Why is Silicon Valley silencing John Howard?

COMPANIES like Facebook and Google already have more power than any corporation should, but using it to try and censor a former PM is one step too far, writes Miranda Devine.

THE news that John Howard, our respected second-longest serving prime minister, has been censored by Facebook should send shockwaves through Australia.

But, like frogs in boiling water, we are oblivious to the creeping despotism of Big Tech.

It began when Howard gave a speech at Campion College two weeks ago about the threat posed by political correctness to Western civilisation and the Judeo-Christian underpinnings of our society.

He cited our front-page story revealing that Australian Defence Force personnel are being told to stop using gender-specific terms such as “him” and “her” because they might offend the LGBTI community.

Howard, quite sensibly, described this as “language madness”.

“It absolutely defies common sense to overturn millennia of language usage to describe men and women in the name of helping a ­minority.

“Nobody wants to persecute a minority. But you don’t protect a minority by rubbishing a majority.”

Former prime minister John Howard’s comments were shared on the AFC’s Facebook page and later removed by Facebook. (Pic: AAP/Kelly Barnes)

His comments became another story on our website which attracted the attention of the Australian Family Coalition, which posted a link on its Facebook page, without comment. The post did well so they paid Facebook to “boost” it to a larger audience.

And then, without warning, Facebook deleted the post.

The AFC complained to Facebook, repeatedly, with no reply for a week.

Finally, a “Facebook Marketing Expert” scheduled a phone call with the AFC’s Ian Miller for Thursday. But that morning, the appointment was cancelled, without explanation. Oddly, the emails from Facebook were in Japanese.

Miller rescheduled for Friday morning. Facebook sent a reminder email an hour before. But the expert never rang.

“I waited for 90 minutes for my phone call, but it never happened. I also emailed the expert but got no response.”

Then, on Friday afternoon, just as mysteriously, the posts reappeared. No explanation from Facebook. No apology. No refund.

“There’s something suspicious going on,” says Miller.

This highhanded attitude shows utter contempt for the customer. The Japanese emails suggests that, for Facebook, Australia is just some place in “Asia”, despite the $3 billion it gouges from us every year while paying minimal tax.

Facebook deleted the AFC’s post, and explained their reasoning via an email sent in Japanese. (Pic: supplied)

Facebook and Google have more power than any corporation should over our thoughts and speech and the information we access.

Control freak algorithms meddle with our news feeds and search metrics to shape cultural movements according to the world of virtue-signalling Silicon Valley globalist elites.

Douglas Murray tells a story in his book, The Strange Death of Europe, of a UN lunch in New York in 2016 when German chancellor Angela Merkel sat next to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a microphone was left on.

Merkel had been copping heat on social media for her catastrophic decision to open Europe’s borders to 1.5 million asylum seekers, mainly young Muslim males, few of whom were genuine refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war.

Merkel turned to Zuckerberg and asked him what he was doing to stop anti-immigration posts on Facebook: “Are you working on this?”

“Yeah,” said Zuckerberg before the sound was cut.

This was their solution: stop people discussing the disastrous consequences of her policy.

Silencing the deplorables is the oldest trick in the despot’s armoury.