Minds.com

Censorship on Minds.com; Pay attention Bill Ottman

August 10th, 2017

In June 2017 I learned about a new social media website called Minds.com. While criticizing other social networks for their role in censorship, Minds.com’s co-founder and CEO Bill Ottman claimed that there would be no censorship on Minds.com; in his words, “Minds is engineered for freedom of speech, transparency and privacy.” But my own recent experiences show that we can probably expect the same kind of bullshit on Minds.com that people are now dealing with on other social media networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

For example, after I had made the post below on my Minds.com profile I tried to boost it and it got rejected. No reasons were given.

Censorship on Minds.com

After a while I tried to boost another post on my Minds.com profile and it also got rejected. Again, no reasons given.

Censorship on Minds.com

And it’s important to note that the above post featuring a link to my blog post “Adolf Hitler: The Greatest Story NEVER Told” did get accepted and promoted on Facebook a while back, as I mentioned in a previous post. So in this specific case, Minds.com was even worse than Facebook.

Yes I know, my posts were not deleted and I wasn’t banned or prevented from posting on my profile — things that are prevalent these days on other social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. But preventing me from using the points I earn on the Minds.com to boost my own posts so that they can get more exposure is also a form of censorship. That’s why there’s a whole debacle around net neutrality for example; people have very valid concerns that certain speech might get less to no priority at all when a small group of people are able to decide which flow of information on the network is more important. In this way, you don’t have to delete people’s content or prevent them from posting it; instead you simply prevent their content from ever reaching ((m)any) people — often while they may not even realize it. YouTube has also announced some policies recently that boil down to this same kind of censorship strategy — simply prevent undesired content from getting exposure by artificially limiting its reach.

This is fucking useless if I can’t use the points I earn to boost my posts

So by preventing me from boosting my content, Minds.com is preventing it from reaching ((m)any) people and my content is effectively being censored. Yet Ottman claims the following:

Ottman’s goal is to run Minds as a community owned and operated social media platform that rewards its users. “Minds channels organically reach 100 percent of their subscribers,” he said. “The Minds Boost feature expands reach even further through a system that rewards users for site activity with Minds points, a digital currency that may be exchanged for views on the Minds network at a rate of one point per view.”

Is that how you rewarded me, Ottman? By rejecting and censoring my posts? By preventing me from spending my earned points the way I want to?

It seems to me like Bill Ottman is just another Fuckerberg wannabe, in it just for the money, while pretending to be against censorship. The following quote by Ottman gives it away:

“Users may choose to be anonymous, if they wish, and free speech is limited only by U.S. law. The software is free, open sourced and encrypted end-to-end for maximum transparency and privacy, peer-reviewed at Minds.org.”

So you can bet your ass that when politicians and the US government come knocking on Ottman’s door to start censoring certain content, Ottman will be very quick to comply, just like Fuckerberg. Right now Minds.com probably isn’t big enough to start getting that kind of scrutiny, but I’m sure you can imagine that if my content gets rejected and censored now while they’re small, the censorship will only get worse once Minds.com gets bigger. And what’s the fucking use of end-to-end encryption when your content gets rejected and censored anyway? The government is simply going to point and laugh at you. You can use the most powerful encryption in the fucking universe, and it’ll be fucking useless if you can’t reach people.

And yet Ottman criticizes Facebook:

Ottman said companies like Facebook have it all wrong, and that machine learning software is no substitute for human judgment when it comes to deciding what content should be on a user’s page: “They are approaching these problems completely backwards, and it’s creating unnecessary censorship. Users should determine themselves whether their news is fake or not — not a Facebook algorithm. Likewise, users should determine themselves how/if they want to be targeted with ads.“

Well Ottman, where was my choice in the above instances? And where was the choice of other users on Minds.com to be able to see my content advertised and decide for themselves what to think of it? Where? We didn’t get to choose; you chose for us. You’re not any better than any other of the social networks that you criticized.

Updates

Update 14/8/2017: Another post of mine on Minds.com also got rejected for boost, featuring a picture of Hitler with a quote where he talks about the importance of truth.

Censorship on Minds.com

It’s ironic given the things Hitler talks about in the quote.

