USA - People are going to be 'super unhappy' with big tech as 'the de facto arbiter of free speech'. Elon Musk, who became the world's richest man last week, is against Big Tech censorship. In response to a Babylon Bee article titled "Evil Fascist Dictator Censored And Voted Out Of Office," Musk tweeted on Monday: "A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech." Last week, he noted how only three people control what the world is allowed to say. We're currently witnessing the President of the United States losing the ability to process payments online and getting banned from every tech site imaginable.

USA - Over the years, the big tech companies have made enormous amounts of money by monetizing discussions about politics. But now that Twitter and Facebook have silenced President Trump and have deeply alienated large portions of their user bases, their stock prices are tumbling. I figured that this would happen, but I didn’t anticipate that it would happen this rapidly. To be honest, what we are witnessing is nothing short of breathtaking. For example, at one point on Monday Twitter’s market value had fallen by five billion dollars…The executives at Twitter may not have liked it, but President Trump was their number one draw by a very wide margin. And it is very bad business to kill off your number one source of income, but that is exactly what Twitter just did. In addition to permanently banning Trump, Twitter also decided to ban approximately 70,000 of his followers. Those bans have alienated millions of other users, and that is a major problem. Meanwhile, investors are bailing on Facebook as well. In fact, at one point on Monday Facebook’s market cap was down 33.6 billion dollars…

USA - 'Unity and healing' kicks off with mass arrests and big tech purging of dissidents - is this what a "peaceful transition of power" looks like? Already some MAGA rioters have begun to learn about the power of facial recognition software, geolocation, and crowdsourcing. And, in a few weeks, the power of fully mobilized Federal law enforcement. Those who only lose their jobs (as some already have) will be the lucky ones.

USA - Army and Air National Guard members deploying to Washington, DC to help guard the capital and stay through the January 20 inauguration will have access to lethal weapons at their commanders' discretion, Guard commanders said Friday. "There's no hiding the fact that soldiers and airmen do have lethal force with them," Army Brigadier General David Wood, joint staff director of the Pennsylvania National Guard, said at a virtual roundtable with defense reporters. "How those rules of the use of force are engaged is just dependent on the scenario and in that situation. We are going to try to deescalate as much as we can [before taking up weapons]," Wood said. "The way we deploy it will depend on the situation and the commander's intent." The Associated Press reported earlier that Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy will make decisions in the coming days on whether Guard units will be armed on the District's streets.

USA - Joe Biden announced that he is working on a bill to go after “domestic terrorism” with a redefinition of the term, to go after the “ideologically-inspired". Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media are cracking down on any non-approved narratives. Twitter locked President Donald Trump’s account and then released it after about a day or so. Then Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat for West Virginia) and others are calling for Trump to be pulled. Now as we just reported, Twitter has banned the president permanently. Twitter is now literally doing the bidding of the Democrats. Facebook and Instagram already suspended Trump for at least two weeks and possibly permanently. Shopify even pulled MAGA goods from their online stores. Because MAGA hats are apparently evil now. Now word comes from Joe Biden that he is working on a bill to go after “domestic terrorism” with a redefinition of the term, to go after the “ideologically-inspired".

USA - It is quite ironic that many of those that are always telling us that we need “diversity” in our society are also some of the strongest voices against a “diversity of viewpoints” on social media. The founders of this nation wanted to make sure that nobody would ever take the right to freedom of speech away from us, and that is why it was enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Unfortunately, courts have greatly eroded that right over the last several decades, and now we are facing an all-out assault on freedom of speech that is unlike anything that we have ever seen before. And once freedom of speech is completely gone, all of our other rights will soon follow, because there will no longer be any way to defend them.

GERMANY - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has concerns that Twitter's “problematic” suspension of Donald Trump's account, in the wake of last week's assault on the Capitol, is an encroachment on freedom of opinion, her spokesman said. Steffan Seibert said on Monday that it was right for social media companies not to “stand back” when content inciting violence was posted online, such as by ‘flagging’ it, as Twitter has previously done to several of the US president's tweets.

