Tag: #AltTech

Do NOT question the Narrative!

YouTube threatens Infowars with account termination:

InfoWars, a far-right media organization run by Alex Jones and known for peddling unfounded conspiracy theories, is on thin ice with YouTube after it posted a video that portrayed the survivors of the Parkland school shooting as actors.

The Alex Jones Channel, Infowar’s biggest YouTube account, received one strike for that video, a source with knowledge of the account told CNN. YouTube’s community guidelines say if an account receives three strikes in three months, the account is terminated.

That video focused on David Hogg, a strong voice among survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The attention has given him a powerful platform — but it has also made him the subject of demonstrably false conspiracy theories that claim he is so simply too skilled as public speakers not to be a paid actor.

On Wednesday, YouTube removed the video from InfoWars’ page for violating its policies on harassment and bullying. The video was titled, “David Hogg Can’t Remember His Lines In TV Interview.”

The fact that the mainstream media and Youtube are peddling pure propaganda is underlined by their over-the-top reaction to the accusations that people like David Hogg are crisis actors playing a role to create a false narrative for the public.

If it was actually a “demonstrably false” charge, they wouldn’t be threatened by it. If it were simply nonsense, they wouldn’t be so desperate to shut it down.

From the article: Conspiracy believers think false flags are government operations that seek to divert or steer public discussion and policy.

From the online encyclopedia: The contemporary term false flag describes covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that activities appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them. 

The conspiracy believers are correct. That’s exactly what false flags are, Operation Northwoods being but one of many historical examples.

Notice the ludicrously false claims in the linked piece. It’s rather shocking that they actually seem to expect people not to notice them. Their “debunking” is incoherent. Literally no one claims that David Hogg is “simply too skilled” as a public speaker to not be a paid actor. In fact, the headline quoted right in the linked piece points out the precise opposite! It points out that Hogg is such a bad actor that he can’t even remember his scripted lines. As I have repeatedly pointed out, it is very clear to any professional fiction editor that these actors are reciting lines from a script. A very bad and poorly written script that doesn’t sound even remotely like the way real people actually speak in high-pressure situations.

Q is right. These people are stupid. These people are government employees. This is what happens when people with an average IQ of 95 try to produce a live-action movie. And that is why the media has to try to shut down all dubious and skeptical voices, because the obvious questions that are naturally raised are so destructive of the Narrative that the mere asking of them is sufficient to destroy the Official Story that the media is trying, and failing, to uphold.

Who do you think is leaking the info?
Take a wild guess.
Analyze shooter (pawn).
Voices in his head?
We know.
We are taking action behind the scenes.
CNN was set up.
STUPID.

All of these emotionally manipulative events, from Sandy Hook to Parkland, are fake. They’re not even remotely credible, and the more the media tries to clamp down on everyone who is simply asking obvious questions, the more obvious it is that they are in on it.

$45 million, in total, has flowed into Sandy Hook in the last two years.

This is why those who are committed to the truth must build our own platforms. And this is why the God-Emperor would be wise to put a special military commission together to investigate the Deep State’s corruption and control of the mainstream media.

UPDATE: This is the video of David Hogg flubbing his lines that the media doesn’t want you to see. Notice that he’s not breaking down, he’s just not remembering how to say them correctly. It’s also interesting to note that Reddit is now threatening to ban redditors who so much as mention his name.

Cerno, Posobiec banned by Medium

The political censorship of Big Social continues to get worse:

The online publishing platform Medium has suspended the accounts of prominent far-right figures Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec and Laura Loomer. Medium spokesperson Sandee Roston told The Hill that the company does “not comment on individual accounts.”

Roston did point to a Feb. 7 post detailing an update to its rules.

“We have all seen an increase and evolution of online hate, abuse, harassment, and disinformation, along with ever-evolving campaigns of fraud and spam,” Medium’s rules update reads. “We have strengthened our policies around this type of behavior. We do not allow calls for intolerance, exclusion, or segregation based on protected characteristics, nor do we allow the glorification of groups which do any of the above,” the new rules specify.

