A Snapshot of the Internet Kill Switch in 2018

Image Credit: Activist Post

By Terrence Newton | Activist Post

For more than a decade now, activists and truth-seekers have been watching the growing influence of the Internet on society and politics, pointing out that when millions of people become informed to truth, it would drastically change the political landscape in America and around the world.

And it has.

At the same time, we’ve been warned that when mass, virtually free information sharing by the general public became a genuine threat to the establishment and status quo, that an ‘Internet kill switch’ was ready behind the scenes to shut it all down.

And it is.

But while ten years ago, this prospect conjured up images of an actual switch in a DARPA facility somewhere in the Rocky Mountains that would literally power down the infrastructure and backbone of the World Wide Web, we are seeing today what the ‘kill switch’ really looks like. It really is more of a corporate/government affair that targets unwanted information.

This is the true form of the Internet kill switch as it appears in 2018.

1.) “Violation of Community Guidelines” (The Outright Ban) – First and foremost is the now ubiquitous, blanket statement that users of corporate media platforms get when their pages, channels, accounts are shut down. It never points to anything specific, or offers an opportunity to right the transgression. It is legalese for ‘f$#k off, you’re not wanted around here.”

2.) Shadow Banning – This is the act of allowing a persona non grata to continue to use a corporate media platform, but not allowing their posts or content to actually be seen by anyone.

3.) Throttling of Reach – Businesses and media organizations across the board have been seeing a steady and dramatic decline in their ability to reach their audience. The number of page likes really means absolutely nothing, and while these people have signed up to receive content from you, the social media platforms make sure that only a tiny fraction of your audience actually gets what they signed up.

4.) Blacklisting Domains – Platforms like Facebook have demonstrated the ability to prevent a specific domain from getting any reach.

5.) Deleting Posts and Content – If a particular post or piece of content is unwanted on a platform, for whatever reason, it can be deleted.

6.) Flagging Content as ‘Fake News’ – This one is particularly insidious because social media platforms are using corporate news organizations like ABC and discredited private companies like Snopes to supposedly fact check independent content. These labels are often erroneous and can sometimes be appealed, but the flag itself damages the content providers’ reputation and reach.

7.) Downranking and Search Indexing – Google is using their algorithms to target and hide information from search results.

8.) Timeouts for ‘Bad Behavior’ – Twitter, Facebook and others will often timeout a page or page admin for violating some hidden policy. Admins will be locked out of their pages for set periods or have their functionality reduced, thereby preventing them from posting content and reaching or communicating with their audiences.

This article (A Snapshot of the Internet Kill Switch in 2018) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Terence Newton and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement. 

Tags: fake news content flagged, featured, internet kill switch, shadow banning, shutdown of the world wide web, violation of community guidelines