12.07.20 11:55 ET
Or just as easily I could have titled this the Death of TheBlaze.com, or the Death of Breitbart.com, etc…
And yes America, we are at a really strange place in our lives.
This article is to praise ZeroHedge.com, not to bury it.
What does this mean? Way, way, way back in history that everyone has forgotten, Twitter decided to ban Tyler Durden’s website for unspecified threats to the well being of mankind:
With this action announced on February 1, 2020, mankind stepped back from the precipice, and the world was saved. Or was it? The reality is that this was the beginning of a new wave of corporate and leftist censorship that started ages ago with the purging of Alex Jones from every platform known to man and has continued since.
Thus when ZeroHedge was banned by Twitter, and then in June demonetized by Google Ads, a much larger red flag should have gone up.
There was some huffing from the usual talk show hucksters that pass themselves off as “conservatives” and even some astonishment in the usually ignorant financial media, but in reality, few cared but regular readers like myself who know what is coming next.
The average person has very little understanding on the framework for which the internet and the commercial ventures which have made this work functions. It is not a criticism. I’m not able to dissect a designed play in a professional baseball game nor understand how gravity does not work on Nancy Pelosi’s sagged face. The truth is that it is not that important; until times like now when those who ignored history in 2016 will begin to see their favorite websites, be they news or commerce related slowly start to disappear.
ZDNet reminded everyone about the danger of what is coming in an article on March 31, 2016 titled, “Stop the Obama administration from surrendering authority over the Internet” with a stunning subtitle which says it all:
The “IANA Transition” took a big step forward this month and we are one step closer to the US government handing control over the DNS and IP numbering to a vaguely-defined group accountable, effectively, to nobody.
The bold and highlighting of this statement was my own and for good reason. With the age of government and commercial censorship moving at lightning speed, the author of the article linked above, Larry Seltzer, offered this stark warning:
Who is the “global multistakeholder community” to which the NTIA refers? It’s basically the same shifty technocracy that has been running ICANN for a while, the one that makes gobs of money for themselves by creating top-level domains like .christmas and .florist. To replace the NTIA oversight functions they will create new entities, all part of ICANN. In other words, ICANN will police itself. The supervisory bodies will, in theory, have the ability to change operators for the numbering or naming systems, but I’m skeptical.
So the very technocracy which “polices itself” and tried to eradicate ZeroHedge‘s web presence and commercial viability will now hold sway over the DNS assignment and naming properties of the internet. The bigger news is that since it is a vaguely designed “international” body, U.S. law will not be the final avenue for redress hence an individual or company which is banned from the popular version of the internet will simply become non-viable commercial entity or just disappear completely.
For the skeptical reader who thinks that I’ve been hanging out in Austin, TX smoking the conspiracy pipe with Alex, I hate to break this to you:
It’s already happening.
The most unpopular of websites are suddenly losing their ability to participate on the internet by Network Solutions and/or ICANN removing their domain name assignment, which means that their websites will not be visible, nor commercially viable, to 99.9% of popular browsers in use. In other words, the domain name which is assigned to a IP address is no longer allowed to use the servers of the “global” internet to find that IP address. More on that aspect later without getting too wonky or technical, it is the ultimate in censorship and something I feared would happen many years ago.
An America First website, VDARE.com, is controversial, no ifs, ands or buts about it. They focus on illegal immigration and economic policies which prioritize American Constitutional law and fight to protect the rights of American citizens over those of the “world.” The reporting there is excellent and the fact that they post the truth with documented accuracy makes them dangerous.
Thus they are considered bigots and racists, and all of the usual names assigned to so-called right-wing websites. On June 15, 2020 they were notified by Network Solutions that they were terminating their contract after 20 years. The statement from VDARE.com‘s website says it all:
This is very serious—if you do not take action, you may no longer be able to read VDARE.com very soon.
This Monday, June 15th, Network Solutions, our domain name registrar, suddenly gave us 10 days’ notice of its intention to terminate our account, after some 20 years. It gave no specific reasons beyond alleged violations of its Acceptable Use Policy, but said “we consider your continued use of our services a serious issue and risk to our business and corporate reputation.”
Shocking? No. This was coming, be it from the government or the international technocracy. The smaller websites which fight to provide alternative points of view on news and events in our own country are now considered a global threat. The other sentence from the statement linked above also spells it out:
A domain name registrar handles the reservation of web addresses. Without registration, VDARE.com would be inaccessible on normal web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge.
Thus they would be forced to the “dark web” which despite the connotations, is not just the Wild West full of crypto traders, porno operators, etc. It could also be classified as the proverbial “Island of Misfit Toys” from Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.
If this could happen to VDARE.com, who else could it happen to? ZeroHedge? Easily. There are numerous global financiers who view the enterprising journalism and actual analysis of their lies within the greater economy and markets as a threat. Breitbart? In a flash. The Blaze? Say goodbye. If a President Biden/Warren administration were to appear, within two years the great internet gambit Glenn Beck gambled his fortunes on could simply become a pirate radio station broadcasting into the darkness of night.
Beyond the actions by ICANN and the greater technocracy will be the hosting services like Yahoo, GoDaddy, etc. which soon be pressured to de-list or refuse to host any website which is “harmful to the greater good of the world community” thus leaving many web operators (like myself) in the lurch. Without massive resources to fight this, as in the tens of millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of websites and podcasts will simply vanish without warning as the left’s march to information dominance moves forward unchecked.
At this point in time, there is very little legally that can be done. The Republicon Party is more than happy to have their critics silenced while taking millions of dollars in bribes, er, contributions from these very same companies. President Trump has either not been made aware of this threat or he has regarded it as not ‘bigly’ enough to deal with. Thus all I can say folks is to prepare. Bolster your ability to operate via alternative non-censored methods and download browsers like the one from TOR Project which allows one to obtain direct connections to individual websites using direct web addresses, bypassing the censors.
Regardless of what one thinks, the great invention of the internet is at a crossroads where freedom and liberty will be vanishing soon. It will be masked by a corporate happy face but in the end, the user will be forced to bow down to the most powerful coalition of corporate and financial forces in the world. Or else the “conveniences” of life like Amazon, travel websites, free email, etc. will simply be denied to those who do not “play ball.”
Prepare now as the end game is well underway.
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