Back in June when I first got to know about Minds and read some interviews with Bill Ottman online, I had high expectations when it comes to freedom of speech on that platform. But it turns out that we can expect the same violations of individual rights on Minds that are so widespread today on other social networks. One would have to be absolutely fucking stupid to trust a social network like Minds with their content and to rely on it for distribution.

Ottman replied on Minds.com to a link I had posted to this blog post of mine, claiming that “None of your content has been censored. Boost is different entirely from posting and allowance on the site,” apparently failing to understand that blocking my content from being boosted is also a form of censorship. My reply to Ottman was:

That’s the same as YouTube claiming they aren’t censoring content by making sure it can’t be discovered or monetized. Effectively that’s censorship, and that’s the point I made in my post. If you block content from boost it’s a form of censorship. It’s suppression of info. Who decides what is appropriate or not for boost? This is highly subjective, and consider that it can only get worse in the future. You just have to look at what’s happening at Facebook and YouTube to know where it’ll ultimately be heading. Consider that today you’re at Minds.com, but maybe in a few months or years you won’t be; who will be calling the shots then regarding what’s appropriate or not for boost?

For example, a few days ago I saw an interview with independent journalist Luke Rudkowski about the fact that around 660 of the videos on his channel got demonetized by YouTube recently. I had already mentioned above that YouTube started implementing strategies recently to prevent undesired content from getting exposure by artificially limiting its reach. Demonetization is also a way in which they discourage people from making content that goes against their views, which, as I’m sure they’re hoping, will cause people to share and promote less of it, effectively resulting in (self)censorship.

So my recent experiences on Minds only reinforced my findings that the only reliable communication on the internet is truly Peer to Peer (P2P) communication where there’s no central authority and no central point of control, and where each individual has full control over their content and speech at all times. You’d be a fool to trust anyone else with your content and to become dependent on them, especially large corporations such as Facebook, Google and YouTube.

Pingbacks

Karel Donk's Blog » Censorship on the Internet getting worse (09/08/2018)
Karel Donk's Blog » Do NOT trust Patreon, PayPal, Stripe and Slack (23/12/2018)
Karel Donk's Blog » YouTube Demonetizes Collective Evolution’s Entire Channel (29/12/2018)
Vaccination Propaganda and Fake News — Karel Donk (24/02/2019)

Comments

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Mariprofundus August 15th, 2017 at 4:51 am

Well the argument I hear to refute you, people can be annoying sometimes without the block button they make ppl leave the site due to not being in control. Do you have an idea to provide a way to keep every american’s free speech intact while solving the annoying ppl issue? I will share this on my Minds page. @Mariprofundus

Reply
- Karel Donk August 15th, 2017 at 8:53 am
  
  Annoying in what way? Are they annoying because they disagree with you? Because they have a different opinion? Because that’s often why people get reported and blocked, and those aren’t good reasons in my opinion. However, if they are spamming you, for example posting hundreds of comments with the same texts just to be annoying and be abusive, then you have to defend yourself against that, and that would be a good reason to (temporarily) block someone from posting. However, even in this case, a block should be local to the person they were spamming and not network wide. Likewise, if someone finds someone else annoying because they hold a different opinion, then even if they are so weak and stupid to block that person, it should only be for/on their own profile, and not network wide — otherwise you violate the other person’s right to free speech. You have the right not to listen, but you don’t have the right to block someone else from expressing themselves.
  
  Reply
  - khjyuhj January 15th, 2018 at 2:47 pm
    
    You have the right to block someone from forcing views upon you…they can do it else where…….
    
    Reply
    - Karel Donk January 15th, 2018 at 9:16 pm
      
      No, you don’t. The only thing you have the right to do is block yourself from seeing their views. You have no right to block them from expressing themselves.
  - Stix66 July 1st, 2019 at 1:20 am
    
    Annoying with their half-truths and idiocies. Think anti-vaxxers or flat-earthers as just two examples. And let’s not even start talking about social justice warriors or extreme left groups. These can all be very annoying. Not always just because I disagree with them, but because what they are saying is simply not true and idiotic.
    