USA - Despite the mewling of the spineless American media, the real coup this week wasn’t committed by President Trump’s supporters, but by his opponents. They’re writing a manual on modern regime change, and it’s ready for export. When President Donald Trump’s supporters forced their way inside the US Capitol on Wednesday, they did not act as a unified force bent on seizing power. Instead they snapped selfies, looted souvenirs, and engaged in petty vandalism. While the rampage ended in tragedy for the protester shot dead by police, the police officer fatally injured, and the three others who suffered “medical emergencies” and died, it was soon snuffed out and Congress returned to work that evening to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

USA - Mozilla, the non-profit company behind Firefox browser, has joined the fight against free speech, motivated by the narrative about what happened at the US Capitol on January 6th. In tandem with other tech giants including Facebook, Twitter and Google, the CEO of Mozilla Mitchell Baker called for “more than de-platforming”.

USA - As Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives becomes ever more flagrant and overt, the old arguments about protecting the sanctity of the modern public square are now invalid. From “shadowbans” on Facebook and Twitter, to demonetization of YouTube videos, to pulled ads for Republican candidates at the critical junctures of election campaigns, the list of violations against the online practices and speech of conservatives is long. I certainly had my suspicions confirmed when Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, “accidentally” censored a post I made regarding the Jussie Smollett hoax, which consequently led to me hearing from hundreds of my followers about how they’ve been having problems seeing, liking or being able to interact with my posts. Many of them even claimed that they’ve had to repeatedly refollow me, as Instagram keeps unfollowing me on their accounts. While nothing about Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives truly surprises me anymore, it’s still chilling to see the proof for yourself.

UNITED NATIONS - In January, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, tasked his Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, to “present a global plan of action against hate speech and hate crimes on a fast-track basis”. Speaking at a press conference about the UN’s challenges for 2019, Guterres maintained, “The biggest challenge that governments and institutions face today is to show that we care — and to mobilize solutions that respond to people’s fears and anxieties with answers…” One of those answers, Guterres appeared to suggest, is shutting down free speech. “We need to enlist every segment of society in the battle for values that our world faces today – and, in particular, to tackle the rise of hate speech, xenophobia and intolerance. We hear troubling, hateful echoes of eras long past” Guterres said, “Poisonous views are penetrating political debates and polluting the mainstream. Let’s never forget the lessons of the 1930s. Hate speech and hate crimes are direct threats to human rights…”

USA - Taiwan is a vibrant democracy and reliable partner of the United States, and yet for several decades the State Department has created complex internal restrictions to regulate our diplomats, service members, and other officials’ interactions with their Taiwanese counterparts. The United States government took these actions unilaterally, in an attempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing. No more. Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions. Executive branch agencies should consider all “contact guidelines” regarding relations with Taiwan previously issued by the Department of State under authorities delegated to the Secretary of State to be null and void.

IRAN - Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards unveiled an underground missile base at an undisclosed Gulf location on Friday, Iranian state media reported, at a time of heightened tension between Tehran and the United States. "The base is one of several bases housing the Guards' Navy's strategic missiles," the state media quoted the head of the Guards, Major General Hossein Salami, as saying. Last year, the Guards said Iran had built underground "missile cities" along the Gulf coastline, warning of a "nightmare for Iran's enemies". "These missiles have ranges of hundreds of kilometres, enjoy pinpoint accuracy and huge destructive power, and can overcome the enemy's electronic warfare equipment," Salami said. He said the base was "one of several bases housing the Navy's strategic missiles".

USA - Today, President Donald J Trump declared that an emergency exists in the District of Columbia and ordered Federal assistance to supplement the District’s response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from the 59th Presidential Inauguration from January 11 to January 24, 2021. The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the District of Columbia. Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 100 percent Federal funding.

USA - With unilateral censorship of a sitting US president, Big Tech has proven it’s more powerful than any government. Big Tech’s moves to muscle President Donald Trump off social media have been heralded by some as victory. But a corporate-run state with politicians serving as mere figureheads amounts to the very fascism they claim to oppose.