Teens and kids are not the only ones glued to their social media feeds anymore — the vast majority of adults spend time scrolling too.
Data released earlier this year shows that a majority of American adults use some kind of social media, but their habits and preferred platforms are different from younger users.
YouTube and Facebook are both about two decades old now, but they remain the top two platforms among adults.
YouTube is by far the most widely used platform among adults as well as teens. About eight in 10 American adults, 83%, say they have used the video-sharing platform at some point, according to recent <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/01/31/americans-social-media-use/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Pew Research Center, which polled more than 5,700 adults between May and September last year.
<div id="attachment_707565" style="width: 347px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-707565" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-707565" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/PI_2024.01.31_Social-Media-use_00_01-337x576.webp" alt="" width="337" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/PI_2024.01.31_Social-Media-use_00_01-337x576.webp 337w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/PI_2024.01.31_Social-Media-use_00_01-175x300.webp 175w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/PI_2024.01.31_Social-Media-use_00_01.webp 620w" sizes="(max-width: 337px) 100vw, 337px" />Pew Research.</div>
Facebook is not far behind with a majority of U.S. adults, 68%, saying they use it. By contrast, teens have fled Facebook over the past decade as their parents, relatives, teachers, and other adults have joined. In 2022, only 32% of teens <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/#The-social-media-landscape-has-shifted" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> they had ever used Facebook, down from 71% in 2015.
Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has attracted about half of adults with 47% saying they use the image-based platform.
<div id="attachment_707569" style="width: 840px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-707569" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-707569" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/PJ_2022.08.10_teens-and-tech_0-08-830x576.webp" alt="" width="830" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/PJ_2022.08.10_teens-and-tech_0-08-830x576.webp 830w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/PJ_2022.08.10_teens-and-tech_0-08-300x208.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/PJ_2022.08.10_teens-and-tech_0-08-768x533.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/PJ_2022.08.10_teens-and-tech_0-08.webp 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px" />Pew Research.</div>
About a fifth of adults say they use Twitter, which was recently renamed X and is known for fast-moving discourse especially relating to politics and pop culture. A fifth also say they use Reddit, known for its hyper-specific communities and sometimes NSFW content.
Of course, TikTok has exploded in popularity in recent years, especially among teens and kids, but a third of adults have flocked to the video-sharing platform as well.
TikTok has seen a 12-point spike in adult users since 2021, while the percentages of adults who use YouTube and Facebook, the most popular platforms, have stayed about the same since 2021.
However, about half of TikTok&#8217;s adult users are observers only, meaning they have never posted a video themselves. This includes younger adults aged 18 to 34 — only half have ever posted a video.
Because of this, the vast majority of TikTok&#8217;s content is created by a small share of users. The top 25% of adults on TikTok produce 98% of that group&#8217;s publicly available videos.
The typical adult TikTok user has also left their &#8220;bio&#8221; blank on their account.
More people are now getting their news from TikTok too. Last year, about 14% of adults said they got news regularly from TikTok, more than four times the 3% who said so in 2020.
TikTok&#8217;s pivot to a news source echoes Twitter&#8217;s evolution, which has become many people&#8217;s go-to source for up-to-the-minute news updates.
Communities geared towards adult users, such as parenting content and even X-rated content, have popped up on many of the platforms popular with adults.
Meanwhile among teens, YouTube is the most popular platform with 95% of teens <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/#The-social-media-landscape-has-shifted" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> in 2022 that they use it, followed by TikTok with 67% of teens, Instagram with 62%, and then Snapchat, an app used to send disappearing photos and messages, with 59%.
Teen girls are more likely to use Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, while teen boys are more likely to use Reddit and Twitch, a self-streaming platform often used by video gamers.
The average social media user is also not just on one platform but uses an eye-popping six or seven platforms every month.
Overall, we&#8217;re all scrolling more. Across the globe last year, about 4.9 billion people <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/social-media-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">used</a> social media, and that number continues to climb.

Facebook Temporarily Disabling Some Messenger Features In Europe

Among Adults, This Is By Far The Most Popular Social Media Platform

Facebook

Gen Z

Instagram

Internet

Readers Pass

Reddit

Social Media

TikTok

Twitter

I have become fascinated with the Ruby Franke case. I have not publicly discussed the case because when the story broke months ago, I was not convinced that more commentary would be beneficial to add to the discussion, namely because this story was quite dark. However, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MKNgVX6u34">the statement</a> she gave in her recent court appearance was unexpected.
A Utah-based family, the Frankes became quite popular several years ago via their “8 Passengers” YouTube channel that had over two million subscribers. They fit into the YouTuber families who look like the perfect family — well-dressed, church-going (Mormon), wife, husband, six children. But by June 2020, some of those subscribers started to take note of some strange happenings in the family. Followers began criticizing Ruby Franke’s punishing techniques, they noticed the degree to which she allowed her children to prank one another, and then they realized one of her children was sleeping in a beanbag.
Viewers’ concerns escalated, and some reached out to the local Children Protection Services and went so far as to begin a petition that forcing a child to sleep in a beanbag was too harsh of a punishment. But when Franke was asked about it, she simply said the kid loved it. In 2021, Ruby and Kevin, her husband, began going to counseling with Jodie Hildebrant, a business partner who became her mentor and counselor to her children.
In August of 2022, Franke faced more criticism, this time over a lunch debacle. Her six-year-old daughter had packed a lunch but forgot it. Franke refused to take the lunch to her daughter and let her eat — a punishment obviously way too harsh for a six-year-old.
Police visited the home a few times, but it was not until August of last year when everything exploded. Franke and Hildebrant were arrested after Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped from Hildebrant’s house, ran to a neighbor, and called 911. The boy was entirely malnourished, his limbs had been duct taped, and he had visible injuries.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/beyonce-fans-don-t-come-for-me-my-review-of-her-country-music-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: Candace Owens</a></h4>
Hildebrant had allegedly become a counselor to the children; however, the son later told investigators that Hildebrant put cayenne pepper and honey on wounds he had from being tied with a rope. When the Department of Public Safety arrived at the residence, they found another child, her daughter, in comparable condition who had been subjected to the same mistreatment and abuse. As more details unfolded, more abuse came to light. The mother was apparently telling her children they were possessed, and the children believed their mom. Franke told her daughter that to be absolved from possession, she must be subjected to such treatment.
This entire situation is absolutely infuriating. It involves children. Precious, innocent children. It also involves a parent with a warped brain.
This week, Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrant were sentenced to 30 years in prison — and Franke’s not fighting it. That’s what has made this case so interesting. Typically, lawyers work to get a sentence reduced, but part of the reason this court case has moved so quickly is because she is not fighting the charges. Franke gave a rather surprising <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MKNgVX6u34">statement in front of the court</a> — surprising in that it is uncommon — saying she believes she deserves to go to prison for what she has done.
In her statement, she explains how she got to her delusional way of living, coming to believe the church was against her, the government was against her, and in order to “save” her children, she must inflict these punishments on them. She was working with an exceptionally dark and disturbed woman, Hildebrant, but Franke says it was her own choice to believe what she heard. She apologizes to her husband, thanks the police officers, addresses her parents with sincerity, and pleads to God, saying her greatest desire is to one day stand in God’s courts, spotless and confident. She ends by confirming she knows this is “a necessary step” to learn until she is “ready to re-enter as a contributing member of our beautiful society.”
What Ruby Franke did is horrible. What her children have experienced is an absolute tragedy. Even with cases such as these, we are conditioned to watch people commit atrocious crimes and then explain why we should understand they committed them.
Everyone looks for an excuse and for understanding. But not Franke. Her response is surprising because people don’t take accountability anymore. They do not admit wrongdoing. They do not ask for healing, own their faults, and admit they deserve every single thing thrown at them.
To be clear, regardless of her statement, the victims are the children and that fact can never be removed. But it is a response worth discussing. What an interesting conclusion — and one we never see.
<h4><a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a></h4>

