Self-appointed censors try to throttle Trump campaign
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Donald Trump is ramping up efforts to reinforce and expand his presence online.
On Friday, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), operator of the former president's social media platform Truth Social, announced the beginning rollout of a new, "uncancellable" content delivery service, Truth+.
"Today, TMTG begins moving existing beta testing of its Truth Social linear TV streaming to the Company’s new content delivery network (“CDN”)," TMTG's press release stated.
"After rigorous stress testing, the initial streaming service is expected to become available to all Truth Social users on the Web, followed shortly by its rollout on Android and iOS," it continued. "Once the CDN is deployed and tested, a Truth+ streaming icon on the Truth Social platform will provide access to the streaming service."
"The initial slate of streaming options is expected to include channels comprising news, commentary, weather, and lifestyle and entertainment. TMTG plans to expand programming as its streaming rollout continues, focusing on news, Christian content, and family friendly content."
SILICON VALLEY SUBVERSIVES
The move comes in the wake of new efforts by Big Tech Bolsheviks to misdirect Americans – especially the young – toward Harris, and away from Trump.
On July 31, the Daily Caller reported that "Kamala is Brat," an emerging TikTok trend, is
likely a contrived "effort by the Harris campaign and her allies to manufacture appeal to young voters," according to a number of Gen Z online content creators.
The campaign is a prime example of "astroturfing" – defined by Oxford Languages as "the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated marketing or public relations campaign in the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public."
"Almost immediately after Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, old clips of her speaking spread online like wildfire, often adapted into memes meant to make Harris look cool or humorous," the Daily Caller noted. "Democrats proclaimed that the videos were evidence of organic excitement about Harris, but some content creators claim they were solicited to post about Harris in exchange for money, while others say the effort looks astroturfed as opposed to being grassroots."
According to Gen Z conservative commentator Chrissy Clark, Democrats are "doing all this dystopian s***" to tip the election by swaying young voters toward Kamala. Clark notes that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) employs an "influencer dark network" to generate pro-Harris viral videos. And this effort, she warns, is increasing as Nov. 5 nears.
Meanwhile, other platforms are doing their part to unduly influence the election, as well.
Google last week was caught manipulating autofill suggestions for search inquiries relating to the assassination attempt against Trump – effectively blocking users' attempts to gather information on the July 13 attempt on the former president's life.
When the term "assassination attempt" was entered into Google's search bar, the tech giant returned autocomplete suggestions such as "assassination attempt on truman," "assassination attempt on reagan," "assassination attempt on fidel castro," "assassination attempt on lenin," as well as results pertaining to other public figures – none of them Trump.
Once exposed by Trump supporters online – including X CEO Elon Musk – Google issued a statement saying it was "working on improvements."
This controversy came just weeks after yet another attempt by the search engine to sabotage the Trump campaign. As reported by watchdog the Media Research Center (MRC) on July 25 – just two days before the presidential debate that ended so disastrously for Joe Biden – Google buried Trump's campaign website in its search results. The MAGA site was scrubbed from the first page of returned results; meanwhile, Biden's campaign website appeared at the very top of the first page, MRC noted.
"When searching for a candidate's name and the words 'presidential race 2024,' Google completely buried Trump and elevated Biden as the first search result. In fact, the tech giant excluded the only two major pro-life candidates from the top-3 search results, singling out Trump and Constitution Party candidate for president Randall Terry. Every other candidate appeared in the top-three results.
But the tech giant’s censorship didn’t end there. Google again buried Trump’s campaign website as the 39th result, while elevating Biden’s to the very top in a separate set of searches for 'republican party presidential campaign websites' and 'democratic party presidential campaign websites' respectively."
Even as Google autofill controversy was unfolding last week, Facebook provoked a scandal of its own.
The social media giant was caught labeling the iconic July 13 Associated Press photo of a bloodied Trump, with first raised in defiance of his would-be assassin, as an "altered" image. The user who posted the photo, who goes by the handle "End Wokeness," was threatened with deplatforming.
After an outcry by conservatives and other free speech advocates, Facebook removed the "altered" image designation.
"This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake," company spokesperson Dani Lever said later.
And yet, even as the Facebook scandal was unfolding, another firestorm was igniting at Meta AI, a sibling firm to the social media platform.
When asked about the assassination attempt on Trump – two weeks after it happened – Meta AI returned no information.
To the question, "Was Trump almost assassinated?" Meta AI responded: "I can't assist with that. I don't always have access to the most up-to-date information. Can I help you with anything else?"
After this latest scandal was exposed online – yet again, by conservatives – Meta AI
filled in its data void.
Editor's note: To learn how Christians and other conservatives can win back America, check out our book selection by clicking here.
Writer, editor and producer Stephen Wynne has spent the past seven years covering, from a Catholic perspective, the latest developments in the Church, the nation and the world. Prior to his work in journalism, he spent eight years co-authoring “Repairing the Breach,” a book examining the war of worldviews between Christianity and Darwinism. A Show-Me State native, he holds a BA in Creative Writing from Pepperdine University and an Executive MBA from the Bloch School of Business at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
When every 'Opps.' goes only in the same direction, it ain't an 'Opps', it's an 'Opps, we got caught'.