The abuse and manipulation of your real-life and virtual Networks by Governments through Social Media
Everyone needs social interactions. Then without it, we easily can fall into an intellectual hole that opens all hell of decay. This is why we must learn to build our private and business networks. That process starts already at young age during your school time, goes right into University and later expands into your living and working environment. Best practice is to ensure your network to last for a life time. We know through researches done, that a person has about three (3) to five (5) close and personal connections - I call it "solid connections" - throughout his/her life. But our manageable connections is way above that somewhere around 150 real people. Those come from all sort of places and are of different kind of personalities.
Today in our modern world of Social Medias (SM) and the Internet, people try to amass as many friends (some call it followers) as possible. When they have 10'000 or 50'k maybe even over 100'000 connections for sure we then can't speak of friends anymore. Those are really only "followers". You clearly will not be able to manage all of them. Not even being able to interact properly with them. But I agree, depending on the purpose of your SM account, you need to have a large or very large follower community that will guaranty you can generate your income that is vital to support your family or your own lifestyle. I even pretend, that those relying only on SM connections most likely have fewer real friends. Or the other way around, people with less real friends tend to dwell into SM and try to build followers with the hope a human friendship comes out of it.
When I was a younger person we didn't have Internet and those SMs we know today. No matter what, we needed to engage physically to make friends. We went out, did sport, joined a club. Or more profane when you went shopping in your neighborhood and met always the same people. You sure connected more to one or the other person.
But whatever form of connection you have with others, there is this very important undertaking; you communicate with them over whatever topic that seems interesting for both. And that interaction, face2face or online, is what gives us new input that helps us go a step further with our own thoughts we have at that moment. Most of the time this is a mental process and sometimes a physical one if it resorts to a closer relationship.
Fast jump forward. We are now in 2019. Over the past 30 years I had to rebuilt my real human social and business networks at least 5 times - yes you read it right f_i_v_e times. This is because #PetHus followed me like a shadow over all those times. At some times he was so tight behind me that he was able to instantly undo any connection I was trying to rebuild. My Government is really good at it. Already back in the pre 1990's they abused familial bonds and friendships to nurture their Machiavellian agenda that in 1990 was then exposed. It was a big socio-political scandal.
But now with Social Medias becoming a prime tool to connect with anyone around the world and share your thoughts, experiences and - Yes, also crimes committed by Governments, it is very easy to block such information passing through and reaching the right people. We refer to such kind of interferences as "#shadowbanning" or "#deboosting". Worse to come you will be "#deplatformed". This means your account is suspended.
My country has since around 2005 started to work with SM companies like #Facebook. That I'm sure to know. Most likely they now also have expanded this "community service" to #Twitter (that I'm sure since around 2006), #Reddit and #Instagram. What is the idea behind this (my Governmental) engagement? First they offer to them to "police" SM on their behalf and watch out for any bad and/or criminal activities. Do this means, having full access to those SM platforms so they can delete, maybe even ban or block content that is meant to be distributed. They give feedbacks and suggestions to developers of those SM platforms how to improve disruptions of content. But here comes the bigger benefit for my country; "they can easily catch anything that is considered negative news towards my country. They can literally clean the internet of anything that sounds critical towards them. That benefit is worth investing and engaging in policing SM platforms.
Why do I know this? Because I read it in an official report a decade ago. Also, I first hand experienced how my SM accounts were destroyed. Back in 2013 I opened my first #Facebook and #Twitter account. It was a time where my communication was really tightly monitored. I usually follow folks in the running community as long I feel they have something interesting to tell or are inspiring. So, one day I noticed that somewhere unfollowed. I followed back again but asked them why they unfollowed me. "I didn't!" was their reply. And I have no doubt they spoke the truth. Also, I don't believe that it was a technical error as the same specific accounts again where unfollowed a short while later. This happen on #Facebook. There was another really severe case of #banning me on FB. One day I logged in and saw all my #followers and those I #follow to be gone. I eMailed FB support and - now that is important - and I got all back within 20 hours. That is important to me. We know that Facebook is not fast in reacting. It takes not less than 1-2 days. In my case all was restored within 20 hours. On #Twitter I had a follower count of around 245. I noticed that I got notification of new followers. Sometimes 2-3 times a day, but my #follower number never moved. I eMailed Twitter asking them to check if there is any issue. Their reply was that "nothing is wrong". I'm no expert on SM, still I recognize the value of connecting with the world. I agree, that I had in mind to build my followers so one day I could tell and share this horrific story that has taken place over all those years. This idea got killed right at the root. Those accounts where created at times when my communication was tightly monitored including my computer was compromised (that’s a story by itself).