    Reply
    - mtc February 21st, 2020 at 4:54 am
      
      I am an anti vaxxer in the sense that I oppose some vaccines and am in favor of the right to choose and not be forced to have something injected into ones self. Shall we debate? Only rules are no personal insults and address the points.
    - Timothy St. John February 21st, 2020 at 9:19 am
      
      I’m just glad the mushroom man is dead and gone from Minds.
- Puzzle January 30th, 2018 at 4:11 pm
  
  Reminds me of this brilliant Defcon Video:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O7VSfVxStg
  
  Reply
- Jason Johnson December 20th, 2018 at 2:33 pm
  
  While I am no fan of Facebook, Minds has reduced itself to largely childish bullying and rants of largely exestremely far right who have been banned other places for their hate speek.
  
  This environment doesn’t doesn’t welcome open intellectual thought, but rather feeds to the worst in people.
  
  Minds not only creates an ideal environment for NAZI’S to justify their hate .
  
  Minds also allows cartoonist to post animated images of children sexualized, thus embracing child porn.
  
  Free speech is important but allowing hate speek only creates more hate.
  
  Reply
  - Doug January 27th, 2019 at 6:00 am
    
    “NAZIS” are not and were not hateful. There are a lot of lies you have been told about the far right, but there is no way of setting the record straight if we keep getting banned from everything. The documentary this blog’s author tried to share “Adolf Hitler: the Greatest Story Never Told” debunks a lot of the myths about what happened during WW2 and why it’s so relevant today. Wanting to raise my children in a middle-class White neighborhood is a reasonable thing to ask for, and doesn’t make me a genocidal maniac in any way.
    
    In fact, pretty much everything the left accuses right wing people of are things they are in fact guilty of. THEY are the ones who hate. They hate White people, and any defense of White people is shouted down and silenced as “Hate Speech”. I don’t hate other races, I just love my own, and there’s nothing wrong with that!
    
    Reply
    - don west February 22nd, 2019 at 6:02 pm
      
      THANK YOU!!!! You are 100% correct! The far-left has a seething hatred of white people, especially white men, and they project their hate onto us as if we’re the haters. NO! I just love my heritage and history, the same history they’re tearing down all over the USA (confederate statues, etc.). Everybody jumped the gun with this Jussie Smollett case and the Covington Catholic kids. WHY? BECAUSE THERE IS AN EVIL HATRED OF WHITE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY, and they excuse it away with embellished and revisionist history. Remember, we were also enslaved by blacks on the Barbary Coast of Africa. There are no descendants of those slaves because they were slaughtered, unlike here in the US where we set our slaves free. PLUS, the US also had several BLACK slave owners, some of whom owned WHITE Irish slaves. Blacks sold each other into slavery as well, but it is we who are to blame for ALL slavery. Jews owned the slave ships and had slaves as well, and a paltry 1% of whites owned slaves back then. But everybody has been trained to think slavery is a uniquely white thing. Just because I bring up these FACTS is enough for me to be labelled “far right” and “NAZI”. White people need to stop being scared of being called names like “racist” and “bigot”. That communist tactic will be our downfall if we don’t wise up.
- Shlomo Vinishsky January 31st, 2019 at 11:05 am
  
  Free speech can be fully implemented only when no other human is listening
  
  Reply
  - Karel Donk February 1st, 2019 at 8:40 am
    
    Nope, it can always be implemented. Those who don’t like your speech should just be able to avoid it only for themselves if they want to.
    
    Reply
    - phidoux April 26th, 2021 at 10:30 pm
      
      and that is what the minds block button is for, so far aside from this post most of what i have heard hear is its censorship to take away my captive audience, i agree if some one reports you unnecessarily out side for real issues like spammers and scammers, and block should only affect the user applying it from seeing the post they choose not to see (walking a way from the man on the soap box.), boosting is a form of advertising and can be miss interpreted as the companies opinion, by the sounds of them having a review process that’s exactly how its viewed by minds, go to any place of business and see if you can get permission to post your opinion in their window, i am sure they will give you similar responses.
- Marlin Knight July 23rd, 2019 at 5:14 pm
  
  Mariprofundus: You, and about 99 percent of the rest of the world, are idiots, too stupid to realize you don’t even have the ability to open and close your own God Damned mind. Words on a computer screen drive a fence post up your ass? How sad. As for me, when I come to something I don’t like my mind snaps shut like a steel trap.
  
  But never mind if you don’t know what I’m talking about. You can always go off somewhere in the woods and lay there until you raise a big stink.
  
