Investigative Journalist Blocked by Facebook: 'I Certainly Wasn’t Surprised'

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Sputnik News has learned that Facebook purge of hundreds of pages from its platform previous week included accounts operated by independent American reporters and activists. Sputnik asked Dan Dicks, investigative journalist and founder of the independent media outlet Press for Truth, for his opinion on this matter.

Sputnik: What was your immediate reaction when you learned that your account was taken down?

Dan Dicks: I certainly wasn’t surprised I knew this was coming so I suppose my initial reaction was that I felt sad for the 350,000 followers who just lost access to a page they have come to love and trust as a resource for information that they are simply not getting from the mainstream.

Sputnik: What do you think is behind social giant’s motivation to ban you in particular among others? Why is Facebook discontent with your publications?

Dan Dicks: I think the reason why they banned me in particular is because the videos that I post often challenges the viewer to really question their government and the status quo and I ask questions that the msm is often not willing to air. For example this ban came just weeks after I posted an exclusive one on one sit down interview with the leader of Canada’s newest political party Maxime Bernier who seeks to take out Justin Trudeau in the next federal election where I challenged him and got on the record his views that matter most to Canadians. The msm and the powers that ought not to be didn’t like that.

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Sputnik: How has Facebook’s move affected your work?

Dan Dicks: The overall effect this has had on my work has been positive, this is motivating me to step up my game and take my efforts of supporting and promoting free speech to the next level! I’ve been humbled and inspired by the outpour of support I’ve received online globally and I plan to use all this positive energy and feedback to continue to motivate me to do bigger and better things with Press For Truth moving forward!

Sputnik: What are you planning to do to assert your right to free expression?

Dan Dicks: In order to assert my right to free expression in response to this I plan to promote true free market ideals by not looking to the government to solve the problems that have been created by the government who is in bed with these major tech conglomerates via some sort of internet bill of rights. We must not attempt to regulate Facebook into playing fairly but we should rather just boycott it all together and focus our energy on promoting alternative platforms that do support free speech and won't censor content no matter what side of the political spectrum the views are coming from. Platforms like steemit.com bitchute.com andminds.com for example are great blockchain based social media sites who do not engage in censorship and who support free speech and a truly open free and fare market.

Sputnik: What do you make of Facebook’s reasoning for their massive purge of accounts? Do they strike you as convincing enough?

Dan Dicks: Facebook‘s reasoning for banning these accounts is not convincing at all, they claim my page was engaging in either massive spamming, being administered by a fake account, and or miss leading behavior none of which Press For Truth has ever violated in terms of Facebook‘s terms and community standards. It’s very likely that some of the accounts that were purged were engaging in these activities and then those of us who they wanted to quietly silence were lumped in with those groups.

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Sputnik: Who might profit from a purge like this? How much is Facebook an independent entity in this decision?

Dan Dicks: Facebook is certainly not independent in regards to deciding to pull the trigger or flip the switch on this purge… It is clear that this is a concerted effort not by Facebook alone but by other major tech companies as well such as Twitter and Google all of which are in bed with the various state departments that monitor all of our online activity. In terms of who might profit from the purge such as this my hopes are that it will be free market entrepreneurial anarchists who develop the next big platform that will change the game and eradicate censorship forever using blockchain technology. Myspace lasted approximately 15 years, Facebook is approximately 15 years old so perhaps the current life cycle of a global social media network is 15 years meaning now is the time for the free market to shine!

The views expressed in this article are those of the speaker, and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

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