely.
However, it reaches a whole new level when banks join the crusade and start refusing payment processing services from them, trying to erase them from existence. The free speech social media alternative gab.com has been the major target of a massive campaign by such tech corporations and payment processors, but it's not the only one.
Expect this to only escalate. Expect it to start affecting you.
You might think "oh, that sucks; it really sucks that the freedom of speech of these people and organizations are under attack, and I really wish them the best, and hope that they can find a solution, but I myself don't use social media, so it doesn't really affect me." However, if things continue escalating like this, you'll soon find that it will start affecting you.
If this goes like it has been so far, expect most, if not all, online services to be affected. Do you use, for example, a digital distribution platform of video games such as Steam or the PlayStation Store? Expect quite soon a change in policy and a massive purge of "politically incorrect" games. Some games in your library might actually stop working because they have been removed from the platform. And I'm not just talking about obscure indie games that nobody cares about. If this escalates enough, expect some of your triple-A titles to start disappearing from the platform, if they become the target of smearing campaigns (titles like Far Cry 5, and the upcoming new Doom game.)
"Valve wouldn't do that." Except, as said, when banks become involved, Valve will most definitely do that. It's enough for the payment processors that Valve is using to threaten them with terminating their business deal, and Valve will most definitely do it. It doesn't matter what Valve's own policies are. Even if Valve were the most pro-free-speech corporation in the entire world, it wouldn't make any difference. When banks start blackmailing such a company, what can they do? Sue the bank? Good luck with that.
"Well, I'll just move to an alternative platform." Except that, as we have seen in the last couple of months, Silicon Valley tech megacorporations and banks are in an active crusade to kill all alternative platforms that do not conform to their politics. There will be no alternative platforms, unless the US government seriously steps in and puts a stop to it (which I don't see happening very soon, even under Trump's administration.)
It's one thing if online publications engage in slanderous smearing campaigns against someone or some organization. It's a bit worse when major technology megacorporations start actively banning and shunning those people or organizations, in an attempt to purge them from the internet completely.
However, it reaches a whole new level when banks join the crusade and start refusing payment processing services from them, trying to erase them from existence. The free speech social media alternative gab.com has been the major target of a massive campaign by such tech corporations and payment processors, but it's not the only one.
Expect this to only escalate. Expect it to start affecting you.
You might think "oh, that sucks; it really sucks that the freedom of speech of these people and organizations are under attack, and I really wish them the best, and hope that they can find a solution, but I myself don't use social media, so it doesn't really affect me." However, if things continue escalating like this, you'll soon find that it will start affecting you.
If this goes like it has been so far, expect most, if not all, online services to be affected. Do you use, for example, a digital distribution platform of video games such as Steam or the PlayStation Store? Expect quite soon a change in policy and a massive purge of "politically incorrect" games. Some games in your library might actually stop working because they have been removed from the platform. And I'm not just talking about obscure indie games that nobody cares about. If this escalates enough, expect some of your triple-A titles to start disappearing from the platform, if they become the target of smearing campaigns (titles like Far Cry 5, and the upcoming new Doom game.)
"Valve wouldn't do that." Except, as said, when banks become involved, Valve will most definitely do that. It's enough for the payment processors that Valve is using to threaten them with terminating their business deal, and Valve will most definitely do it. It doesn't matter what Valve's own policies are. Even if Valve were the most pro-free-speech corporation in the entire world, it wouldn't make any difference. When banks start blackmailing such a company, what can they do? Sue the bank? Good luck with that.
"Well, I'll just move to an alternative platform." Except that, as we have seen in the last couple of months, Silicon Valley tech megacorporations and banks are in an active crusade to kill all alternative platforms that do not conform to their politics. There will be no alternative platforms, unless the US government seriously steps in and puts a stop to it (which I don't see happening very soon, even under Trump's administration.)
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