  Reply
MindsGaming August 15th, 2017 at 9:29 am

Lmfao! Knows nothing about cyber laws. Minds is not censored, you can post anything to your channel (voice) and your subs will see it, you cannot boost porn an nsfw content globally to the network, nothing here was censored complaining about nit being able to boost porn in the open what a joke

Reply
- Karel Donk August 15th, 2017 at 9:37 am
  
  Is a picture and quote by Hitler considered porn?
  
  Reply
  - Mariprofundus August 15th, 2017 at 10:56 pm
    
    MindsGaming is the buttboy of Ottman. Ottman said YOU (Karel Donk) can tweet him
    
    Reply
    - Mariprofundus August 15th, 2017 at 10:58 pm
      
      “we are working to expand the type of content that can go through boost but you simply can’t expect us to be able to accept everything and call it censorship. I also don’t want to be in the position of deciding what is and what is not acceptable. This is why p2p architecture matters.” – Ottman
    - Karel Donk August 16th, 2017 at 8:35 am
      
      Better to stick our efforts in building a P2P social network then.
John Ottman September 13th, 2017 at 10:04 am

The free speech battle space is fogged. Beware anti free speech trolls spamming nazism, white supremacy, white genocide, rape culture, Islamaphobia and every other so called “hate” speech. Their goal is to sully free speech, frighten users, get Ban free speech platforms from app stores like gab, attract hate watch groups and bring down free speech. Call these tactics out as false flag, and protect free speech.

Reply
- Dave Kelso October 9th, 2018 at 10:55 pm
  
  The contempt of “hate speech” is also known as a “thought crime” and it is straight out of 1984 and Brave New World. Anything can be considered as hate speech when we traverse that slippery slope. To simply disagree with the opinion of a person who is not white, even if done in the most respectful possible way, can easily be considered white supremacy by radical extremists within the world of identity politics. To simply disagree with a Muslim on any topic, no matter how civil and respectful the disagreement is expressed, can be considered Islamaphobia. Anything can be considered “rape culture”, especially when a male has a civil disagreement with a radical feminist. I think the culture we live in, if one really needed a buzzword, would be called “Rage Culture”. A culture in which people are looking for reasons to be offended by the tiniest little thing, and have huge fights about it. The collective IQ of humanity is dropping exponentially, as adulthood continues to become a state of extended adolescence. Hateful people should be allowed equal rights to freedom of speech as everyone else, so that we know what the enemy looks like. Because if we are so quick to insulate ourselves from disturbing data, society will be quickly co-opted by tyranny because it will give the enemy an advantage: they will know us well, and we won’t know them at all. I’m not saying I agree with the person who posted this blog. Clearly, thinking that boosting NSFW content is a form of free speech, to me is ridiculous. As was already admitted to, the content was not actually censored in any way, it was just not allowed to be boosted. So far you haven’t gone on the identity politics insanity train, so I have no beef with you or Minds. Keep up the good work! By the way, you guys should seriously consider RSS support so we can have desktop notifications. Just a thought.
  
  Reply
  - Karel Donk October 10th, 2018 at 8:56 am
    
    As was already admitted to, the content was not actually censored in any way, it was just not allowed to be boosted.
    
    Yeah, and Alex Jones is not being censored in any way, he’s just not allowed to post anymore on many large social media networks. And his content isn’t being censored in any way, he’s just not allowed to accept money anymore on PayPal. Oh and, on YouTube, your videos are not being censored in any way; you’re just not allowed to monetize them or have them appear as suggested viewing or in search results. Censorship takes many forms, and people use all kinds of means these days to discourage certain types of speech until they (hopefully to them) die off. In addition, the whole NSFW idea is pure hypocrisy.
    
