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<h1 class="seo-highlighter"><span id="bcr_lblSubject">Peak
Internet — The Censorship Bubble Is About to Burst</span></h1>
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<h3 id="expanderHead" data-jsid="expanderHead">Story at-a-glance </h3>
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<span id="bcr_rptStory_cslStory_0">May 20, 2020, Infowars
host Alex Jones revealed Joe Rogan had signed a $100
million exclusivity contract with Spotify for his Joe
Rogan Experience Podcast</span>
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<li>
<span id="bcr_rptStory_cslStory_1">According to Rogan, the
move is his way to strike back against YouTube censorship</span>
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<li>
<span id="bcr_rptStory_cslStory_2">With 8.49 million
subscribers, Rogan is one of YouTube’s biggest channels.
His departure is predicted by many to be a serious blow to
YouTube. Rogan’s move matters because the media landscape
is changing, and Rogan — and others like him — are the
news now</span>
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<li>
<span id="bcr_rptStory_cslStory_3">Whether Spotify will in
fact live up to Rogan's expectation of non-bias remains to
be seen. Two of my coronavirus interviews have been
deleted off Spotify without recourse</span>
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<li>
<span id="bcr_rptStory_cslStory_4">Spotify claims it only
prohibits illegal content, hate content and infringing
content. My interviews about coronavirus with Brian Hoyer
and Judy Mikovits, Ph.D., clearly do not fall under any of
these categories, yet were removed without explanation</span>
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<p>Over the past year, I've written extensively about the
initially creeping — and then sweeping — censorship occurring
online. Initially, the censorship vortex was on vaccines.
Social media platforms and Google all started suppressing and
then outright <a
href="https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/05/28/vaccine-censorship.aspx">banning
content raising questions about vaccine safety</a>. </p>
<p>I warned everyone that this would eventually spread to other
topics that might threaten a corporate bottom line. The only
surprise was how quickly that happened. Within months, <a
href="https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/06/24/google-latest-algorithm-update-buries-mercola.aspx">Google</a>
started shadow banning and hiding holistic health sites,
including this one, in its search results.</p>
<p>In August 2019, I made the decision to <a
href="https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/08/13/mercola-leaving-facebook.aspx">leave
Facebook</a> due to its clear censoring of valid and
truthful information. One year from the time social media
platforms began censoring vaccine information, they all
started banning views on COVID-19 treatments that differ from
that of the World Health Organization.</p>
<h2>The Dangerous Suppression of Freedom of Speech </h2>
<p>YouTube's CEO even went on the record stating they will <a
href="https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/05/05/youtube-censorship.aspx">block
any video that goes against WHO guidance</a> on the COVID-19
pandemic. Shockingly, this includes videos and articles by
medical doctors, emergency care specialists and researchers
who share their clinical experiences, recommendations and
scientific findings. </p>
<p>Just one of countless examples was a May 17, 2020, Full
Measure News report<sup style="font-size: 10px;"><span
id="edn1" data-hash="#ednref1">1</span></sup> in which
Sharyl Attkisson interviewed doctors reporting good results
with hydroxychloroquine. The segment also looked at the
potential financial motives driving the mass media's disdain
for the drug, while promoting remdesivir and
as-of-yet-unavailable vaccines.</p>
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<figure class="op-interactive aspect-ratio"> </figure>
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<p>Just the News, which reported the takedown of Full Measure's
video, writes:<sup style="font-size: 10px;"><span id="edn2"
data-hash="#ednref2">2</span></sup></p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>"Dr. Jane Orient, the executive director of the
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons as well as
a clinical lecturer at the University of Arizona College
of Medicine, urged viewers to 'look at the money' when it
comes to the two drugs. </em></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><em>'There's no big profits made in hydroxychloroquine,'
said Orient. 'It's very cheap, easy to manufacture, been
around for 70 years. It's generic. </em></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Remdesivir is a new drug that could be very expensive
and very lucrative if it's ever approved. So I think we
really do have to consider there's some financial interest
involved here' … </em></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><em>'These are organized efforts,' [Attkisson] said,
