{"id":184554,"date":"2019-03-03T08:47:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T08:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=184554"},"modified":"2019-03-08T08:25:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T08:25:50","slug":"amazon-joins-big-tech-assault-on-anti-vaccine-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=184554","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Joins Big Tech Assault on Anti-Vaccine Information"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Erickson \u2013 Natural Blaze March 2, 2019<\/strong><\/h1>\n

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As major media and big tech continue freaking out over 159 measles cases in the U.S., anti-vaccine campaigners are increasingly being likened to terrorists as their ability to share information and earn money is being cut off.<\/span><\/p>\n

The origin of this latest move against the free flow of information seems to have stemmed from a letter sent by Adam Schiff (D-CA) to the heads of Facebook and Google wherein he lamented the increased viewership of the vaccine debate:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is strong evidence to suggest that at least part of the source of this trend is the degree to which medically inaccurate information about vaccines surface on the websites where many Americans get their information,\u201d Schiff wrote in the letter. \u201cThe algorithms which power these services are not designed to distinguish quality information from misinformation or misleading information, and the consequences of that are particularly troubling for public health issues.\u201d (Source: Bloomberg<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook was the first to agree with Schiff\u2019s call to action and vowed that they were \u201cexploring additional measures<\/strong><\/span>\u201d<\/a> to fight the appearance of anti-vaccine messaging to the reading public.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it was YouTube (Google) that appears to have taken the swiftest measures against anti-vaccine proponents by announcing that their two-pronged approach<\/a><\/strong><\/span> would include demonitizing videos with \u201cdangerous and harmful\u201d content, plus adding a stern warning from the World Health Organization that being anti-vaccine is \u201cone of the top ten global health threats of 2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the true spirit of competition for which big tech company can foster the most censorship and destroy the key values of democracy, Amazon has followed suit by burning the digital books (videos) of those who have made it their life\u2019s work to educate the public and spur debate.\u00a0 And, again, it seems that the public comments made by a single rep \u2013 Adam Schiff \u2013 have been enough to alter company policy which affects millions of people.<\/span><\/p>\n

The move came days after a CNN Business report highlighted the anti-vaccine comment available on the site, and hours after Rep. Adam Schiff wrote an open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, saying he is concerned \u201cthat Amazon is surfacing and recommending\u201d anti-vaccination books and movies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anti-vaccine movies that were previously available free for Prime subscribers, like \u201cWe Don\u2019t Vaccinate!,\u201d \u201cShoot \u2018Em Up: The Truth About Vaccines,\u201d and \u201cVaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,\u201d are now \u201ccurrently unavailable.\u201d (Source: Fox2now<\/strong><\/span><\/a>)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As the Fox report referenced above highlights, while some items have fully disappeared from \u201crecommended\u201d areas of the site, others do remain.\u00a0 Fox specifically cites one of the more egregious offenders still in front of the delicate eyes of viewers: \u201cMiller\u2019s Review of Critical Vaccine Studies: 400 Important Scientific Papers Summarized for Parents and Researchers.\u201d Because why should anyone be encouraged to read primary research into the efficacy of something being injected into their own body and the bodies of their loved ones \u2014 it almost sounds like informed consent.\u00a0 It\u2019s also a sign that Amazon holds its own core system of peer-to-peer reviews and recommendations in contempt as it resorts to algorithmic adjustments to hide the realities of real-world discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps most troubling here is that this tactic, as well as the rhetoric being used, is straight out of the anti-terrorism lingo that we hear from the government and their revolving-door corporations<\/strong><\/span><\/a> like Facebook, Google, Amazon, et al.<\/em>\u00a0 It\u2019s the same strategy that has resulted in cutting off the funding of people from all walks of independent media for all types of different and \u201cdangerous\u201d thoughts that could \u201cradicalize\u201d the unsuspecting public.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some still continue to argue that these are private companies with private policies that can do what they wish with their own businesses. That sounds true until a single U.S. representative sends a letter that changes the policies of multiple companies virtually overnight. And it sounds OK until an entire country revokes the visa of David Icke for his brand of \u201cdangerous\u201d information, which was assumed to include anti-vax and global warming questions, as Activist Post<\/em> recently reported<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The virus-spreading anti-vaxxers \u2014 if that is what one chooses to believe \u2014 are no match for the infection that has spread like wildfire across our formerly free and open Internet. Perhaps we have given too much of ourselves to the middlemen of big tech and have forgotten the value of direct communication.\u00a0 Now is the time to remember how to communicate without the contrived structures of \u201csocial\u201d systems of media, and without their approval.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jason Erickson writes for NaturalBlaze.com<\/span><\/a>. This article (Amazon Joins Big Tech Assault on Anti-Vaccine Information<\/span><\/a>) may be republished in part or in full with author attribution and source link.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First the Internet giants clamped down on Alex Jones and Tommy Robinson. Now they\u2019ve turned their attention to anti-vaccine campaigners <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-controlling-the-news-andor-the-free-exchange-of-ideas-and-information"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=184554"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184572,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184554\/revisions\/184572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=184554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=184554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=184554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}