Did someone leak the Democrats' plans for the media?

Parler is not a competitor to Apple, Google or Amazon. None of them have a social media presence.

Apple,Google and Amazon are competitors to each other and their apps all reside on each companies devices/stores.

Nope, they aren’t that stupid

Yes, Parler is not a direct competitor to Apple, Google, or Amazon in social media. On the other hand, Parler is a competitor in that it provides a forum for ideas that contradict the increasingly rigidly orthodoxy being imposed on Twitter, Alphabet/Google’s YouTube, the Apple News app, etc.

A reasonable question is why the tech giants would coordinate to push Parler off the internet completely? A logical answer is government pressure. Democrats have certainly cheered the removal of Trump from Twitter and takedown of Parler.

What can the government do to enforce the takedown by private companies? Again Putin provides the playbook. For a start expect selective enforcement of the anti-trust and tax laws and slow-walking government approval for new construction.

Realize that any large business is bound to have some irregularities in taxes or operations, and prosecutors have huge discretion in what kind of penalties they can impose. That is true in the US as well as Russia, and US officials have criticized Putin’s use of selective prosecution against political opponents:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/clinton-condemns-russian-oil-tycoon-s-conviction

Of course modern surveillance technology means that the government has access to practically every private email and phone conversation. Senator Church warned about the dangers back in the 1970s:

YouTube and Apples news app are not competitors to Parler. Twitter is the closest.

You assume those competitors coordinated. Apple, Google and Amazon did not remove competition. They removed an app that was a breeding ground for terrorists and white Supremacists.

It is a coordinated effort, but at a higher level. It is not Dorsey coordinating with Zuckerberg. It is not even elected reps coordinating with any of them.

It is a coordination of changing values.

Yes, that is exactly the kind of logic that Putin uses to silence political opponents. Of course the Putin’s policies are much different than Democrats, but their playbooks are very much the same.

The fact that most of those arrested at the Capitol used Facebook and Twitter, not Parler, has been ignored, but smaller platforms that allow more freedom are suppressed.

For comparison, here are few descriptions from Russia about how Putin uses censorship to maintain power:

Pervasive, hyperpatriotic propaganda and political repression—particularly since Russian forces’ invasion of Ukraine in 2014—have had a cumulative impact on open and free private discussion, and the chilling effect is exacerbated by growing state efforts to control expression on the internet.

The government restricts freedom of assembly. Overwhelming police responses, the use of force, routine arrests, and harsh fines and prison sentences have discouraged unsanctioned protests, while pro-Kremlin groups are able to demonstrate freely.

As with his past elections, President Putin’s campaign for a second term in 2018 benefited from advantages including preferential media treatment, numerous abuses of incumbency, and procedural irregularities during the vote count. His most potent rival, Aleksey Navalny, was disqualified before the campaign began due to a politically motivated criminal conviction . . .
Russia: Freedom in the World 2020 Country Report | Freedom House

Of course Russia’s current censorship regime is mild compared to that experienced during the Soviet era when even a small complaint about the leadership could result in a one-way trip to Siberia. Will Democrats be satisfied with the Putin-style politics of using government pressure and intimidation to silence political opponents?

Or is this just a transitional phase to Stalinist gulags?

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Of course it’s just a transitional phase to Stalinist gulags. It’s going to be called ‘infrastructure week’.

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So much for the rights of business owners to decide how they want to run their business, eh?

Guess they kind of know how that couple at the bakery felt now, huh?

PBS fired their attorney who called for the government to take children of Trump supporters and set them to camps:

Sounds like he was answering the question “What would Stalin do?”

Was he fired because his ideas were so ridiculous or because he was admitting what Democrats really want to do?

Similar ideas have come from Sander’s campaign operatives early in the campaign:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/01/14/sanders_campaign_organizer_free_education_gulags_needed_to_re-educate_you_not_to_be_a_fcking_nazi.html

Parents now at home are waking up to the various indoctrination efforts by school systems. 1619, white shaming, white guilt, outing parents as racists etc etc. “Gulags” and re-education? This will be fun.

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Putin’s Russia could seem like a bastion of freedom if some of the extreme elements of the Democratic Party have their way.

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Sounds good to me.

Can’t handle the truth.

The same can be said for right wing extremists. Yawn.

Maybe he was fired because he was a nutbag.

Yes I am sure a guy willing to say that stuff to a stranger never mentioned it before to anyone he works with. Sounds right.

Or the right person wasn’t around to hear it.

Most likely, he fit right in and is only gone because the public heard his nonsense.

Probably. I’ve seen it happen before, first hand.

Or maybe they are looking at the bottom line as well.