Screen-Shot-2024-02-20-at-6.36.08-PM

What To Make Of Ruby Franke

Child Abuse

Court

Parenting

Utah

YouTube

Kelly Carlin, daughter of the late <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/comedy">comedian</a> George Carlin, said an artificial intelligence (AI) comedy special featuring her father’s likeness is nothing like the real thing. 
The 60-year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment">screenwriter</a> was commenting on the release of an hour-long show called “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead.” The program aired on the YouTube channel Dudesy, which is run by Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen. It blends AI and comedy in a “first of its kind media experiment,” per <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/kelly-carlin-george-carlin-ai-comedy-special-1235785324/">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. 
The AI version of Carlin replicates his mannerisms and speech patterns to comment on current issues ranging from Elon Musk to the use of artificial intelligence, the publication noted. Kelly said the AI version doesn’t come close to replicating her famous father’s originality, however.
“My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination,” she wrote in a <a href="https://twitter.com/kelly_carlin/status/1745261544001466689">statement</a> shared on X that has since gone viral. “No machine will ever replace his genius. These AI generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again. Let’s let the artist’s work speak for itself. Humans are so afraid of the void that we can’t let what has fallen into it stay there.”
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
“Here’s an idea, how about we give some actual living human comedians a listen to? But if you want to listen to the genuine George Carlin, he has 14 specials that you can find anywhere.”
Carlin, who died in 2008, is widely regarded as one of the most influential stand-up comedians ever. He was known for his reflections on everyday life on topics ranging from politics to psychology, religion, and other controversial subjects. One of his best-known bits focused on &#8220;seven dirty words.&#8221;
Besides his stand-up specials, Carlin appeared in multiple television projects, including “The Tonight Show,” “Saturday Night Live,” and his own “The George Carlin Show.” 
He was also a film star with roles in “Car Wash” (1976), “Outrageous Fortune” (1987), “Bill &amp; Ted&#8217;s Excellent Adventure” (1989), “Bill &amp; Ted&#8217;s Bogus Journey” (1991), “The Prince of Tides” (1991), “Dogma” (1999), “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001), Scary Movie 3 (2003), and “Jersey Girl (2004).”

George Carlin

George Carlin’s Daughter Rips A.I. Comedy Special Starring Her Father’s Likeness

George Carlin's Daughter Rips A.I. Comedy Special Starring Her Father's Likeness

Artificial Intelligence

comedian

Comedy

Entertainment

U.S.

As the Biden administration pressured Big Tech companies to censor Americans’ speech during the COVID vaccine rollout, Google&#8217;s YouTube went along with the White House’s requests before Facebook was pressured to follow suit, according to documents shared with House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and obtained by The Daily Wire.
In an April 18, 2021, email, Facebook President for Global Affairs Nick Clegg expressed concern after Andy Slavitt, a senior White House advisor, told him that Facebook was “lagging behind” as YouTube “made significant advances to remove content leading to vaccine hesitancy.”
“Just got off hour long call with Andy Slavitt,” Clegg, the United Kingdom&#8217;s former deputy prime minister, wrote in the email. “There are some pretty serious — and sensitive … issues we need to address. A summary: He was appreciative of the data we sent thru on Friday, and confirmed that Rob F had said that they had never received so much so much data from us before.” 
Clegg, who appears to referring to Rob Flaherty, Biden&#8217;s censorship czar, said it was the White House&#8217;s view that Facebook was lagging behind the other tech companies.
“Andy attended a meeting of misinfo researchers (didn’t provide names) organized by Rob F on Friday in which the consensus was that FB is a ‘disinformation factory,’ and that YT has made significant advances to remove content leading to vaccine hesitancy whilst we have lagged behind,” Clegg continued. 
<div id="attachment_661071" style="width: 504px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-661071" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-661071" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.02-PM-300x141.png" alt="" width="494" height="232" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.02-PM-300x141.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.02-PM-1024x482.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.02-PM-768x362.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.02-PM.png 1278w" sizes="(max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px" />Facebook Email</div>
Earlier this year, Jordan began releasing the “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jim-jordan-releases-new-facebook-files-highlights-how-biden-admin-sought-to-suppress-daily-wire-content" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook Files</a>,” showing that the Biden administration pressured the social media giant to stifle speech the White House didn’t like, including limiting outlets such as The Daily Wire’s reach on the platform and boosting the reach of legacy media outlets. 
Flaherty in emails released by Jordan earlier this year, suggested that Facebook to &#8220;change the algorithm so that people were more likely to see [New York Times], [Wall Street Journal], any authoritative news source over The Daily Wire.&#8221;
The latest batch of emails exhibits how closely the White House was working with Big Tech companies, and how concerned the companies were with satisfying demands from administration officials. The Biden administration set specific goals for Facebook to reach in its censorship of anti-vaccine content “in the coming weeks,” such as reaching the “‘hardest to reach’ people who have a propensity to consume vaccine hesitant related content and who are not swayed by official/authoritative sources of content,” according to the emails obtained by The Daily Wire.
“Our systems, he believes — as confirmed by the researchers — feed vaccine hesitant related content to pockets of the population and that’s the problem he wants our help to resolve,” the email continues. 
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Clegg adds that Slavitt became enraged that Facebook didn’t remove a post critical of the COVID vaccine that was the “third most highly ranked post in the data set” provided to him by Facebook. 
Clegg said he told the White House advisor that removing such posts would put Facebook in a tough spot because of First Amendment protections of speech. Slavitt shot down Clegg’s concern, saying the post “demonstrably inhibits confidence in COVID vaccines amongst those the Biden administration is trying to reach,” according to the email. 
Slavitt went on to say that YouTube would never allow such content, the emails show.
<div id="attachment_661073" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-661073" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-661073" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.24-PM-300x105.png" alt="" width="500" height="175" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.24-PM-300x105.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.24-PM-1024x357.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.24-PM-768x268.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.24-PM.png 1318w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" />Facebook Email</div>
Around ten days later, Google appears to confirm it was following the Biden administration’s requests closely. 
In an email from April 29, 2021, the Google/YouTube government affairs team said that over the past few weeks, it “had conversations with the White House staff on YouTube’s policies and all the great work that is being done to raise authoritative information and fight harmful misinformation related to COVID-19 misinformation.” 
“The discussions have been good and the information has been well received,” the email added.  
<div id="attachment_661075" style="width: 511px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-661075" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-661075" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.51-PM-300x140.png" alt="" width="501" height="234" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.51-PM-300x140.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.51-PM-1024x479.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.51-PM-768x359.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-01-at-12.30.51-PM.png 1300w" sizes="(max-width: 501px) 100vw, 501px" />Google Email</div>
Following the release of the “Twitter Files” and the Judiciary Committee’s findings on Facebook, the American public has seen first-hand how the Biden administration colluded with Big Tech companies to censor speech and silence voices it didn’t approve of. 
The “Facebook Files” were modeled after the “Twitter Files,” a series of reports from investigative journalists, who were given access to internal communications at Twitter after Elon Musk took over. The “Twitter Files” revealed how the tech giant communicated directly with the Biden administration and the FBI, discussing tweets and even accounts of people who expressed concern about the COVID vaccine.

