During the past few days, the world has seen Big Tech and social media crackdown after the Capitol incident a few days ago. During the past 48 hours, U.S. President Donald Trump, a large number of right-wing supporters and literally anyone who speaks out against the U.S. government have been censored. Big Tech’s extreme censorship has led a large number of social media participants to seek alternatives resistant to censorship.
Big Tech Purge
In 2020 and 2021, the mainstream media, along with the help of Twitter, Google, Apple, Youtube, Amazon and Facebook, managed to cover up the corruption and scandalous acts caused by the US bureaucracy. After the big protest in Washington and the protesters who managed to enter the Capitol building; videos, photos and viral social media posts filled the internet capturing the day’s events. Then, after all was said and done, in a matter of hours, Big Tech and the social media giants began to purge any dissent.
These technology companies are becoming the state.
Violations of privacy, flagrant prohibitions and an extraordinary desire to appease increasingly authoritarian governments.
– russ (@RussellOkung) January 9, 2021
On January 7, Facebook announced the deletion of President Trump’s page and also said it would delete all comments that show “praise and support for the invasion of the U.S. Capitol.” Facebook said it would also exclude posts that call for peaceful protests, along with photos and videos of the Capitol violation.
American history and futures will not kindly judge those who in times of crisis have chosen to censor and silence their American compatriots.
– Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) January 9, 2021
Facebook has also implemented a new feature asking the user if they are sure they want to post. The company has started to eliminate any dissent over American bureaucracy and plans to “update the labels on publications” and add more fact checkers. Facebook said the company will take advantage of “AI to downgrade content that is likely to violate our policies”.
85,000 followers eliminated in a day and a half.
I think the folks at Twitter lost all the liberal chatter about “unity”.
– James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 9, 2021
In addition, Twitter decided to follow the path of Facebook censorship as well, and also banned the @realdonaldtrump account with 87 million followers. Twitter called the president’s account a “risk” that could further incite violence and called the violation of the Capitol building “horrible”. The company highlighted two tweets written by Trump and said they glorified violence. Following the deletion of Trump’s account, Twitter also cut the followers of many activists who showed any signs of a divergent point of view.
On January 9, 2021, Silicon Valley took over. Welcome to a new world.
– Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) January 9, 2021
In addition, left-wing supporters applauded censorship and a large majority of bureaucrats also joined the purge. Some of them even have I called Apple and Google for excluding censorship-resistant social media apps like Parler. Many progressives have fully supported censorship from divergent points of view and are asking for even more censorship.
Decentralized networks and blockchain-based social media alternatives
The intense storm of censorship invoked a large number of people to leave Twitter and Facebook in search of alternatives. Sure, there are decentralized alternatives that don’t use blockchain technology like Diaspora, Mastodon, Parler, Flote, Sola and Manyverse, but there are many social media apps that use blockchain technology.
A blockchain-based social media app operates just like the popular social media giants we use today, but it also allows people to post content in an immutable and censorship-resistant way.
There are currently some alternative blockchain-based social media sites that allow people to talk and share content in an immutable way. Some of these apps have been in operation for a few years now, and some of them are just starting to kick-start the social network. These platforms are also built on various blockchains like Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, IOTA, EOS and more.
Some of the applications also take advantage of blockchain technology and the Interplanetary File System (ipfs.io) in a combination. Blockchain apps that people can sign up for and test today include platforms like Voice, Memo.cash, Peepeth, Member.cash, Socialx, Sapien, Lbry, Dtube, All.me, Minds, Society2, Peakd, Hive and Indorse.
For example, the Peepeth app is a decentralized “microblogging” platform that emulates Twitter in some ways. The platform is built using the Ethereum and IPFS blockchain. Another app called Memo.cash is a decentralized social network powered by the blockchain Bitcoin Cash. Essentially, all Memo posts are visible to anyone using the BCH blockchain, with each Memo account being associated with a BCH wallet address. Member.cash is another decentralized public platform for discussion and reputation built using the BCH chain. The Member.cash model is similar to Reddit, but it leverages the BCH network for resistance to censorship and decentralization.
The app called Minds takes advantage of the Ethereum (ETH) network and claims to be accessible to everyone, in addition to being resistant to censorship. Those looking for alternatives on Youtube can try Dtube or Lbry. For example, the creators of Lbry say the app is a decentralized platform for sharing and publishing content that is entirely owned by its users. There are many types of social media applications that leverage blockchain, decentralization techniques like IPFS and have created places where anyone can speak their mind.
As usual, the biggest downfall of all these apps is the lack of users, since most people have not gravitated towards decentralized social media. However, during the past few years, as nation-states have increased censorship and intensified repression against anti-government rhetoric, these platforms have grown significantly.
The best thing people can do now is to start migrating towards social media apps that offer decentralization and censorship resistance in blockchain, because the dystopian world that looks a lot like Fahrenheit 451 or 1984 is certainly upon us.
What do you think of the myriad of blockchain-based and censorship-resistant social media apps? Let us know what you think about this in the comments section below.
Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Minds, Twitter, Memo.cash, Lbry.io, Peepeth and Wiki
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