arguing that politically biased parties are behind efforts
to remove or censor contrarian information on social media
…</em></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><em>She noted recent efforts by Democratic Rep. Adam
Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,
to pressure social media companies to censor and downgrade
'harmful' coronavirus-related material and push users
instead toward information from the World Health
Organization. 'I don't know why we're allowing this,'
Attkisson said. 'Nobody appointed Adam Schiff to police
our content on social media.'"</em></p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Joe Rogan Ditches YouTube</h2>
<p>May 20, 2020, Infowars host Alex Jones revealed Joe Rogan has
signed an exclusivity contract with Spotify for his Joe Rogan
Experience Podcast. You can <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV6n9wPUQOk&feature=emb_logo">find
the video here</a>. Rogan had reportedly asked Jones to make
the announcement. </p>
<p>According to Rogan, the move is his way to strike back
against YouTube censorship. Granted, the $100 million paycheck
from Spotify probably didn't make it a particularly difficult
decision. It also turned out to be a stroke of genius for
Spotify, the stock of which jumped 8.4%, or more than $5
billion dollars, after Rogan announced the move on Twitter.<sup
style="font-size: 10px;"><span id="edn3"
data-hash="#ednref3">3</span></sup></p>
<p>Jones was one of the first controversial figures to be banned
from YouTube, which appears to be the reason he gave Jones the
scoop. The straw that broke the camel's back, Rogan says, was
YouTube's decision to block differing opinions on COVID-19, as
he wanted to interview a variety of doctors and experts about
it. </p>
<p>But even before the pandemic, Rogan had bristled against
YouTube's decision to demonetize or remove certain interviews.
Rogan told Jones he sees YouTube's behavior as "un-American"
and "anti-human." Jones wonders if Rogan's move is symbolic of
"peak internet." Possibly, it's a sign that the censorship
bubble is about to burst.</p>
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<h2>Rogan Rules New Media Landscape </h2>
<p>With 8.52 million subscribers as of May 27, 2020,<sup
style="font-size: 10px;"><span id="edn4"
data-hash="#ednref4">4</span></sup> Rogan is currently one
of YouTube's biggest channels. His departure is predicted by
many to be a serious blow to YouTube's bottom line. As noted
by Bari Weiss in a New York Times op-ed,<sup style="font-size:
10px;"><span id="edn5" data-hash="#ednref5">5</span></sup>
Rogan's move matters because the media landscape is changing,
and Rogan — and others like him — are "the news" now. </p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>"</em><em>The timing of Rogan's rise and the Old
Guard's disintegration is not coincidental," Weiss writes.
"His success was made possible, at least in part, by
legacy media's blind spots.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><em>While GQ puts Pharrell gowned in a yellow sleeping bag
on the cover of its '</em><em>new masculinity' issue
(introduced by the editor explaining that the men's
magazine 'isn't really trying to be exclusively for or
about men at all'), Joe Rogan swings kettlebells and
bow-hunts elk. </em></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Men are hungry. He's serving steak, rare. Condé Nast,
GQ's publisher, has laid off some 100 employees since the
pandemic began. Meantime, 'The Joe Rogan Experience' has
190 million downloads a month.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><em>His success signals a profound shift, or several of
them — a shift in what people want to talk about, how they
want to hear it, and who they want to hear it from."</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Geopolitical blogger Tom Luongo comments on Rogan's appeal,
saying:<sup style="font-size: 10px;"><span id="edn6"
data-hash="#ednref6">6</span></sup></p>
<blockquote>
<p>
<em>"Rogan is an anomaly in podcasting, hell for that
matter, all of media and gods bless him for it. Who else
can get tens of millions of people to tune into him
talking with someone for three hours? CNN can't get people
to watch them for five minutes in airports …</em></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Rogan's willingness to talk with and listen to anyone
is his greatest asset. It is the key to his rise and his
future success on Spotify, who desperately needs a big
name to keep their business afloat.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Because in an age of endless spectacle and TV screens
and websites crammed to the gills with graphics to
distract you from the content, the simplicity of a
conversation between two people who aren't shouting at
each other has become a welcome node of sanity … </em></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Joe Rogan has now told the entire country that he's had
enough. And we needed someone like Joe to do this. That
said, Rogan is only one half of the story, however.