Google/YouTube/Facebook/Joe Biden

EXCLUSIVE: Biden Admin Praised YouTube’s Censorship, Used It To Pressure Facebook To Intensify Suppression Of Vaccine Stories

Biden Administration

COVID-19 Vaccine

Google

Jim Jordan

The kids entertainment industry has become an industry full of companies you cannot trust — except for one. The Daily Wire made a promise to spend $100 million over three years to build a kids entertainment company. On Monday, The Daily Wire released <a href="https://twitter.com/i/status/1713994985505185941" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bentkey</a>, the <a href="https://www.bentkey.com/launch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new streaming platform</a> for kids entertainment. We delivered on that promise. Bentkey is dedicated to telling <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1714000370806997389?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1714000370806997389%7Ctwgr%5Ebefe8836829781da4537205047d147d850283421%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fintroducing-bentkey-a-new-adventure-in-kids-entertainment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stories that kids will love</a> and parents can trust. But this isn’t the case with far too many other kids entertainment companies.
<h4><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Subscribe to Bentkey today!</a></h4>
<div id="attachment_639591" style="width: 522px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-639591" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-639591" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/Bentkey-iiv.png" alt="" width="512" height="288" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/Bentkey-iiv.png 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/Bentkey-iiv-300x169.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />Bentkey</div>
While you may want to bury your head in the sand and avoid hearing news about kids content that is both disturbing and alarming, you can’t do that — because you must protect your kids. The fact is, too much entertainment content that is supposed to be for kids isn’t safe for them anymore. When you log into your streaming accounts, set parental controls, change the settings to age-appropriate content, and attempt to protect your children, you would like to know those streaming services will block anything that is outside those parameters. As I have seen over and over, even with my own kids, that just isn’t always the case.
There is an entire ecosystem of evil that is working toward the advancement of indoctrinating our children. Companies everywhere, including social media platforms, are taking part in a campaign to expose our children to the LGBTQ agenda — an agenda that is moving toward pedophilia. I have been saying this for years, and I will keep bringing attention to it. But I’m not the only one. Aldo Buttazzoni, a PragerU personality, <a href="https://twitter.com/AldoButtazzoni/status/1620505756390027264?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released a Twitter thread</a> earlier this year about YouTube Kids, and it is worth revisiting because of how important his findings are.
Buttazzoni created a YouTube account and said what he found was “disgusting.” He set the account for a child in the age range of 9 to 12 years old:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I made an account for 9-12 and one of first videos they recommend “kids meet a gender non-conforming person” <a href="https://t.co/QkJydjVrA8">pic.twitter.com/QkJydjVrA8</a>
&mdash; Aldo 🌞 (@AldoButtazzoni) <a href="https://twitter.com/AldoButtazzoni/status/1620505708398809088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Then, numerous LGBTQ videos were immediately recommended: 
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-639645" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fadf-fr.png" alt="" width="456" height="322" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fadf-fr.png 456w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fadf-fr-300x212.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 456px) 100vw, 456px" /></div>
Buttazzoni questions ”Why do kids need to be exposed to this?” One of the videos is titled “Meet a Queen Kid” and another “The Meaning of Pride,” hosted by a drag queen. Buttazzoni went on to find that the videos seemed never ending. Here, one of his findings is, “I’M GAY,” in all capital letters. To its right, Prince Henry stars in “A Gay Fairytale,” followed by, “It’s Okay to be Gay” from the “Queer Kid.”
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-639647" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ffefewef.png" alt="" width="452" height="321" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ffefewef.png 452w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/ffefewef-300x213.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 452px) 100vw, 452px" /></div>
Buttazzoni points out that one of the most prominent channels on YouTube Kids is Queer Kid Stuff, which he provides screenshots of and also shows the many episodes featuring drag queens, like the “It’s Okay to Be Gay Lipsync” video. 
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-639649" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/awawawf.png" alt="" width="480" height="319" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/awawawf.png 480w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/awawawf-300x199.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px" /></div>
I believe the LGBTQ agenda is set on indoctrinating children and priming them for pedophilia, and Buttazzoni’s continued research serves as proof of that. 
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-639651" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/gtrce.png" alt="" width="355" height="323" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/gtrce.png 355w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/gtrce-300x273.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px" /></div>
After finding videos about consent (such as “Learn About Consent!”), Buttazzoni asks a pointed question: What exactly are they teaching children to consent to? The answer he found comes from a video by Chris Elston, known as <a href="https://www.billboardchris.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Billboard Chris</a>. Chris is an activist taking a stand against gender ideology, and he travels the world (primarily North America) exposing the danger children are in by conducting man-on-the-street type interviews with people who are working to affirm this agenda. When it comes to consent, Chris finds via his interviews that consent involves minor-attracted persons. While they may claim MAP are interested in kids’ toys and playing, there is, of course, a much more sinister undertone. These are people who want to soften pedophilia. And it’s disgusting. 
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In this interview, Chris asks this man, “Do you think any 12-year-old can consent to sex with an adult?” And his reply is, “It doesn’t sound good, but a mature adult that understands the concept of consent, why should we limit someone by their age? Why should we couple age with consent?” Chris replies, “That’s horrid. That’s what we call rape.”
I struggle finding the words to explain how angry — how livid — I am that this person is proud to say such a thing. He is not only saying this on camera, but he is also saying it proudly on camera. Where are we in American society that individuals are willing to go on camera and openly admit they agree with such a concept? They think the age of consent should be lowered to 12 and lower. Some disbelieve that minor-attracted persons is even a real thing. They disbelieve it so much, they are willing to put their faces on camera and acknowledge their disbelief.
Some kids content creators are fostering the same narrative. It’s intentional. This is what is coming down the pipeline, obviously, with the trans agenda. That agenda wants to confuse children and make them believe they can choose their gender. And choosing their gender, taking pills, and surgically transforming their bodies will eventually make them crazy. Because when you sustain your body consistently with hormones, children become confused. And children are being led down a horrific path by some sickos who are attempting to normalize pedophilia.
This is an easy way to cause the collapse of Western society. It’s a disgusting perversion. We must continue exposing what is happening with this sinister agenda.
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Candace_4b_216x9 copy 32 (1)

The Disturbing Truth About The Kids Entertainment Industry And Why It Needs To Be Disrupted