The platform’s new rules include banning misinformation campaigns and lets the company consider “off-platform action,” in its decision to ban users.

In its previous set of rules, the company had billed itself as a “free and open platform for anyone to write their views and opinions,” and said it believes “free expression deserves a lot of leeway, so we generally think the best response to bad ideas is good ideas, not censorship.

This language has been scrubbed from the current version of its platform rules.

Notice that careful avoidance of the label “Alt-Right” did nothing to save any of them from targeting by SJWs. This is why we absolutely MUST build our own platforms. Without them, the Left will be successful in its determination to deny a platform to everyone who refuses to publicly submit to its dogma of Tolerance, Equality, Progressivism, Inclusivity, and Diversity.

Goodbye Vidme

Remember when I kept telling all the brilliant business geniuses who were waxing entrepreneurial about the pressing need for someone to compete with YouTube that they were clueless idiots who didn’t understand the first thing about that particular business?

This farewell message from Vidme I received in my email this morning was exactly the result I expected from any would-be YouTube disruptor:

We’re writing to let you know that after careful consideration, we’ve arrived at the difficult decision to suspend the Vidme site and apps effective December 15th.

What this means for you:

  •     New sign-ups and uploads will be disabled effective today.
  •     Existing videos will be playable and exportable from your video manager until December 14th, at which point they will be permanently deleted from the Vidme servers. If you want to backup any of your videos, be sure to sign in and visit your video manager and click the export button (displayed below). After a few minutes, you’ll receive an email with a link to download your exported video.
  •     All paid channel subscripitions will be suspended immediately, and subscriber-only videos will be exclusively accessible to their video owners.
  •     Any outstanding earnings will be paid out upon verification within 60 days.
  •     All Vidme paid subscriptions will cease as of today, and subscribers will no longer be billed. 

Thank you for giving Vidme a chance, and we’re very sorry that we won’t be able to continue to support you on the next stage of your creative journey. It has truly been a joy to watch people from all over the world connect, collaborate, and make new friends in this community, and we’re happy to know that many of those relationships will long outlast Vidme itself.

Wishing you the best of luck.

There is a reason I chose Infogalactic as the Alt-Tech priority. Notice that, thanks to the support from a relatively small Burn Unit, the site not only remains fully viable and operational, but the Techstars actually continue to make progress towards the Stage Two engine. Infogalactic is far more efficient and less expensive than Wikipedia and does not rely upon increasingly scarce online ad revenue, and Wikipedia is not a subsidized venture allowed to operate at an annual loss that is measured in the billions.

You can’t just leap into these things and try to do what others are doing, only less SJW. You have to analyze the situation, figure out the strengths and weaknesses of what the prospective competitors a) are doing, and, b) have the ability to do, and then figure out if there is actually any productive territory that can be legitimately taken and held.

The social media war on the Right

Wife with a Purpose@apurposefulwife
Just checked my email. @Jack you darn well know I’ve  violated none of the TOS. I know @TRobinsonNewEra lost his too and @VoxDay was suspended. Do we have any recourse?

The only recourse is to build our own platforms. If you want to help replace Twitter and Facebook, then support Infogalactic. This war on the Right by the social media giants has made it clear that we not only need our own social media platform, but we need one with the capability of taking the center away from them. Which is why we are building the foundations for one into the DONTPANIC engine, in addition to its wiki functionalities.

Your conscience is clear

You need not worry about the fate of Alt-Tech. Your departure is not hurting them in any way, as per Maximum Alpha Torba. I don’t know to whom he is referring here, but then, I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

UPDATE: I have been informed that hearing for the petition we filed is scheduled in Travis County for the last week of October.