Because at the same time, one of these platforms needed to
break away from the herd and welcome the dissenters. </em></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><em>For Spotify, Joe Rogan is the 'killer app' they needed
to differentiate themselves as non-partisan and begin the
exodus away from the big platforms who have become nothing
but partisan."</em></p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Spotify Censors Two of My Coronavirus Interviews</h2>
<p> Whether Spotify will in fact live up to the expectation of
non-bias remains to be seen. I for one have my doubts, as two
of my coronavirus interviews have summarily been deleted off
Spotify without recourse. </p>
<p>Spotify claims it only prohibits illegal content, hate
content and infringing content. My interviews about
coronavirus with <a
href="https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/04/12/why-is-the-world-more-vulnerable-to-a-global-pandemic.aspx">Brian
Hoyer</a> and <a
href="https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/05/24/is-the-new-coronavirus-created-in-a-lab.aspx">Judy
Mikovits</a>, Ph.D., clearly do not fall under any of these
categories, yet Spotify removed them. So, so much for being a
platform for uncensored expression. What's worse, there is no
way to dispute Spotify's removal of these shows.</p>
<h2>Censorship Threatens Health, Democracy and Freedom </h2>
<p>Like Rogan, I have taken my stand. I put up a firewall to
prevent Google from indexing my pages, and I will never
conform to "consensus reality" just to get my Google ranking
back. I've also removed Facebook scripts. It's unfortunate,
but the way it stands right now, we have to go old-school and
share information we find valuable through word-of-mouth, by
text, email and private message.</p>
<p>As for content on this site, we have built in simple sharing
tools at the top of each article so you can easily email or
text interesting articles to your friends and family. </p>
<p>My information is here because all of you support and share
it, and we can do this without Big Tech's support. In times
like these, sharing information that is not readily available
to all is nothing short of a revolutionary act.</p>
<p>Wherever and whenever possible, we must all fight against the
oppression of censorship. Democracy hangs in the balance.
Everyone must realize that without freedom of speech and
opposing viewpoints, there can be no democracy. Instead, what
you have is a totalitarian regime. </p>
<p>As it stands, that regime is not even made up of elected
officials but unelected individuals representing for-profit
multinational corporations. It's time to break free. To do
that, consider these suggestions:</p>
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<p>Become a subscriber to my newsletter and encourage
your friends and family to do the same. This is the
easiest and safest way to make sure you'll stay up to
date on important health and environmental issues.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">
<p>If you have any friends or relatives who are
seriously interested in their health, please share
important articles with them and encourage them to
subscribe to our newsletter.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">
<p>Consider dumping any Android phone the next time you
get a phone. Android is a Google operating system and
will seek to gather as much data as they can about you
for their benefit.</p>
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</tr>
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<p>Use the <a
href="https://search.mercola.com/results.aspx?q=google#stq=google">internal
Mercola.com search engine</a> when searching for
articles on my site.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.goopocalypse.com/">Boycott Google</a>
by avoiding any and all Google products:</p>
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<p><span class="bullet">• </span>Stop using Google
search engines. Alternatives include <a
href="https://www.qwant.com/?l=en">Qwant</a> and <a
href="https://swisscows.ch/">Swisscows</a></p>
<p><span class="bullet">• </span>Uninstall Google
Chrome and use Brave or <a
href="https://www.opera.com/download">Opera
browser</a> instead, available for all computers
and mobile devices.<sup style="font-size: 10px;"><span
id="edn7" data-hash="#ednref7">7</span></sup>
From a security perspective, Opera is far superior
to Chrome and offers a free VPN service (virtual
private network) to further preserve your privacy</p>
<p><span class="bullet">• </span>If you have a Gmail
account, try a non-Google email service such as <a
href="https://protonmail.com/">ProtonMail</a>,<sup
style="font-size: 10px;"><span id="edn8"
data-hash="#ednref8">8</span></sup> an encrypted
email service based in Switzerland</p>
<p><span class="bullet">• </span>Stop using Google
docs. Digital Trends has published an article
suggesting a number of alternatives<sup
style="font-size: 10px;"><span id="edn9"
data-hash="#ednref9">9</span></sup> </p>
<p><span class="bullet">• </span>If you're a high
school student, do not convert the Google accounts
you created as a student into personal accounts</p>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
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<p>Sign the <a
href="https://citizensagainstmonopoly.org/">"Don't
be evil" petition</a> created by Citizens Against
Monopoly</p>
</td>
</tr>
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