http://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2021/08/04/the-social-media-giants-call-me-a-violent-extremist-youre-next-n1467137
By Robert Spencer
PJ Media
August 4, 2021
Reading PJ Media the other day, I discovered to my shock that, without my knowing it, I’ve somehow become a violent extremist. As a result, the social media giants Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube are determined to eradicate my nefarious presence from the interwebs. I don’t know when this particular boom will be lowered on me, if ever, but if my website Jihad Watch and I suddenly disappear from your daily Internet reading, you’ll know that our intrepid self-appointed protectors are working night and day to keep you safe from violent extremism, and are to be commended for doing so.
It turns out that I’m a violent extremist in the view of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), which I might have viewed as yet another crackpot Leftist attempt to deflect attention away from the ongoing reality of Islamic jihad terrorism, and toward the chimeras of “white supremacist terrorism,” “Trumpist terrorism,” and whatever else they’re calling foes of Old White Joe these days. However, as Tyler O’Neil explained, GIFCT is not just some odiferous Antifa ideologue typing away in his mother’s basement. GIFCT “shares terrorism data among Big Tech companies, enabling them to flag and remove terrorist content,” and has just announced that it “significantly expanded the types of extremist content in its database, aiming to crack down on material from white supremacists and far-right militias.”
Among those “white supremacists and far-right militias” that the GIFCT is going to crack down on is a middle-aged writer who spends most of every day typing. Yeah, I do make it a point to exercise regularly, but I could do a whole lot more of that, and I hardly think that qualifies me as a “militia.” Nevertheless, in the list of the dangerous violent extremist groups it is heading into mortal combat against, there is Jihad Watch, my small organization designed to report on jihad activity and its motivating ideology.
Jihad Watch is right there among the real terrorists. At the highest level of the GIFCT’s threat chart, Level 3, are the groups it considers as actual bloodthirsty, dangerous terrorists: Boogaloo Boys, Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist Network, Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State (ISIS), the Irish Republican Army, and the like. Some of this makes sense. ISIS and al-Qaeda? Sure. The KKK threat is wildly overblown today for political purposes, but I won’t quibble with their classification here; they’re certainly an evil group. The IRA is still around, although its glory days have passed, and I won’t argue with that either.
After that, however, the list gets much stranger. On Level 2, “Violent Extremism,” you’ve got groups that are being scapegoated as the “Trumpist terrorists” responsible for the January 6 “insurrection”: Blood & Honour, Oath Keepers, and the Proud Boys. And right along with them is Jihad Watch.
One reassuring thing amid this Internet death sentence is the fact that Antifa, of all people, is also listed at Level 2. Are Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube really going to crack down on Antifa activity on their platforms? Yeah, sure they are, and I’m the King of Siam. So their inclusion may mean that Jihad Watch and I won’t be targeted, any more than Antifa will, but on the other hand, lumping us in with Antifa is ominous: Here is a gang of violent, criminal thugs that has been openly calling for and applauding violence in cities all over the country, and as far as the counter-terror “experts” at the GIFCT are concerned, it’s essentially equivalent to an organization with a minuscule staff that tracks jihad terror activity and elucidates its motives and goals.
That’s the worst aspect of the GIFCT’s classification. If the social media giants can nonetheless tar us as “violent extremists” and threaten to shut us down accordingly, they can do it to anyone. They can do it to you. You don’t have a criminal record? Neither do I. You’ve never called for any violence? Neither have I. You don’t approve of any violence? Neither do I. If now the Left has decided that anyone who opposes its totalitarian agenda is a “violent extremist,” evidence be damned, no one is safe. And no one is.
If I disappear from the net, or even from society, someday soon, you’ll know that the good folks at the GIFCT have done their job. But it didn’t begin with me, and it won’t end with me. And if the faceless mega-corporations that control the means of communication today can brand me a violent extremist with no evidence whatsoever, but also with no means of discussion or appeal, I won’t be the last one to whom they do it.
You may not like what I say. You may not even think I’m telling the truth, even though I am. You may think that your political views line up with those of Big Tech, such that you have nothing to worry about. But you do. If evidence isn’t needed in my case, it won’t be needed in yours, either. Your time will come. The GIFCT is another significant move away from a society based on evidence and the rule of law. Societies have experienced this before, and have slid all the way into totalitarianism. It isn’t too late to stop that slide here. But it’s getting there.
Robert Spencer
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 23 books, including many bestsellers, such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad and The History of Jihad. His latest book is Did Muhammad Exist?: An Inquiry into Islam's Obscure Origins―Revised and Expanded Edition. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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