That would be why

Some people asked me why I didn’t choose CounterFund for Voxiversity and Alt⭐️Hero. The truth is that I never considered using Counterfund at all. Remember what I said about Andrew Torba not being ready for prime time? Well, in my opinion, neither is Pax Dickinson. He had been directing his attacks at Charles Johnson, not me, but I was aware that anyone who behaved that way in public towards a former business partner is likely to do the same to others in the future.

I’ve had the occasional problem with people and companies with whom I’ve worked in the past. Not many over the years, but a few. And aside from GT Interactive, which was a matter of public record, you probably couldn’t name any of them because I don’t ever talk about them in public. Among the necessary skills for a professional is the ability to keep your mouth shut, even when you have been wronged.

Pax Dickinson · @pax
I think Vox Day’s “minions” are so bad at bantz and trolling because they’re only used to soft SJW resistance, they don’t know how to handle seasoned veterans of the meme wars. They exist in their secure little blog bubble where Vox’s moderation keeps them weak and flaccid, like shitposting veal.

Counter.Fund‏ @CounterFund
I asked Vox Day to help me move, so he sued my couch.

Counter.Fund‏ @CounterFund
You can tell which #AltRight people are sincere & not just e-book selling charlatans because the good ones quit in disgust and never return.

Counter.Fund‏ @CounterFund
the e-book merchants take their e-fame very very seriously because they work at it but I became e-famous by accident so I think it’s a joke

Counter.Fund‏ @CounterFund
Everyone: “Nazi LARPers are the Right’s most autistic lolcows”
Vox Day: “Hold my beer”

Counter.Fund‏ @CounterFund
“hey #AltRight look what I built for you”
*called a shill*
*accused of grubbing for shekels*
*sued by Vox Day*
“on 2nd thought never mind”

Counter.Fund‏ @CounterFund
Calling for people to take back their investments in Gab is lower than shit. Fuck you @voxday you’re fucking dead to me.

Counter.Fund‏ @CounterFund
Vox called me up back when I was ripping Chuck to advise that infighting was a bad look. I wonder when he changed his mind about that.

Counter.Fund‏ @CounterFund
I had a discussion with @VoxDay. It didn’t go that well.  He blocked me. ?

I most certainly did block him. I don’t discuss things with individuals who refuse to address the relevant points and instead elect to call me “a fucking moron” in lieu of argument. I see that as a reliable indicator that there is absolutely no benefit to having anything to do with them, now or in the future. One can readily observe a pattern here: both Pax and Andrew Torba are volatile individuals who are temperamentally unsuited for what they are trying to do. That is why the probabilities of success are not in their favor.

Can you imagine me attacking an author that I was trying to recruit for Castalia House this way? Can you imagine ANY successful publisher doing so?

As for Gab, the LLoE and I will be continuing to proceed as before, albeit in a rather more unsympathetic manner than we began. As one reader noted in response to the following Gab posts: “Gab is a useless, irredeemable sewer. Let it burn.”

Folk · @Folk
Deus Vulters can never be real nationalists, because they MUST believe in Oneness under Christ. A Christian Syrian is worth more to them than a secular or pagan White. All Deus Vulters should be Vox fans, as Vox’s platform says you must be a Christian and support all races to be Alt-Right.

Goyim Revolution · @GoyimRevolution
Koanic you are such a loser. In fact it’s obvious you’re just a @VoxDay sock. What the hell is a “Nazi” anyway? Do you have a definition? And what’s so vile about these Nazis? Is it because they won’t shutup about jews like Soros?

Tyron T. White · @TightyWhitey
Being a “Christian” and “supporting all races” is exactly how all-white countries have been flooded with parasitic mud people. If someone shot Vox in the head on a sidewalk, do you think his followers would tilt right, or back toward center?

Charming. Now, one never knows what the future will bring, but based on what I have been hearing in various development circles, I expect that within 18 months Gab will be, at best, the third-place Alt-Tech alternative to Twitter.

Alt-Tech overview

One year on, Cheah Kai Wai reviews the current state of Alt-Tech:

Last year, the Alt-Tech promised a revolution. These platforms aimed to disrupt and replace the legacy platforms, placing the rights and freedoms of users first. One year on, how well did they fare?