Candace Owens

Children

Video streaming platform <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-woke-youtube-competitor-rumble-tells-france-au-revoir-over-censorship-demands" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rumble</a> went public on Wednesday with a statement, revealing that they had received a letter from the U.K.&#8217;s Parliament demanding they demonetize <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/russell-brand-leaves-youtube-for-rumble-after-censorship-complaint" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russell Brand</a> over <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/russell-brand-vehemently-denies-sexual-assault-allegations-in-viral-video-statement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent accusations</a> of sexual misconduct &#8212; and they had refused to comply.
Rumble published a copy of the letter from Parliament &#8212; calling the governing body&#8217;s attempt to interfere with free expression on the internet &#8220;deeply inappropriate and dangerous&#8221; — along with a copy of their response via X.
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Attached is the letter from the UK Parliament. <a href="https://t.co/MdeYrlt06J">pic.twitter.com/MdeYrlt06J</a>
&mdash; Rumble &#8211; 🏴‍☠️ $RUM (@rumblevideo) <a href="https://twitter.com/rumblevideo/status/1704584929026216118?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
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The letter from Parliament — signed by Dame Caroline Dinenage, Chair of the Culture, Media, and Sport Committee — expressed concern that Brand might continue to make money using Rumble to reach his 1.4 million followers.
&#8220;We are also looking at his use of social media, including on Rumble where he issued his preemptive response to the accusations made against hime by The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches,&#8221; the letter read. &#8220;While we recognise that Rumble is not the creator of the content published by Mr. Brand, we are concerned that he may be able to profit from his content on the platform.&#8221;
&#8220;We would be grateful if you could confirm whether Mr. Brand is able to monetise his content, including his videos relating to the serious accusations against him. If so, we would like to know whether Rumble intends to join YouTube in suspending Mr. Brand’s ability to earn money on the platform,&#8221; Parliament&#8217;s missive continued.
Rumble&#8217;s response opened by calling Parliament&#8217;s request &#8220;disturbing,&#8221; and continued from there.
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&#8220;While Rumble obviously deplores sexual assault, rape, and all serious crimes, and believes that both alleged victims and the accused are entitled to a full and serious investigation, it is vital to note that recent allegations against Russell Brand have nothing to do with content on Rumble’s platform,&#8221; the letter read.
Noting that YouTube had made the decision to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-youtube-unpersoning-of-russell-brand" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demonetize Brand</a> — based solely on the accusations leveled against him &#8212; the statement said that Rumble would not do the same.
&#8220;Rumble stands for very different values. We have devoted ourselves to the vital cause of defending a free internet &#8212; meaning an internet where no one arbitrarily dictates which ideas can or cannot be heard, or which citizens may or may not be entitled to a platform,&#8221; the statement continued.
&#8220;We regard it as deeply inappropriate and dangerous that the UK Parliament would attempt to control who is allowed to speak on our platform or to earn a living from doing so,&#8221; the statement said, adding that Parliament&#8217;s demands were &#8220;even more disturbing&#8221; because the accusations against Brand had no relation to the content on Rumble. &#8220;We don’t agree with the behavior of many Rumble creators, but we refuse to penalize them for actions that have nothing to do with our platform.&#8221;
<div>&#8220;Although it may be politically and socially easier for Rumble to join a cancel culture mob, doing so would be a violation of our company’s values and mission. We emphatically reject the UK parliament’s demands,&#8221; the statement concluded.</div>

An Evening with Russell Brand at Esquire Townhouse with Dior

U.K. Parliament Demands Rumble Demonetize Russell Brand; Rumble Responds

Celebrities

Russell Brand

Sexual Misconduct

United Kingdom

World

This week, The Times of London and Channel 4 issued a scathing expose about actor and comedian-turned-podcaster Russell Brand. Brand began his career as a comedian and MTV host; in 2004, he joined Big Brother’s Big Mouth on Channel 4, and then transitioned into acting and voice overs. In 2013, he went political; by 2020, he had launched a successful podcast, taking heterodox positions on matters ranging from COVID-19 to the Ukraine war.
Over the course of this time, Brand also changed his personal behavior. He was a drug abuser in the early 2000s; by 2003, he was a self-declared sex addict; today, he is married with two young children.
The Times and Channel 4 report concerns behavior during the period 2006-2013. Those allegations come from five women, four of them anonymous, who accuse Brand of behavior ranging from emotional abuse to sexual assault and rape. Metropolitan Police have urged any victims to come forward. Brand denies all of the allegations.
Full disclosure: I’ve <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-with-russell-brand" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviewed Russell</a> and been interviewed by him at length. I consider him a friend. You can never truly know another person well enough to rule out vile, despicable, criminal behavior in their past; I didn’t know Russell during his most debauched period, and I assume that if I had, we wouldn’t have gotten along. And the allegations, as Brand himself says, are incredibly serious. Presumably we will find out all the facts as time goes on.
There is a question worth asking here, aside from the obvious question about Brand’s alleged crimes: what prompted the media to begin digging into Brand? It was an open secret in Hollywood that Brand was a sexual degenerate throughout the 2000s; the media were utterly unconcerned about such matters. In fact, the same media outlets now investigating Brand were happy to make money off of him as he engaged in overtly vile behavior he himself would now be ashamed of.
So what changed? Brand did. He began taking political positions that contradicted many of the most cherished assumptions of the media class. He spoke out on a variety of issues that were considered taboo. He abandoned his past embrace of debauchery and began promoting more honorable personal behavior.
This prompted an investigation that, if the allegations are true, should have happened more than a decade ago. That investigation has now been utilized as a predicate to unperson Brand before he even responds to the allegations in full. He has not been arrested and charged, let alone convicted of a crime. Yet YouTube announced on Tuesday that it would cancel all monetization of Brand’s videos on the site, preventing Brand from earning an income from any content posted on YouTube. “This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand,” the social media service explained.
Allegations can now be utilized to erase unpleasant people from social media – presumably because of what they have done in the past, but really, because of what they say now. There are reams of allegations about a bevy of YouTube creators. But those who are demonetized seem to be of one political type.
This is dangerous stuff, no matter what emerges about Brand. If he’s guilty, he will pay for his crimes. But the pre-emptive destruction of his career makes for a truly ugly incentive structure. And it is now just one more reason for those who do have heterodox opinions to avoid speaking up.
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The YouTube Unpersoning Of Russell Brand

