Free Speech vs Reddit

This makes me angry and sad. People who follow the mainstream media, read the newspaper and watch the news on tv every day, they live in an alternative reality.

_{Image by Newtown grafitti - source: Flickr}

Yesterday I watched a video from James Corbett which made me so angry I just have to tell you about it. It seems that Reddit has become part of the mainstream propaganda-machine, where news that tells the truth gets repressed, simply because it is not in line with US interests. Recently the cyber-attack watchdog FireEye published an article with the title "Suspected Iranian Influence Operation Leverages Network of Inauthentic News Sites & Social Media Targeting Audiences in U.S., UK, Latin America, Middle East".

Here's the fear-mongering part of that article:

This operation is leveraging a network of inauthentic news sites and clusters of associated accounts across multiple social media platforms to promote political narratives in line with Iranian interests. These narratives include anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes, as well as support for specific U.S. policies favorable to Iran, such as the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA).
_{source: FireEye - August 21^st, 2018}

So, "narratives" unfavorable to US allies in the Middle East is deemed unwelcome. It becomes worse when you read the page on Reddit, where they admit that these "narratives" are just the truth that came from "...real, reputable news articles that happened to align with Iran’s preferred political narrative"! They openly admit that inconvenient truths are simply not welcome on Reddit. Reddit has banned 143 accounts until now that they suspect participate in the attack detected by FireEye. And what did these users do, what was their crime?

This group focused on steering the narrative around subjects important to Iran, including criticism of US policies in the Middle East and negative sentiment toward Saudi Arabia and Israel. They were also involved in discussions regarding Syria and ISIS.
_{source: Reddit}

They spread news, not lies, news that happens to not align with US and Israeli interests... This is so infuriating!

I'm so glad we have Steemit. This is now eternally engraved into the blockchain, unless I get banned ;-) Seriously though: I don't use Reddit nor any other social media than Steemit.com, so this is the first time I'm confronted with news about Reddit becoming corrupt. If you, dear reader, know of any more of this kind of behavior from Reddit, or any other online forum or news site, I urge you to make a post about it here. Or, if you can't, let me know in the comments and I'll see if I can fit it in my schedule ;-)

I'll leave you with the video from the corbettreport, and advice you to subscribe to that YouTube channel, if you still dare use that platform.

_{Reddit Identifies A New Threat: The Truth}

That'll have to do for today, dear reader. I hope you are as displeased as I am about this new blow to Free Speech and keep voicing your feelings about it. If you need inspiration for this, listen to and watch our fellow steemian and helpie @carrieallen as she serenades free speech in her wonderful song ;-) I hope you'll all be back tomorrow. Until then, keep speaking free and keep steeming!

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