Last year in 2018 I gave it another try creating a new private SM account. This time at #Twitter, #Instagram, and #Reddit. In addition, I created @YADfiles across several mainstream Social Medias (msSM) and alternative Social Medias (aSM). And again, my accounts have been #Shadowbanned on all msSM. I noticed, that it took them about a half a year to figure out I have new SM accounts. I'm not sure how much @YADfiles was not known to my government. But it was only when I added to a long list of hashtags the word #YADfiles. That is when I noticed the #shadowbanning started. And it is pretty visible; NO liking, NO commenting, and NO following. Also I noticed that my follower counts are going down by about One per week. Are those losses of followers real or part of the #shadowbanning? Or is the narative; instead of #deplatforming you just make sure no one can post, nor like, nor comment, nor follow. And by the time you have no more followers your SM account becomes useless. In August 2019, I still was free doing anything on the account of @YADfiles. But once on my private #Instagram account the #shadowbanning worked, then they implemented it also on @YADfiles (in September 2019). Now I'm shadowbanned on both of my accounts. That said, I don't think it's a technical hiccup nor is it a coincidence that both of my accounts become #shadowbanned within a couple of weeks. Just to be clear, as of today I have not spoken to anyone that I'm holding the handle @YADfiles. Nor haven't I shared it with anyone. People know my private account but not @YADfiles.
Above I wrote that I'm not sure how much my government knows about my @YADfiles account. Sometimes this year I wanted to find out how @YADfiles is shown and found in Google searches. Example, I search for "@YADfiles Instageram" (I tried with and without the quotes). Guess what; NO result at all despite I have being posting stuff on Instageram. I tried that search using various browser with and w/out VPN, I tried it on different computers, different browsers, on different WiFi's, and even tried it using Tor (the secured browser) where deep web searches on .onion should show something. I'm sure, that under normal circumstances "at least" one time I should have found a positive result. But no, nothing nowhere. This tells me that even on Google I seems to be banned. As the searches can find myself on Twitter and WordPress but not on Instagram makes me wonder if my Government has special influence within #Instagram.
Another msSM platform - #Reddit, #shadowbanned me this year for complete nefarious reasons. Some months ago I added my comment to a discussion within the runners community. To make my point, I mentioned a "personal experience" and refered to a blog post on my Telegram channel. I wrote; "... you can read more about it on Telegram using the handle @YADfiles" (or similar). Just very brief with no link nothing - just the word Telegram and my handle @YADfiles that can be used in anyways. Just a little later the Moderator wrote back; "... you are banned from posting any comments in the runner’s community!". When I asking them for being more specific, they moved the goal post saying; "... and your account name is not a real name!". Still they have not lost any words about why I was banned from posting. Again, I asked for being more specific, they replied back; "... you are blocked for 48 hours from writing to the moderators!". Now, when you read their rules and regulations, they clearly state; "you will be banned when you -- repeatedly break the rules!". So which rules did I break? No one tells anything. Did they warn me beforehand? Nop! Did I break a rule before? Nop! This tells me, that my Government does know my handle @YADfiles. They are very scared that me telling the #runners world community what my Government has done - killing my running ability with their home-made chemicals. A product we still don't know what was in it. But we know the effect and the outcome - I can't run anymore as I used to. That is a scandal, that is a crime that needs to be exposed. And that is exactly what my Government wants to prevent - no matter what it takes. They are fucking scarred now.
Dear reader, please help spread this. I need your support to expose those crimes committed over the past 30 years. Please follow also my Telegram channel https://t.me/YADfiles - thank you.