Ben Shapiro

Woke Culture

YouTube suspended actor and comedian Russell Brand from making money on the platform on Tuesday, days after several women accused him of sexual assault over a decade ago in what Brand has called a &#8220;coordinated attack.&#8221;
Brand&#8217;s channel with 6.6 million subscribers has been suspended from monetization “following serious allegations against the creator,” YouTube <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/09/19/youtube-suspends-russell-brand-from-making-money-off-the-streaming-site-after-sex-assault-claims/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
The Google-owned social media platform&#8217;s decision means Brand can no longer make money from YouTube ads on his videos. Brand&#8217;s other smaller channels with several hundred thousand subscribers were also suspended from monetization. It is not clear how long the suspensions will last.
YouTube said Brand was suspended for violating YouTube&#8217;s &#8220;creator responsibility <a class="css-yywogo" title="" href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7650329?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">policy.</a>&#8221;
“If a creator’s off-platform behavior harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community,” a YouTube spokesperson <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/19/arts/russell-brand-youtube.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
Brand, 48, denies four unnamed women&#8217;s allegations of sexual assault that were published in a joint investigation by British outlets The Times, Sunday Times, and Channel 4 television on Saturday. The women made their allegations after the outlets reached out to them. The assaults allegedly took place between 2006 and 2013.
One of the accusers claims she was sexually assaulted by Brand when she was 16, the legal age of consent in the U.K., during a relationship with him. Another woman claims Brand raped her in Los Angeles in 2012.
On Monday, London&#8217;s police force <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russell-brand-faces-sexual-assault-claim-dating-to-2003-london-police-say/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> it had received a fresh sexual assault claim against Brand “alleged to have taken place in Soho in central London in 2003.”
Brand was a major television and radio star in Britain in the early 2000s. He has written memoirs opening up about his struggles with drugs and alcohol, and he appeared in several Hollywood movies, including &#8220;Forgetting Sarah Marshall.&#8221; Brand was also married to pop star Katy Perry between 2010 and 2012.
Brand said &#8220;I absolutely refute&#8221; what he described as “very serious allegations” against him in a YouTube video on his channel on Friday.
&#8220;As I&#8217;ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous. Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual,&#8221; Brand said in the video. Brand added that the allegations make him &#8220;question, is there another agenda at play, particularly when we&#8217;ve seen coordinated media attacks before.&#8221;
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YouTube&#8217;s decision sparked immediate criticism, including from The Daily Wire&#8217;s podcast hosts and co-founder.
&#8220;Terrible decision. Terrible precedent. Social platforms should not act as extra-legal arbiters of guilt and innocence. These companies think they’re governments. Or gods,&#8221; Jeremy Boreing, co-founder of The Daily Wire, <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremydboreing/status/1704049969538167114?s=46&amp;t=kAaRXGG15beV8rj_bb6XVQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X.
&#8220;Allegations are now convictions in the court of social media, complete with removal of all income,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1704122787378438474?s=46&amp;t=kAaRXGG15beV8rj_bb6XVQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro on X.
&#8220;This is insane. YouTube is demonetizing all of Brand’s accounts based on unproven allegations made in the media. He hasn’t even been criminally charged with anything. The precedent being set here is extremely bad,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/mattwalshblog/status/1704092795693125800?s=46&amp;t=kAaRXGG15beV8rj_bb6XVQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> Daily Wire host Matt Walsh.
Brand also hosts a show on Rumble, a video-sharing platform that aims to fight cancel culture, where his channel has 1.4 million followers.
He has continued to perform as a stand-up comedian. Brand&#8217;s current tour <a href="https://variety.com/2023/biz/global/russell-brand-bipolarisation-postponed-1235726431/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">included</a> a show before 2,000 people in London on Saturday. However, promoters <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/arts/russell-brand-tour-sexual-assault.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the rest of his comedy tour dates, including a show that was set for Tuesday, have been postponed after the allegations.
Brand&#8217;s publisher has also <a href="https://www.thebookseller.com/news/bluebird-to-pause-brand-publishing-as-tavistock-wood-cuts-ties" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> paused its work with him. The publisher had been set to publish Brand&#8217;s guide to overcoming addiction in December.

YouTube Demonetizes Russell Brand Over Alleged Sexual Misconduct From Decade Ago

Daily Wire hosts will meet for “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/daily-wire-backstage">Backstage</a>” on Tuesday evening and will keep the show off of YouTube after the Big Tech platform banned Candace Owens earlier this month. 
During “Backstage,” hosts Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, Andrew Klavan, and Owens will discuss “America’s Identity Crisis.” The show will touch on subjects such as California’s passage of a bill allowing judges to consider whether a parent “affirms” a child’s gender identity during custody battles, New Mexico’s governor restricting the constitutional right to carry guns, and a man arrested in Florida for trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean — in a giant, man-made hamster wheel. 
The hosts will also discuss the success of the new DailyWire+ true crime series “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/convicting-a-murderer">Convicting a Murderer</a>,” starring Owens. The series, which premiered last week, already has a 92% <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/browse/tv_series_browse/genres:documentary~sort:popular">Rotten Tomatoes</a> audience score, even as mainstream critics and media outlets refuse to review the series. 
“DailyWire+ had one of our biggest releases in history this past weekend. Our first-ever true-crime docuseries ‘Convicting a Murderer,’ starring the lovely Candace Owens debuted and is receiving rave reviews,” Knowles said in a video before the “Backstage” stream. “It already has over eight million views. It is the second-most popular TV documentary on Rotten Tomatoes. We have the privilege of having Candace on ‘Backstage’ tonight to talk about the huge success and all the latest news.”
“We’ve run into a little bit of an issue,” Knowles continued. “YouTube, you see, hates us. And YouTube with its vague, some are even calling it tyrannical guidelines and their proclivity to censor conservative voices, has once again banned my friend, Candace, prohibiting her from posting or appearing on any of The Daily Wire’s YouTube channels.” 
YouTube’s censorship of Owens isn’t the first time the Big Tech giant has targeted Daily Wire hosts for sharing their opinions. Owens, Knowles, Walsh, Brett Cooper, and DailyWire+ host Dr. Jordan B. Peterson have all faced censorship numerous times for daring to oppose the Big Tech Giant’s position on hot-button social issues, such as transgenderism.   
Members and nonmembers can watch the “Backstage” event beginning at 7 p.m. ET by going to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/">dailywire.com</a> and clicking on the “WATCH” tab at the top of the home screen, or by clicking <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/daily-wire-backstage">here</a>. Daily Wire “Backstage” can then be found in the same category as other shows such as “The Ben Shapiro Show” and “Candace Owens.” 
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Daily Wire ‘Backstage’

‘Backstage’ To Stream Exclusively On DailyWire+ After YouTube Bans Candace Owens

Andrew Klavan

DailyWire+

Matt Walsh

Michael Knowles

Subscribers of Sunday Ticket, the sports package that broadcasts National Football League regular season games unavailable to fans on local affiliates, <a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/google-youtube-become-caught-up-in-lingering-sunday-ticket-class-action" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed a lawsuit</a> against Google, which has a multibillion-dollar deal with the NFL allowing it to exclusively hold the broadcast rights for Sunday Ticket games shown on YouTube starting with the upcoming season.
In the <a href="https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2019/08/13/17-56119%20(2).pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2019 decision</a> by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversing the district court’s dismissal of the original lawsuit for failure to state a claim of an antitrust action, the case was explained this way:
<blockquote>
Each NFL team entered into a “Teams-NFL Agreement” with the NFL to pool their telecasting rights and give the NFL the authority to exercise those rights. Acting on behalf of its teams, the NFL entered into two additional agreements licensing the teams’ telecast rights. Under the “NFL- Network Agreement,” CBS and Fox coordinate to create a single telecast for every Sunday-afternoon NFL game, and the NFL permits CBS and Fox to broadcast a limited number of what are known as local games through free, over-the-air television.
Under the “NFL-DirecTV Agreement,” the NFL allows DirecTV to obtain all of the live telecasts produced by CBS and Fox, package those telecasts, and deliver the bundled feeds to NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers. Plaintiffs alleged that defendants’ interlocking agreements work together to suppress competition for the sale of professional football game telecasts in violation of §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.
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The subscribers in the new lawsuit <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-12436763/NFLs-6BILLION-price-fixing-lawsuit-Judge-weighs-ordering-Google-share-details-Sunday-Ticket-media-rights-deal-plaintiffs-claim-league-artificially-inflating-fees.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">want</a> Google to supply information — including retail pricing, rights fees and subscriber numbers — for their case against NFL and DirecTV; DirecTV hosted Sunday Ticket before Google. In their case against the NFL, the subscribers accused the NFL, its teams and DirecTV of conspiring to limit the availability of televised games, thus boosting the price for Sunday Ticket.
The NFL has denied the claims of a conspiracy, stating that the plaintiffs&#8217; had not identified “any evidence that could transform a lawful exclusive distribution agreement into an unlawful antitrust conspiracy.”
The plaintiffs claim Google gave only three documents, what the plaintiffs called “summary presentations,” regarding its Sunday Ticket deal and the paucity of information  “does not even scratch the surface” of relevant information. “Evidence that the NFL imposed restrictions on Google will support plaintiffs&#8217; claims that the NFL imposed these same restraints on DirecTV during the class period, to the detriment of consumers,&#8217; the plaintiffs&#8217; lawyers claimed.

