I am not one for conspiracy theories, my twenty years in the public service has seen to that. Witnessing firsthand how a government department fails to work has convinced me the reason why conspiracies are shadowy is because no one’s ever seen a bureaucracy that functions effectively. Whenever a conspiracy theorist starts a sentence with, “The government organized”, I go, “Stop. Stop right there. You’re embarrassing yourself.” Cynicism aside, the recent spate of censoring conservatives is a genuine cause for concern.

Twitter banning Milo Yiannopoulos, Tommy Robinson, Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys and Sargon Of Akkad, not to mention the deletion of President Trump’s account (which was quickly reinstated) and their shadow banning of conservative members of the public. Facebook targeting conservatives and limiting access to their feeds, as well as removing conservative posts they deemed inflammatory by placing them in Facebook jail. And now, four major social network organizations – Facebook, Apple, Google and Spotify – banning Alex Jones Infowars. I’ve never watched or listened to Alex Jones, due to my above stated contempt of conspiracy theories, but regardless of his beliefs this is wrong.

Whether you’re on the left or the right, this censorship is cause for concern. For the limiting of free speech may benefit one group today, but then be used against them the very next. The way to defeat someone’s argument is to provide superior reasoning, not by muzzling and reducing their platform from which they speak. All of the above though is out in the open – at least being seen by those who care to look – but equally disturbing is the blanketing of news stories by major news networks.

The media blackout ordered by British news networks about the arrest of Tommy Robinson was a dark day in the history of journalism. As was the misinformation spread by news networks to deter protesters from attending a rally in Tommy’s name – with news agencies reporting that the event had been cancelled when it had not. Then there was the almost non-coverage of U.S. soldier remains returning from North Korea after 65 years, simply because it would make President Trump look good. And the almost guarantee that an Islamic terrorist will have their religion omitted from reporting to be glossed over with ‘mental health issues’ or the generic term ‘youths’. Again, I am not a conspiracy theorist, but the dots really do connect here to create a disturbing narrative of conservative stories either being suppressed or deliberately ignored and a political agenda shaping the news over reporting the facts.

Newton’s Third Law states for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and this suppression of conservatives will not go how the left think. Already Alex Jones claims 5.6 million new subscribers signed up to his newsletter within 48 hours. Milo became even more popular once his first book deal was nixed and he was banned from Twitter. And conservatives may be banned from left-leaning social media sites, but they are businesses first and foremost and this will result in a significant loss of revenue. I would offer this will even lead to the creation of a conservative version on Facebook, which will see Twitter/YouTube/Facebook/Instagram lose tens of millions of subscribers.

Yet for now, the left is winning the media war with the next generation which is a huge issue for the right and for the survival of free speech. I can say this on the internet today, but who knows about tomorrow?