US Capitol Riot


On January 6, 2021, as the US Congress was in session to certify the results of the 2020 Presidential election, tens of thousands of people showed up in the nation’s capitol to protest what they believed was a fraudulent election. As the day went on, the protestors (now rioters) clashed with police, broke through barriers and eventually stormed the capitol building, which immediately went into lockdown. These escalations led to the deaths of four protestors, both directly and indirectly.

Politicians and other establishment figures immediately started calling this an insurrection incited by President Trump despite him explicitly advocating for peace. BigTech immediately did their part in helping to bolster this false narrative starting with Facebook removing any videos or photos of the riots as well as multiple platforms suspending the President. These suspensions were later upgraded to permanent bans and expanded to include journalists who were simply reporting on the events taking place.

However, it got much worse as users began to flee these platforms en masse (which caused free speech platforms such as Parler and Minds to experience record breaking traffic). Parler trended as the #1 app in Apple’s App Store until Google and Apple removed Parler’s mobile app from their app stores and Amazon disabled Parler’s web servers, taking the site completely offline. About a week later, Minds was forced to significantly reduce their mobile app functionality in order to avoid facing the same fate as Parler.

Sources / Relevant Material
  1. Reclaim The Net "Facebook bans videos and photos from protesters at the US Capitol" by Tom Parker (6 Jan 2021)
  2. ZeroHedge "As Protest Images Spread, Twitter "Restricts Engagement" With Tweets That "Risk Violence"" by Tyler Durden (6 Jan 2021)
  3. Breitbart "Watch: Protesters Break Into U.S. Capitol Building amid Electoral College Vote" by John Binder (6 Jan 2021)
  4. Mark Dice "The Purge Continues" on BitChute (12 Jan 2021)
  5. Mark Dice "A Closer Look at What Happened Last Week" on BitChute (13 Jan 2021)
  6. Matt Christiansen "Apple CEO Tim Cook Explains the Banning of Parler | Or Doesn’t, Actually" on BitChute (20 Jan 2021)
  7. twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1352347643255644162
  8. Glenn Greenwald "How Silicon Valley, in a Show of Monopolistic Force, Destroyed Parler" on Substack (12 Jan 2021)
  9. Glenn Greenwald "The New Domestic War on Terror is Coming" on Substack (19 Jan 2021)
  10. Glenn Greenwald "The False and Exaggerated Claims Still Being Spread About the Capitol Riot" on Substack (16 Feb 2021)
Some Quotes

A handful of Silicon Valley oligarchs decide who can and cannot be heard, including the President of the United States. They exert this power unilaterally, with no standards, accountability or appeal.

Politics now is begging them to silence adversaries or permit allies to speak:

– Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald), 7 Jan 2021

The capitol riot did not happen because we didn't have enough censorship. That is a ridiculous idea. [...] I don't understand how the left has to keep learning this over and over and over. And you know, the first person to be deplatformed was Wikileaks and Julian Assange.

– Jimmy Dore, 17 Jan 2021


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