Collage Maker-23-Aug-2023-03-43-PM-3972

Google Sued By Football Subscribers Wanting Info On NFL ‘Conspiracy’

DirecTV

Seven years ago, for one night, the attention of the national political class in this country was on a small town in the middle of Virginia called Farmville. The occasion was the vice presidential debate between Tim Kaine and Mike Pence. A handful of Farmville&#8217;s 8,000 residents were in attendance. Most of the debate focused on issues that no one even pretends to care about anymore, like Donald Trump&#8217;s tax returns, and the fact that Trump called Rosie O&#8217;Donnell a fat slob. There was also a lot of talk about the internal politics of faraway countries like Syria.
What didn&#8217;t come up, in any meaningful way, is what either party would do to help towns like Farmville. And that&#8217;s odd, when you think about it. By the time Tim Kaine, Mike Pence and the national press corps showed up in 2016, Farmville had been bleeding population for many years. The median income in Farmville was an obvious cause for concern — it was less than half the median income in the United States, and dropping. Thousands of residents lived in poverty. And yet, despite that, all that the residents of Farmville heard during the debate were vague promises and cliches about an economy that would soon &#8220;work for everyone,&#8221; and leave no one behind.
Seven years later, both major political parties have had a chance to run the White House. The decline of Farmville, Virginia has only continued. Four years after that vice presidential debate, the one with all the promises, Farmville ranked as the single poorest town in all of Virginia, with nearly a third of residents living below the poverty line. In 2021, the median household income in Farmville was under $36,000, compared to more than $70,000 in the United States.
What&#8217;s happening in Farmville isn&#8217;t unique. Multiply the story of Farmville, Virginia by the thousands of small towns all over the country that have deteriorated in recent years, and you get some sense of the scale of the American decline that&#8217;s been completely ignored in Washington. Politicians use these towns as props, or as picturesque backdrops for their televised debates. But once the cameras leave, so do the politicians.
One of the Farmville residents they left behind is named Oliver Anthony. He&#8217;s a former factory worker who lives with his three dogs in the town. Last week I briefly talked about Anthony&#8217;s breakout song, &#8220;Rich Men North of Richmond.&#8221; The song isn&#8217;t just about the failings of this country&#8217;s political leaders, who long ago abandoned people like Oliver Anthony. It&#8217;s also about dignity, personal responsibility, and spirituality — all verboten topics in the music industry. You&#8217;ve probably seen the song on social media; it&#8217;s everywhere now. We played it on the show on Friday.
For context, Anthony was completely unknown and recording songs with his iPhone for an audience of a few dozen on YouTube as recently as last week. At this time seven days ago, nobody had ever heard of him. Here he was on August 7th:
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A few days later, this guy had three of the top ten songs on iTunes and was performing for a crowd of thousands in North Carolina, who were all singing along as if they’d been singing his songs for years. Here he is performing &#8220;Rich Men North of Richmond” for the massive crowd:
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Big crowd singing along to Oliver Anthony&#39;s &quot;Rich men north of Richmond.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/UyVerCNY4t">pic.twitter.com/UyVerCNY4t</a>
&mdash; Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) <a href="https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1690811057445777408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Oliver Anthony, and the many people cheering him on, are not supposed to exist. Or at least you’re not supposed to know that they do. You’re not supposed to hear from any of them. They don&#8217;t belong to any of the perpetually oppressed classes you&#8217;re told, endlessly, to grieve for. They don&#8217;t go around identifying as LGBTQ2S+ or whatever. These are people who have actual, useful skills. People who want to work for a living. These are people who don&#8217;t think their sexuality or race is a substitute for personality or ethics. These are religious people — men and women who despise sexual degenerates, who appreciate good music, and who understand that they&#8217;re not all-powerful, or all-knowing. They are not the controlled opposition that the Left has grown familiar with. These are, in a word, normal people. It’s as simple as that.
Anthony made much of this very clear this weekend. Moments before the performance you just saw, he delivered an important message to the crowd that had gathered. As you watch this, put yourself in Anthony&#8217;s position. Just a few days ago, you&#8217;re a complete unknown. No one listens to your music. Now, all of a sudden, you&#8217;re getting all kinds of offers — for interviews, for record deals, and so on. You&#8217;re one of the top trending topics across all social media platforms. How would you begin your first show after all this attention? 
Here&#8217;s how Oliver Anthony did it:
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STOP what you’re doing and watch <a href="https://twitter.com/AintGottaDollar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AintGottaDollar</a>’s first message on stage since his viral song…
With all the labels watching. POWERFUL 🙏🙏🙏 <a href="https://t.co/O2AFHxifr4">pic.twitter.com/O2AFHxifr4</a>
&mdash; Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) <a href="https://twitter.com/jason_howerton/status/1690800466160967680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
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He opens his concert not with a plug for his Instagram, or with any kind of narcissistic celebration of his own success. Instead, he quotes Psalm 37. &#8220;The wicked will perish,&#8221; he says. The crowd erupts. It’s quite an applause line. They’ve probably never seen anything like it, at least not from a famous musician. This isn&#8217;t Sam Smith&#8217;s satanism, or Cardi B&#8217;s sexual perversion. In fact, most of the people in that crowd probably haven’t even heard a message like that in their churches, where most pastors would consider it insufficiently “welcoming” to quote the Bible’s warnings about the punishments doled out to evildoers. I don’t think Anthony was trying to do anything revolutionary by reading that particular passage. It just means something to him, it resonates with him, so he read it. He’s a normal and authentic guy, which is the appeal.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1204-the-matt-walsh-show">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