Infogalactic

Infogalactic is an unqualified success story. Beginning as a dynamic hard fork of Wikipedia, it strives to be more objective and informative than its predecessor. In line with its Seven Canons, Infogalactic maintains a strict non-ideological position for all facts — but in the future, it will introduce Context and Opinion levels to its pages, allowing greater depth of content.

Every time I compared an Infogalactic page to Wikipedia, I found the former to be more informative and accurate. The only major knock against Infogalactic is its load time, and even that is improving by the day. In the beginning, it took long minutes to load a single page. Today, it is only slightly slower than Wikipedia.

I use Infogalactic exclusively these days. Wikipedia’s explicit left-wing bias means it is no longer a neutral source of information. Infogalactic has demonstrated itself to be a viable and sustainable alternative to Wikipedia, and in the long term I suspect the disruption and replacement of Wikipedia is inevitable.

Gab

Gab was supposed to be the Twitter killer. A platform dedicated to free speech, it has survived allegations and lies about it being the haven of the Alt-Right and Neo-Nazis. Apple and Google have repeatedly prevented Gab from publishing its app on the iTunes Store and Google Play Store respectively for spurious reasons. Gab brands itself as a proponent of free speech — but that is also its undoing.

Gab’s key weakness is its inability or unwillingness to moderate posts. While it is unwaveringly committed to free speech, freedom is not and cannot be unlimited. As the old adage goes, your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. Harmful speech — speech that incites violence or compromises the privacy and safety of individuals — is not protected speech. Gab must be able to moderate harmful content to preserve the continued health and safety of its users, and it has failed the test….

These controversies expose Gab’s core weakness. As Gab refused to moderate harmful speech, Gab users have no choice but to lodge complaints with the domain registrar, who will inevitably respond by ordering Gab off its platform. Like the Daily Stormer, I foresee Gab migrating from registrar to registrar, virtually guaranteeing disruption of services. Alternatively, these users may turn to the police and the courts instead, which will invite another round of troubles.

Free speech ends where harm begins. Incitement to violence, exposure of confidential information, and lying about someone to smear his reputation counts as harm. If Gab will not handle harmful speech in-house, other parties will. To Gab’s detriment. I, for one, cannot in good conscience continue to recommend anyone to use Gab until they fix this oversight, if ever.

Ironically, the fevered assaults by the Daily Stormpoopers and other Gab enthusiasts on me appear to have borne some unexpected fruit. After I reported about 20 or 30 attack tweets to Twitter, in addition to banning and suspending a few of the responsible accounts, Twitter has restored full link access to Vox Popoli using the .com extension after more than 18 months of blocking it.

Enemy of my enemy and all that, I suppose. Go figure.

I will also say that my experience of Brave has been considerably more positive than Cheah’s. But regardless, I am very pleased to know that Infogalactic is working so well for its users, even in Phase One.

Various and sundries

First, if you are an investor in Gab but would like to retroactively de-invest for whatever reason, there is a good chance you can still do so. StartEngine has not charged most credit cards, but the cancel button will not work if it has been more than 48 hours. However, if you contact StartEngine support, it is still possible to manually cancel the investment.

Second, the Production Editor of Castalia House is looking for up to four volunteers to help him produce print and ebook editions more rapidly. His list of requirements are as follows:

Basic requirements:

  • Command line experience in Linux or Mac OS X or a BSD, etc.
  • Experience with DVCS. We use Git.
  • Attention to detail. Much of the work involves correcting curly quotes facing the wrong direction, or italics that accidentally include punctuation, etc.
  • Concern for the way text looks, whether in print or in ebook.

For ebooks:

  • Markdown
  • Basic HTML and CSS

For print:

  • LaTeX (for marking up manuscripts, not writing new commands or environments).
  • Familiarity with basic typesetting concepts is preferred.

