By  Phillip Stutts
Is big-tech censorship out of control? Clearly yes. Three recent stories, like the many others before them, portend a scary future for using social media platforms to market oneâs business or cause.
Let me tell you what happened. Justin Donald wanted to spread his unique financial message to the average investor. He hit it big. His recently released book, âThe Lifestyle Investor: The 10 Commandments of Cash Flow Investing for Passive Income and Financial Freedom,â landed No. 1 on the Wall Street Journalâs best-seller list. Pretty cool, right?
It almost didnât happen. As Justin was planning to launch his book, he needed to get it loaded onto Amazonâs platform for sale. Amazon refused.
Thatâs right, Amazon refused to put Justinâs book on their platform because he had dared to describe (in his book) how he invested and made money during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazonâs explanation? They said Justin was not a medical professional, so he wasnât allowed to even use the following words in his book: âpandemic,â âCOVID,â âCOVID-19,â and âcoronavirus.â Iâm not making this up.
Even though Justin was only using those medical terms to address how his investment portfolio performed during the pandemic, Amazon refused to budge. So he removed the terms from his book. Utterly ridiculous.
The second story is even worse. It involves an incredible charity called the Emerald Coast Childrenâs Advocacy Center (ECCAC), whose mission is to provide support for children who have been sexually or physically abused, neglected, or assaulted. What was ECCACâS social media crime?
Facebook categorizes ECCAC as a âsocial issue organization,â and Facebook has banned ads for these types of nonprofits since October 27, 2020. So ECCAC was unable to run a digital fundraising membership campaign to end 2020, the most challenging year in their history due to the lockdowns. With Facebookâs ban now ending on March 4, ECCAC also missed out on their early 2021 online fundraising.
Bottom line: A charity that needs donors to fund their efforts to save sexually and physically abused kids from harm is being banned from promoting their work to grow supporters and their community on Facebook. This is actually happening.
Iâve had my own issues with Facebook. They banned my soon-to-be-released business marketing book called âThe Undefeated Marketing System â How To Grow Your Business And Build Your Brand Using The Secret Formula That Elects Presidents.â
Let me ask you a question: does that title sound like a book thatâs trying to influence an election? Or does it sound like a business marketing book?
Facebook said my title was a violation of their political ad ban and that my ads were trying to influence an election. What election was I trying to influence?
Flabbergasted, I told my team to appeal the decision and explain to the moronic Facebook âhall monitorsâ that the book has nothing to do with right versus left or any election; itâs about how business leaders should employ a five-step marketing system that is used to elect presidents, including Donald Trump, Joe Biden, or any political candidate at all.
Iâll give you one guess as to how the referees at Facebook responded to my appeal. You got it right, they refused to back down and then banned my business book ad campaign, again, claiming it was a violation of their policy for trying to influence an election.
Still confused? So were Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino of Fox News when they interviewed me on this Facebook ban story:
Since 2018, political advertisements have been subjected to the scrutiny of the social media police. You might think thatâs a great idea (everyone hates those crazy political ads!) until you realize that it now extends to certain charities, like ECCAC.
It only took two years for these policies to seep into the nonprofit and corporate marketing world. The tech oligarchs donât care what your intent is, they will decide what ad, what message or what company triggers their algorithm and thus can determine your fate. Right or wrong â doesnât matter.
So @amazon announcing that it will no longer sell books with "material we deem inappropriate or offensive" makes me wonder if they'll start with The Bible, The Koran, or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) February 27, 2021
Over the past two years, Iâve laid out my belief that social media is coming upon a big disruption. Whether it happens in the next year or five years, Iâm more convinced than ever that itâs coming.
Ultimately, Congress must do something stop this blatant censorship. The law in place right now, called âSection 230 of the Communications Decency Act,â basically gives the social media companies legal immunity over their usersâ words and actions.
This has given those social media companies the leverage to police speech. A few Democrat U.S. senators want to address some of these issues with their recent proposal called the Safe Tech Act.
Still, unfortunately, their effort will fall short of holding big tech accountable and might actually give these platforms more power over you and your messages, data, and ad dollars. Itâs a scary time.