Opinion

WEISS: It’s Time To Hit Back At Craven Tech Companies Like YouTube

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Adam Weiss Contributor
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The internet rage machine has struck again. This time, conservative comedian Steven Crowder was the target — and angry and offended “journalists” took quite a few others out in the process.

Last week, YouTube demonetized Crowder over a long-running feud with Vox contributor Carlos Maza. Clearly unable to win a debate, Maza drummed up support on Twitter before asking YouTube to ban the big mean comedian.

It is pretty clear that this activist was masquerading as a journalist when he reached the video hosting platform with his complaints.

This seems to be a very common trend among today’s activist-journalists who regularly go on missions to silence right-wing competitors they dislike.

Corporations need to stop caving to these tactics. To help stand firm against these whiners, it is helpful to understand the anatomy of an activist “deplatforming” campaign.

Step 1. Activist becomes a journalist to earn more “credibility.”

Step 2. Activist-journalist builds their social media platform with hyper-partisan hot takes that bring them loads of attention.

Step 3. Activist-journalist finds a right-wing target.

Step 4. Activist-journalist sets their sights and begins a social media campaign declaring the target to be “far-right,” “racist,” “sexist,” or “homophobic.”

Step 5. After a couple of hundred retweets, the activist-journalist begins reaching out to social media platforms and hosting companies asking if they would like to comment on the fact that a “far-right, racist, sexist, homophobic” uses their services. They mislead the company or brand into believing that there is an organic movement of people upset about said person.

Step 6. Company panics and deletes the target’s accounts, pulls their advertising or otherwise penalizes them for their wrong-think — not realizing that the entire thing was a manufactured outrage.

Step 7. The activist-journalist writes a story about the “far-right, racist, sexist, homophobic” being banned from x, y, and z platforms and is lauded for their scoop. Nobody bothers to note that they were writing about their own activism.

Step 8. The story spreads from outlet to outlet and the magnitude of the stories flood social media, making it the hot topic of the day and inciting more deplatforming.

Step 7. Rinse and repeat.

When will the companies, particularly “Big Tech,” stop falling for this scam? Enough is enough.

As these activist-journalists continue to gain notches in their deplatforming belts, their range of targets becomes slimmer and slimmer. They began with controversial figures like Alex Jones, and have already moved on to YouTube comedians. Eventually, the range of approved thought will virtually disappear.

At some point, conservatives are going to need to say “enough” and show them that there are just as many — if not more — of us. Deplatforming is a lucrative business only because the right is not fighting back. We must become louder than those whining about how comedians that they don’t watch are hurting their feelings.

Until that day comes when we shout our demands back, the freedoms of expression, association and speech will remain in “internet limbo,” judged by the new, privately-owned but government-subsidized “ministry of truth.”

Adam Weiss is the CEO of AMW PR, a New York political strategy and communications firm. His firm has represented Kimberly Guilfoyle, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie, Anthony Scaramucci and more.


The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.