That simple fact makes him a clear and present danger to the many talentless and eternally bitter members of the so-called entertainment industry, along with their friends in the equally joyless news media. That&#8217;s why, predictably, Rolling Stone just published the first hit piece on Oliver Anthony. More will surely follow. For its part, Rolling Stone chalked Anthony&#8217;s success up to, &#8220;right-wing influencers,&#8221; who have artificially promoted Anthony&#8217;s song. The piece mentions me, and a few other people. For the record, though, I very much object to being called an influencer.
Is that really the explanation for the success of &#8220;Rich Men North of Richmond?&#8221; Well, you saw the clips we just showed you. That crowd didn&#8217;t look like a bunch of influencers to me. They didn&#8217;t even look like the sorts of people who pay very close attention to influencers. They seem, again, like normal people.
TMZ managed to miss the point even more, implying that Anthony wrote the song in order to make money. Here&#8217;s what they wrote. &#8220;This is a pretty fascinating trend we&#8217;re seeing — it appears when right-wingers perceive something (like a song) they think addresses their grievances/perspectives, they lean into it &#8230; and, from the small sample size we&#8217;ve noticed, it can be effective in the marketplace. Capitalism, baby &#8230; it reigns supreme.&#8221;
In other words, he&#8217;s just trying to make a quick buck. “Capitalism, baby,” they sneer, as if it was so obvious that a song like this would instantly go to number one on iTunes. As if Anthony stood in the woods next to his deer stand and played an acoustic song about his troubles as a working man all in some cynical ploy to make millions of dollars from an audience who, at that point, didn’t even know he existed. No, It&#8217;s pretty obvious that what happened is this: Anthony was singing from his heart about his own experiences. He assumed that the song would be heard by the same few dozen people who heard his other songs. And he was fortunately quite wrong in that assumption.
As weak as these hit pieces are, the truth is, we know that Rolling Stone and TMZ are just firing the warning shots here. We already know that the media will set to work to destroy Oliver Anthony. No doubt they’re digging through his past and looking for skeletons as we speak. Maybe they’ll find some. Everyone has a few. And honestly, who cares?
As the Daily Beast and Huffington Post ghouls scour through Anthony&#8217;s social media feeds and start interviewing his high school friends looking for dirt, let&#8217;s take a step back. What we&#8217;re seeing here, as remarkable as it is, shouldn&#8217;t be viewed in isolation. Consider this. All of the biggest hit songs that have gotten the buzz and attention in recent weeks have been country songs. Recently the top three songs on Billboard were country songs. Before Anthony it was Jason Aldean, with a song centered around similar themes. &#8220;Try that in a small town,&#8221; Aldean sang. That touched off, what, a two-week news cycle?
The media freaked out about the Aldean song, just as they’re starting to freak out about Anthony’s song, because it’s music that attacks the elites and gives voice to the normal concerns of normal people. Americans who aren&#8217;t demented, as it turns out, don&#8217;t like it when hordes of BLM rioters torch small businesses and courthouses in their communities. They don&#8217;t like it when politicians send billions of dollars to Ukraine, while towns like Farmville fall apart. Normal people have been told to shut up about all of this, for years and years. But now these normal people have a voice.
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A moment ago, I scoffed at the idea that Anthony would make a song like this as some sort of marketing or self-promotional strategy. And it is an idea that deserves to be scoffed at. It’s totally absurd, given the context. But we should note that, yes, there is indeed a huge market for this kind of thing. Just like here’s a huge market for movies like &#8220;Sound of Freedom.&#8221; Millions and millions of people — normal people — are starving for art that speaks to them and their values and concerns. There are in fact many millions of dollars to be made here. That wasn’t Anthony’s motivation, but the money is there to be made, and now he’ll make some of it whether he wanted to or not. This just makes it all the more remarkable that the mainstream music industry, just like the mainstream film industry, absolutely refuses to cater to this audience or give them art that will actually resonate with them.
Sure, you can make plenty of money by churning out another demented rap song with that talks about female genitalia in graphic terms, and openly encourages the listener to act in depraved, lawless, and self-destructive ways. You can make plenty of money with another mindless, soulless pop song that might as well have been generated by AI. But the songs that have set the world on fire recently, the ones that have topped the charts and gotten people talking, are songs that connect with an audience that despises all of that stuff. Anthony sings that he’s an old soul living in a new world. And those of us who relate to that lyric are made to feel this way in large part because of the sort of “art” that the entertainment industry vomits out. We see this stuff, and listen to it, and our souls are crushed just a little more each time. It grieves us to be surrounded by such ugliness and stupidity, and to think that so many people are just marinating in this filth without realizing what it’s doing to them. There are many of us who feel that way. So many, that we made a literal overnight superstar out of one simple, authentic guy strumming his guitar in the woods.
So the question is: given that this huge market exists, and that it is hungry for this kind of content, why won’t the entertainment industry serve it? Even if it is just for the sake of “capitalism, baby” as TMZ says, why don’t they produce songs like “Rich Men North Of Richmond?” The answer is exactly what we’ve already established — they hate normal people who read their Bibles, and have “traditional” values, and care about things like hard work and honesty. They want us all to become lazy, helpless, degenerate parasites. They want to create a population of stupid, weird, hollow people. They’ll even forgo profit to make that happen. That’s how deeply they hate normalcy. That’s how badly they want to destroy it. Which is fine with us — if they don’t want our money, no problem. We’ll give it to guys like Oliver Anthony instead.

