There is a strong case to be made that the censorship of conservative voices across the Internet happens more frequently than the suppression of left leaning viewpoints. Last year, for instance, several former Facebook contractors informed the tech site Gizmodo.com that the social media giant “routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers,” and that they were instructed to “inject” certain topics into Facebook’s trending list, even if those topics weren’t popular or relevant. Google and Twitter have been caught doing the same thing in recent months – censoring content that does not conform to the progressive agenda (Related: Read about why the CEO of News Corp refers to Google and Facebook’s algorithms as a whole new kind of Orwellian censorship.)

But while there’s no doubt that some of the Internet’s biggest players have made a deliberate attempt to shut down conservative speech, it turns out that some on the left have experienced the same form of political censorship. In addition to many pro-Trump YouTube personalities like Diamond and Silk, content creators such as Luke Rudkowski, founder of We Are Change, are also beginning to see their videos become demonetized.

The Activist Post asked Rudkowski, who has been highly critical of President Trump in recent YouTube videos, whether or not he believed that pro-Trump users were specifically being targeted for censorship. “Obviously that is not the case since it looks like they hit me first and my channel is clearly very critical of Donald Trump for the real reasons that the MSM would never touch,” he said.

But it doesn’t just stop with We Are Change and pro-Trump individuals. The far left World Socialist Web Site has also come forward with claims of political censorship. “Truthout, a not-for-profit news website that focuses on political, social, and ecological developments from a left progressive standpoint, had its readership plunge by 35 percent since April,” the World Socialist Web tyrannySite wrote in a scathing report. “The Real News, a nonprofit video news and documentary service, has had its search traffic fall by 37 percent. Another site, Common Dreams, last week told the WSWS that its search traffic had fallen by up to 50 percent.” (Related: If Google and Facebook are not regulated, it will lead to open warfare in the streets.)

Obviously, something is going on here that shouldn’t be. It’s not a coincidence that political videos posted online from people on both sides of the political spectrum are being demonetized, hidden from other users, and in some cases silenced altogether. It would be a different story if a single YouTube account became demonetized, or a single website saw a significant decrease in traffic – in both of those cases, it would most likely just be a mistake or some kind of a glitch in Google’s algorithm. But these occurrences are not isolated; political censorship on the Internet is sadly starting to become commonplace.

In the year 1737, decades before the colonies rebelled against the crown, a young Benjamin Franklin wrote about the freedom of speech in an article published in The Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin wrote that the “Freedom of speech is a principle pillar of a free government,” and when that freedom is taken away, the Constitution is dissolved “and tyranny is erected on its ruins.”

It’s incredible how almost three centuries after the publication of that article, Franklin’s words are still as relevant as ever. Indeed, this will be the fate of our country if Internet giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter continue this pattern of censorship and political suppression. What you allow to continue will continue, which is why it is the responsibility of people from all points of the political spectrum to speak out as advocates of the First Amendment. Once tyranny gains a foothold and the circle of liberty that surrounds each and every one of us shrinks down to virtually nothing, it will be almost impossible to bring America back to Constitutional principles.

Sources include:

ActivistPost.com

FoxNews.com

TheFire.org