    Reply
    - P. Ivate March 2nd, 2019 at 12:25 pm
      
      The far right as you put it is one end of the same spectrum of political ideology. It’s an opposite spectrum of Communism but fascism us socialism so I’d communism you can dress if up with fancy words … which people have to justify the horrors affected on others to enforce the socialist idology. The left of the political scske is dictatorships and the right is democracy. Let’s not get confused by the Lefts narrative here. Socialism in its two firms Fascism and Communism are murderous regemes that to operate need to force people to accept theit political ideology …hence peoples resistance and the dictatorship crack down, leading to mass genocide of their own people. There is no untold story …the end result was misery and destruction of people’s lives under Fascism and now international communism cuddly called Globalism.
    - Karel Donk March 2nd, 2019 at 8:10 pm
      
      Let’s not get fooled by the many flavors of collectivism that we are being presented with. “Democracy”, “communism”, “fascism” etc. are all different flavors of collectivism; fundamentally they all have the same structure and purpose: enslavement of the individual. What we should all desire is individualism.
- DouglasMathieu January 27th, 2019 at 6:10 am
  
  I agree. “Kill the n-words” is actually real hate speech, but “Black people are genetically predisposed to violence and here’s how we can deal with the issue in a way that is good for everyone” is NOT hate speech.
  
  There IS a grey area in between, where someone will criticise a race but leave the solution as an open question, like what the history books usually do to White people (tales of Indian genocide, slavery, etc.) This is hate speech because it is done without context and in a way that would leave many people to believe White people should be bred out of existence (i.e. the infamous Anthony Bourdain conversation with the self-hating German).
  
  In order to stop courting that grey area we have to be more solutions-oriented in our approach. Highlighting problems is not about pointing fingers, it’s just the first step toward SOLVING problems.
  
  Reply
- George May 16th, 2019 at 5:21 pm
  
  Bullshit. I was on minds about a year ago. I had at one point set up under another account. I made a post about US foreign policy, it was censored in real time, typed, posted, appeared, and just as quickly, gone, poof, into the ether. I assumed it was my error, did it again, same result within seconds. I did a quick duckduckgo search on the connections the entity that had started the thread may have in common with the “Minds hierarchy” and was able to find those connections easily I then attempted to send a pm to another member that I regularly pm’ed, that was related to the attempted post and the possible “connections” or “influence” of the entity whos thread I had attempted to post on may or may not have with the “minds hierarchy”,that disappeared as well. At that moment, the penny dropped. I then logged out, logged in under my old id, and was able to pm her, and give her a heads up. I then went on another thread she had posted, and pinged several other Minds members that I liked and felt should be warned, and gave them a heads up as to the activity that had just gone on, that was my last post on Minds. I really am not interested in your response, the penny dropped a LOOOONG time ago for me as to whats going on on Minds, this is more of a heads up to others. BE AWARE. Anything that is being touted as a “free and open free speech forum” on the internet is nothing of the sort. Theres an agenda behind it, guard your right to free speach, and guard your privacy. You can BET YOUR ASS that WHEREVER and WHATEVER you are posting, the people behind the scenes are closely monitering whatever you post or reveal about yourself or your beliefs, and using it for their own purposes. ONLY talk openly face to face, ONLY with people you trust, and only in open outdoor spaces, well away from any buildings and structures. Its a “brave new world” kiddies, never forget it, dont EVER drop your guard. As William Burroughs once said, “sometimes paranoia is just knowing some of the facts”.
  
  Reply
- Marlin Knight July 23rd, 2019 at 5:26 pm
  
  How often do images jump your cowardly ass from off the front of your computer screen? Do dick pics get struck on there and you can’t find a way to get them off without firing the gun?
  
  Reply
Yvette Katt November 20th, 2017 at 8:05 am

Good points. Your posts should have been boosted.

Reply
Yomon Lee November 20th, 2017 at 8:33 am

“The free speech battle space is fogged. Beware anti free speech trolls spamming nazism, white supremacy, white genocide, rape culture, Islamaphobia and every other so called “hate” speech. Their goal is to sully free speech, frighten users, get Ban free speech platforms from app stores like gab, attract hate watch groups and bring down free speech. Call these tactics out as false flag, and protect free speech.”