To help with tool development:

  • Experience writing LaTeX macros and environments
  • Python
  • Advanced Pandoc tricks (filters, custom writers)
  • Lua
  • Docker
  • Adobe Acrobat Pro (we’d like to customize some preflight profiles)

Please only volunteer if you really like doing this stuff and have at least a few hours every week to devote to it. We have a lot to do, we move fast, and our smooth operation relies heavily upon everyone doing what they do without requiring a great deal of communication or cheerleading.

Third, a member of the Dread Ilk is looking to fill some job openings in Alabama. If you want to send your resume to them, email it to me with JOB-AL in the subject and I will forward it to the correct party.

  • Engineer, Analyst, and Programming Positions in Huntsville, AL (JOB-AL)

In defense of Gab

Now the self-appointed Defenders of Gab are appealing to Google in order to get back at me for Gab’s failure to moderate content to the satisfaction of its registrar. I’m less than entirely confident that Google is going to be particularly inclined to leap to the assistance of the self-appointed Defenders of Gab, since Gab is, as you may recall, currently suing Google.

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
@VoxDay’s blog is on blogspot in case anyone’s asking. I don’t advocate anything. I just provide PSA. How to register a complaint with Google about inappropriate content on blogs using blogspot.com.

Jason American · @jamerica
Vox admitting he played a part in Gab losing their domain registrar. @a @e @u

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
This is so easy to do! Just pick a topic & paste in the blogger’s URL and submit. The satisfaction of knowing you just did something good in helping to preserve freedom of speech is incredible. I don’t advocate anything of course. Just a PSA.

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
@VoxDay’s blog is on blogspot in case anyone’s asking. I don’t advocate anything. I just provide PSA. How to register a complaint with Google about inappropriate content on blogs using blogspot.com.

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
Interesting. He seems to use his blog as his primary means of communicating with his followers. How would they communicate without it? Can high IQ folks do telepathy?

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
It would make for an interesting experience if the ppl on Gab, who are trying to destroy Gab by reporting it to the Domain Registrar, were to be outed on other social media sites for inappropriate content and then reported to Twitter’s Domain Registrar or other registrars

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
Could that information be tethered to Twitter asking why he would say such inappropriate things?

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
Could posts from his blog be tethered to Twitter asking why he would have such inappropriate content?

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
Is there anyone searching through @VoxDay and @SpaceBunny Twitter accounts for inappropriate posts that should be reported to the FBI and Twitter’s Domain Registrar? Asking for a nosy neighbor.

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
Is there anyone reporting this to Twitter’s Domain Registrar and to the FBI? How many ppl on Gab who are still on Twitter too can be reporting it? What type of effect would that have on Twitter?

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
If anyone has a Spacebunny Day face png with a clear background (ready to use) plz post. Thank you in advance ?

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
It is laughable that some ppl think they can fight the Deep State or whoever to keep Gab up & running when they don’t even have the balls to stand up to some has-been space cadets who are trying to destroy Gab.

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
The rats are already deserting Gab and going back to the Twitter Ghetto. You never were with us. So, good riddance.

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
Calling all 4chan /pol/ autists You know what to do.

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
Interesting that this all occurred – after – @VoxDay said he deleted all of the posts that @MicroChip found offensive.

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
There’s no time for negativity my friend. It’s time to go for the jugular. This time, there will be no peace brokered by one gabber.

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
All you Dear @VoxDay and @SpaceBunny supporters get off my TL. Now!

Larry L Sharp PRO · @LarryLSharp
@VoxDay’s blog is on blogspot in case anyone’s asking. I don’t advocate anything. I just provide PSA. How to register a complaint with Google about inappropriate content on blogs using blogspot.com.

I also tend to suspect this gentleman doesn’t understand how Google – or really, Blogger – handles complaints. First, they review the post. Second, they put it into draft mode. Third, they tell you to modify it to remove something specific or they tell you to delete the post. If Blogger tells me to delete something, I will do so. It is, after all, their house. And this would not be the first time that has happened, although it would be the first time in a long while, because, unlike Gab, I abide by their specified standards, and have done so for 14 years.

