"Banned” Wagon? Why dissenting freethinkers are censured on social media
Independent voices – doctors, scientists, economists, activists, and even journalists whose very duty it is to be inquisitive – are literally being silenced by the world’s social media giants, Facebook and YouTube. Why? Because they offer dissenting opinions to state and, in particular, “world health" authorities regarding the treatment, prevention, and consequences of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They reject "groupthink" by individually questioning the very basis of scientific and social models that have immediate repercussions on not just physical health, but also on political-economic well-being. Their social media accounts are threatened with closure. Their posts and videos suddenly “disappear” for “violating community standards” and providing "misinformation.” Now even Google and Twitter have hopped on the "banned" wagon by issue "fact-checking warnings" about tweets and deleting "dangerous videos" from users' personal cloud storage.
Are democratic nations tragically regressing in their advancement of constitutionally protected free speech? Li Schoolland, raised in Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution, knows first-hand the extreme danger that tyrannical censure has on free society’s critical search for the truths on which human flourishing is ultimately founded. She will offer a challenging perspective for why media must never police and bully outspoken truth seekers, especially at a time when disputable premises and conclusions may have catastrophic results.
