OPINION:
Twitter got you down? Social media censors have you seething? Go to Parler.
Oh wait, you can’t.
Big Tech has decided the social media option — which grew in recent months due to the blatant censorship of Big Tech, by Big Tech, and denied by the liars at Big Tech — well that same Big Tech has decided that Parler grew too big for its own britches. So they targeted it for takedown. And they took it down.
They waited until the Electoral College votes were counted and the Georgia Senate races decided — and they targeted Parler for takedown.
Go to Parler-dot-com today and the message is “this site can’t be reached.”
The app’s been booted by Amazon, Apple and Google. In essence, Parler’s become homeless, seeing a new host.
All the tyrants on the left are cheering. They’re cheering the wiping of conservative thought. They’re cheering the eradication of free speech.
They’re doing so under guise of protecting us from ourselves.
“We’ve seen a steady increase in this violence content on your website,” Amazon Web Services wrote to Parler’s chief policy officer, Amy Peikoff, in advance of the site’s removal. “It’s clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS terms of service.”
In other words: You gave voice to conservatives — and for that, you must pay.
It’s worth noting that these same Big Tech tyrants didn’t see fit to boot comedian Kathy Griffin for sharing a photo of herself holding a gory, bloodied mock-up head of President Donald Trump in 2017 — or again, right before the election in November.
Amazon didn’t get on its high and mighty horse and express outrage, or swing into censorship mode, when Rep. Maxine Waters called for harassment against Trump supporters — harassment to the point of confrontation, and not just against supporters, but also against hist Cabinet members.
And where’s all the booting and banishing of Antifa types and Black Lives Matter protesters who use social media platforms to spread their messages of hate, announce their rallies of hate and demand law-abiding citizens of America comply with their organized thuggery?
That doesn’t even get into the anti-American posts and petitions to violence made by overseas enemies of this country, all on social media, all by way of Big Tech’s platforms.
The censorship of conservatives on Twitter, on Facebook, on other social media platforms is despicable. But the outright pull-down of Parler, a competing social media platform that doesn’t play that same censorship game?
It’s chilling.
It’s chilling and anti-American.
It’s the biggest heist of free speech this country has seen. And it cannot go unpunished.
“We will try our best to move to a new provider,” said Parker CEO John Matze.
When he does, he can expect millions of Americans to hop aboard the Parler train.
The only way to stop the Big Tech takeover of freedom of expression, freedom of speech, is to stop using the Big Tech platforms — to hit the Big Tech tyrants in their pocketbooks. Parler is well-positioned to do just that.
The best revenge, as the saying goes, is massive success. In this case, America’s future freedoms depend on Parler’s massive success.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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