The amusing thing is that these are the very people who are attempting to lecture everyone on the importance of not punching right. But it is clear that they don’t respect their own professed principle, so why do they expect anyone else to do so?

Gab kicked off registrar

Gab‏Verified@getongab
BREAKING: Gab’s domain registrar has given us 5 days to transfer our domain or they will seize it. The free and open web is in danger.

The free and open web is not in danger. Literally NOTHING has changed except that Gab has received a legal wakeup call from reality. It’s more than a little remarkable that they didn’t anticipate this. Remember, I warned Andrew Torba that they ABSOLUTELY HAD to moderate their content, and I did so back in November, long before anyone had “said mean words” or “hurt my feelings” there. I did so again on September 7th, both when I emailed Utsav after our conversation and in my conversation with him.

What I believe inevitably doomed Gab with Asia Registry was not merely the complaints that were being made to the registry in lieu of Gab providing its users with any other option besides the recommended court order, but Gab’s public stance on its refusal to moderate defamation as laid out in its Google filing. There are three sections that are relevant in this regard:

81. Even if it were possible for a social media platform to censor “defamatory and mean-spirited content” generated by 250,000 users, a level of content censorship that extended to “defamatory” and “mean-spirited” content would place at risk that service’s status as a protected Internet Service Provider, as opposed to a publisher or speaker, under 47 U.S. Code 230, also known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”)

82. Unlike an Internet Service Provider, a publisher or speaker is not granted the “safe harbor” benefits of Section 230, and may be held liable for defamation or other torts or other liability arising from content published on a platform it owns or manages.

251. Compliance with Google’s demand that moderate content posted by its users on a viewpoint-discrimination basis would place at risk Gab’s critical “safe harbor” protection against claims arising from such content under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act by turning Gab into an unprotected editor or publisher, whereas it is presently protected as an Internet Service Provider.

This is bad lawyering for four reasons.

  1. Some forms of defamation are criminal in Australia. Gab openly stated, in a public filing, that it cannot, and will not, remain in compliance with Australian law. 
  2. Gab is not an Internet Service Provider. An Internet Service Provider, or ISP, is the company you pay a fee to access to the internet, not an internet site that lets you comment on it.
  3. Section 230 of the CDA doesn’t only protect ISPs, but also protects both the users and the providers of interactive computer service and says neither “shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”
  4. As a Texas entity – which Gab still is despite its establishment of a second office to be able to file its lawsuit against Google in Philadelphia County – Gab was additionally protected by the Defamation Mitigation Act, or Retraction Statute of 2013, which protects the publisher by giving him the option of correcting the mistake by publishing a retraction or deleting the defamatory content.
In other words, on the basis of an entirely groundless fear of being sued for what they like to describe as “mean words”, Gab elected to state on the public record that they would not moderate for “defamatory” content, in open violation of the laws of the country in which they selected their registrar.

Not ready for prime time doesn’t even begin to describe the level of strategic and legal incompetence demonstrated here.

This really isn’t that difficult. As I have repeatedly said, as I have repeatedly told Andrew Torba, moderation is a must. It is implicitely required by law, and for those who want access to the Play Store and the App Store, it is explicitly required by Google and Apple. More importantly, if you refuse to offer your users a reasonable form of redress they can easily afford when they are targeted for harassment, don’t pretend to be surprised or upset when they pursue alternate means to achieve their objectives just because those means happen to be more damaging to you.

I am the only one who pursued the course of action recommended by Gab. Considering the expense and the additional harassment that entailed, is it really surprising that everyone else opted for the free and anonymous course of action? In any event, Gab will find another registrar. I hope they will also find the common sense required to install some reasonable moderation policies, or they’re just going to find themselves right back in the same position in a matter of weeks.