Matt Walsh 4

Oliver Anthony And The Normal People Uprising

Music

Oliver Anthony

YouTube on Friday reversed course and halted its limited monetization enforcement of Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro&#8217;s first episode of his new series, &#8220;Facts,&#8221; which takes on the powerful entities trying to censor so-called “misinformation” and dictate what media is “safe” for advertising.
The reversal came after Media Research Center (MRC) Free Speech America <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/luis-cornelio/2023/08/11/youtube-wont-admit-it-demonetized-ben-shapiro-bombshell">pressed</a> YouTube about why monetization of Shapiro’s video was suppressed. MRC said YouTube effectively refused to acknowledge that the platform had limited the video in the first place. Notably, The Daily Wire was in communication with YouTube when the media company twice appealed YouTube’s suppression of the limited monetization and a manual review upheld the suppression, suggesting YouTube’s demonetization was intentional and not in error. 
“In order for a video to monetize on YouTube it must comply with our<a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en#zippy="> advertiser-friendly guidelines</a>, which are publicly accessible and apply to all creators,” a YouTube spokesperson told MRC. “Upon review, the video in question is currently monetizing.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ana-kasparian-lauds-shapiros-fairness-after-being-mocked-again-for-speaking-with-him">Shapiro</a> announced on Thursday that YouTube suppressed monetization of the “Facts” video, which was first released on July 29. 
&#8220;Ironically, YouTube has suppressed monetization for Episode 1 of my new YouTube series, Facts, because it &#8216;discusses New World Order, which is a non-monetizable &#8220;conspiracy theory&#8221;&#8216; under [YouTube’s] Dangerous Acts in ad-friendly guidelines,'&#8221; Shapiro posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. 
&#8220;Except nothing in the video is a conspiracy theory at all,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;Watch for yourself and get the facts about who is controlling ad revenue on YouTube and all of the largest Big Tech platforms&#8211;including this one.&#8221;
In the episode, Shapiro <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiro-takes-on-corporations-behind-censorship">explains</a> how the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), which <a href="https://wfanet.org/knowledge/item/2017/01/30/Agency-Trading-Desks-still-dominate-programmatic-but-advertisers-are-demanding-a-new-more-transparent-relationship">represents</a> 90% of “global marketing communications,” and the World Economic Forum are behind a large-scale effort to influence how advertisers spend their money.
“There’s a group of people who control what you are allowed to see, the news you read, the videos you watch, the posts you engage with,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You haven’t heard of them. You don’t know their names, but they determine through methods, both direct and indirect, whether you are allowed to be exposed to particular messages. Their decisions can bankrupt companies, silence voices, and fundamentally shift cultural norms.&#8221;
Notably, Shapiro even remarks during the episode that the video could be censored based on the ambiguous and clearly biased framework entities like GARM and NewsGuard operate under.
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Ironically, YouTube has suppressed monetization for Episode 1 of my new YouTube series, Facts, because it “discusses New World Order, which is a non-monetizable ‘conspiracy theory’ under [YouTube’s] Dangerous Acts in ad-friendly guidelines.” 
Except nothing in the video is a… <a href="https://t.co/rPj5d1JhA2">pic.twitter.com/rPj5d1JhA2</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1689668037719261185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Shapiro’s announcement about the suppressed monetization and the subject matter of his “Facts” episode gained much attention online, including from Tesla and X owner Elon Musk, the world’s second richest man. 
“I think the solution here is to price so-called ‘safe’ advertising higher than ‘unsafe,’” Musk responded to Shapiro on Friday. “My companies will happily buy the latter.” 
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I think the solution here is to price so-called “safe” advertising higher than “unsafe”. 
My companies will happily buy the latter.
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1689938510935887872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Shapiro countered Musk’s take, stating, “‘Safe’ and ‘unsafe’ are dog whistles designed to enable censorship and demonetize ‘wrongthink.’”
“GARM has subjective guidelines for what it considers ‘safe’ for advertising, and its corporate partners seem to be interpreting these convoluted rules to fit a narrative,” he explained. 
The host added a screenshot of GARM’s “Brand Safety Floor,” outlining the content the group deems “not appropriate for any advertising support.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
2/ GARM has subjective guidelines for what it considers “safe” for advertising, and its corporate partners seem to be interpreting these convoluted rules to fit a narrative. Here&#39;s their “Brand Safety Floor” &#8211; “content not appropriate for any advertising support.” <a href="https://t.co/bfhEvwWSFE">pic.twitter.com/bfhEvwWSFE</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1690132296332955648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
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“How are [L&#8217;Oréal Groupe] (Garnier) &amp; Mastercard’s sponsorships of bondage &amp; strippers at this NYC Pride Parade not ‘Adult &amp; Explicit Sexual Content,’ and a ‘Sensitive Social Issue?’ Is this ‘safe?’” Shapiro posed. 
The author noted that GARM member TikTok sponsored the 2022 LA Pride Parade, “where a half naked bondage group walked through &amp; a man in drag performed for children on a giant eggplant.”
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4/ Is this “safe?” GARM member <a href="https://twitter.com/tiktok_us?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TikTok_US</a> sponsored the 2022 LA Pride Parade, where a half naked bondage group walked through &amp; a man in drag performed for children on a giant eggplant 📹 <a href="https://twitter.com/DrewHLive?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DrewHLive</a> <a href="https://t.co/l2XaTq8OeT">pic.twitter.com/l2XaTq8OeT</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1690132301194072064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
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“[Meta] thinks this video of [trans activist Dylan] Mulvaney appropriating &amp; insulting womanhood, a ‘Debated Social Issue’ that obviously ‘demeans’ women, is ‘safe,’” Shapiro highlighted. 
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5/ <a href="https://twitter.com/Meta?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Meta</a> thinks this video of Mulvaney appropriating &amp; insulting womanhood, a “Debated Social Issue” that obviously “demeans” women, is “safe:” <a href="https://t.co/1ZZ3UJXh1J">pic.twitter.com/1ZZ3UJXh1J</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1690132303958130688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
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“But GARM member [Youtube] apparently thinks [Daily Wire host Michael Knowles] discussing loving ways to respond to gender confused young people is so ‘unsafe’ they deleted it from their platform,” he said, captioning the video of Knowles. 
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6/ But GARM member <a href="https://twitter.com/YouTube?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@YouTube</a> apparently thinks <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MichaelJKnowles</a> discussing loving ways to respond to gender confused young people is so “unsafe” they deleted it from their platform. <a href="https://t.co/6wVuzK00px">pic.twitter.com/6wVuzK00px</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1690132306948739073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Shapiro further noted that Daily Wire hosts “can’t even present the case for why much of the trans content is harmful to children or demeaning to women — because that gets forcibly deleted by [YouTube] too. Are these ‘unsafe?’” 
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7/ <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDailyWire</a> hosts can’t even present the case for why much of the trans content is harmful to children or demeaning to women — because that gets forcibly deleted by <a href="https://twitter.com/YouTube?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@YouTube</a> too. Are these “unsafe?” <a href="https://t.co/1prjNjAyzX">pic.twitter.com/1prjNjAyzX</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1690132312699138050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Shapiro then posted video of Disney “apparently paying a grown man to dress up as a cartoon female mouse whose primary audience is meant to be little children,” adding, “Is this ‘safe’?” 
“These guidelines aren’t designed to keep brands ‘safe,’ but to advance a specific (and extreme) narrative,” he finished the thread. “The mass implementation of these “brand safety” guidelines demands serious scrutiny.”
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7/ <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDailyWire</a> hosts can’t even present the case for why much of the trans content is harmful to children or demeaning to women — because that gets forcibly deleted by <a href="https://twitter.com/YouTube?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@YouTube</a> too. Are these “unsafe?” <a href="https://t.co/1prjNjAyzX">pic.twitter.com/1prjNjAyzX</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1690132312699138050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Shapiro, and The Daily Wire more broadly, are no strangers to censorship &#8212; like most conservative media. In fact, memos obtained this month by the House Judiciary Committee reveal the Biden White House pressured another Big Tech platform, Facebook, to stifle The Daily Wire’s reach in an effort to promote the administration’s policy goals related to the COVID vaccines.
One note, dated April 14, 2021, reveals that the White House met with Facebook executives to pressure the tech giant to change its algorithm to downgrade posts from The Daily Wire and other “polarizing” entities. White House digital director Rob Flaherty asked Facebook to promote what he called “authoritative” media, such as The New York Times, over The Daily Wire. 
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“If you were to change the algorithm so that people were more likely to see NYT (New York Times), WSJ (Wall Street Journal), any authoritative news source over Daily Wire, Tomi Lahren, polarizing people. You wouldn’t have a mechanism to check the material impact?” Flaherty said to Facebook executives.
Another note reveals Flaherty becoming frustrated that Facebook couldn’t provide some of the data the White House wanted, so he pushed the platform to “play ball.”
“I feel like we’re running around in circles. Some partners give us lots of information, some partners tell us to f*** right off,&#8221; Flaherty said. &#8220;This feels like we’re chasing our tails. If you don’t want to give information, just say that. I don’t want to feel like I’m going to a dog and pony show. My dream [is] for [Facebook] to play ball. It’s about, will we get out of this f***ing mess.”
Additionally, House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/jim-jordan-outlines-facebooks-cozy-relationship-biden-white-house-how-censored-free-speech">revealed</a> that a Facebook employee in April 2021 circulated an email for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg that said, &#8220;&#8216;We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the [Biden] White House’ to remove posts.&#8221; 
Shapiro last week responded to the release of the memos, which he said expose a clear First Amendment violation.
“We are absolutely pleased to look into the effect on our business of the Biden White House, engaging in an absolute First Amendment violation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There&#8217;s no question this is a First Amendment violation. It is as simple as that. It is a First Amendment violation because the federal government cannot force or even pressure a private company into censoring information &#8212; that is a First Amendment violation, pretty clearly.”
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiro-takes-on-corporations-behind-censorship">Ben Shapiro Takes On Corporations Behind Censorship</a>

FACTS – Ep 1 Newsguard Final v2 NO TEXTURE

YouTube Reverses Course After Throttling Ben Shapiro’s Video Uncovering Corporations Behind Censorship

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