Deplatforming
Deplatforming is a 2010s term for a form of social censorship, in which a political opponent is denied the chance to communicate their message to others.
This can take the form of denying someone the chance to make a speech or a public presentation; or to remove them from various media, like a newspaper column or social media, or to make it hard or impossible for them to have a website on the internet, like the Daily Stormer in 2017. Deplatforming is typically used by left-wing and far-left organizations against right-wing and far-right opponents, and is considered an extension of political correctness.[1] Right-wing organizations have also been accused of censoring opponents in their own ways, however.
Examples
- Generally left-wing scientist Richard Dawkins was deplatformed from a Berkeley radio interview for criticizing aspects of the Islamic belief system.[2]
- Google removed an app from Gab.ai from its Google Play platform due to political disagreements with Gab's right-wing or far-right user base.[3] An equally similar case occurred with Parler, another alt-tech social networking platform, following the protests at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
- The Antifa far-left movement successfully prevented right-wing figures from addressing an audience on several occasions, notably Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos.
- Yiannopoulos was also deplatformed from an event at Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in the UK, mostly for his statements calling for limits to Islamic immigration, and his criticism of the alleged Islamization of Europe.[4]
Replatforming
The politically neutral term replatforming, which means transferring media to a new format without changing its content (for example from a traditional website to the mobile Web), has been adopted by the Alt-Tech political movement to describe a policy of creating alternate platforms that can't be censored by mostly left-wing opponents. Examples include Infogalactic, the Discord VoIP application, Voat, the Brave browser, and Gab.ai.[5][6] Mainstream media have questioned such attempts however, and defended deplatforming as an appropriate method of establishing social norms.[7]
References
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- ↑ Derrick Jensen (Aug 10, 2015) https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/10/liberals-and-the-new-mccarthyism/
- ↑ (Jul 21, 2017) https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/richard-dawkinss-response-to-his-de-platforming-in-berkeley/
- ↑ J. Martin (Aug 17, 2017) https://www.sott.net/article/359515-Google-moves-to-deplatform-conservative-Gab-ai
- ↑ James Soderholm (Dec 1, 2016) http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/12/01/deplatforming-milo-langton-grammar-school/
- ↑ https://altright.com/tag/alt-tech/
- ↑ Sonya Mann (Jul 11, 2017) https://www.inc.com/sonya-mann/counterfund-far-right-crowdfunding.html
- ↑ Hiawatha Bray (Aug 16, 2017) https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/08/16/shutting-alt-right/ISvB17zo6CdSj9RDBvhs5M/story.html