Free speech is not fogged. The US laws are what minds.com claims to go by. Now, you’re making judgments about what speech is acceptable and what is not. Why is Jewish supremacism allowed free speech (censoring anything that criticizes Jews) but not defensive gentilism? The goal of “hate speech” is not to sully free speech. The goal of “hate speech” is to debate what is “hateful”. Allowing immigrants into one’s country and banning criticism of the immigrants is “hateful” to some people – the native people who do not want this immigration.
Gab was banned from app stores because the speech there challenges the powerful people, the monopolies, the corporations – their power is based on the continued ignorance of the people. If enough people wake up, they will lose their power more. They will not be able to lie and hoodwink people any more. The same with the US government which these powerful monopolies control. Therefore, the banning has nothing to do with protecting the common people – it has to do with protecting themselves and suppressing the truth.
This is why people are turning away from the mainstream media and turning to the social media. The social media still reports the mainstream media, but people are exposed to alternative media too, small media networks, independent media, and even foreign media, which could have different views to the US media …
And not only that, the social media enables people to see the MSM offerings through filters. Analyses of the MSM “news” can open people’s eyes. Once a pickle, never a cucumber. Once people lose the trust in the MSM, it cannot be recovered. But what is the point of turning to social media when the social media tries to act like the MSM – censors content which they judge by themselves to be “offensive”, “hateful” or “harmful”? Where in the US Constitution does it say that such and such speech is illegal, hurtful or offensive? Because if it does say that, I’ve never seen it.
Censor as much as you want, it’s your site, but don’t do false advertising and say that you differ from Facebook and Google in that you don’t censor. Censoring what gets boosted is still censorship.
It’s just one form of censorship. You may think there’s some hierarchy of censorship and think that censoring what gets boosted is better than banning someone for a month because of what they posted – this just means you don’t know what censorship means. As someone pointed out, what is the difference between demonetizing political videos and censoring someone’s post for boostering when both have the same results? Fewer people get to see the post, the author is discouraged from writing more of those posts – the author is punished for their political views.
Don’t turn minds.com into some sort of place where people feel confident only about posting cute animal videos and hesitate to post political content – you will make the place into a B-grade version of Facebook. Still censorship but even fewer people joining.
You should build up the place so that it attracts a user base. The numbers is what counts. What is the point in censoring posts for boosting when nobody even comes to this place?
You should go the same way of GAB and go for free speech. You are either free speech or you’re not. Anyone who censors and then says their site is free speech is kidding themselves.
People will soon find out whether it’s free speech or not.
If you’re smart, you will choose the free speech option. Technology is moving to that point anyway with block chain technology. If some other site develops a true Facebook alternative, with free speech, algorithms that are dependent on people’s choice of voting up content, great ease of usage, user-friendly – they’re going to bypass you.
Want to know the truth? The majority of people who come to minds.com don’t like Facebook because of the censorship. Otherwise they would rather stay where the user experience is more familiar, and the interface is nice and easy to use, and where they can roam and browse a lot more content …
Why come to a less known place, where the interface is hard to use, not user-friendly, and there are a lot fewer people to make contact with? Why go through all the bother? You should know your target market.
If you want just Huffington Post people on minds.com and make it like an echo chamber of leftist liberals – which seems to be the case, you should have said so from the beginning. Then people would know what you’re about, Bill Ottman.
They won’t join, invest their time and effort creating an identity and making blogs and so on. They’ll wait for something better to come along or make something new themselves.
Technology is going to shift and fill that gap soon. Like Bitcoin, like the invention of the internet, it’s going to be people who use the innovations to answer people’s desires, and make money in the process.

Reply
Ss February 26th, 2018 at 10:29 pm

The funny thing about the North American Constitution (Union) is that for virtually all of us here, none of us have our signatures on the Goddamned document…

So what the f*ck is everyone on about?

– Ss

Reply
- Karel Donk February 27th, 2018 at 10:00 am
  
  Yeah. Freedom of speech is granted by the Universe/nature. Not by the government and/or a piece of paper.
  
  Reply
  - DouglasMathieu January 27th, 2019 at 6:15 am
    
    Lol, Larkin Rose is for 100% open borders. Basically a communist masquerading as a libertarian.
    
    Reply
Certainty comes from experimentation March 4th, 2018 at 12:56 pm

I agree that censorship is bad, but I honestly doubt Bill Ottman himself is blocking these or has a policy of blocking these posts. That’s the issue with moderators, you’re always bound to what THEY personally find acceptable. It should still show up to everyone who is already following you, but given that entire websites have been taken down for less by the ADL I don’t know whether this is for legal reasons or just a matter of policy. Open national socialism is a jailable offense in most European countries, so it might be more of a legal issue when it comes to Hitler somehow. Any excuse these governments have to shut down any speech they deem inappropriate, they use.

Reply
- DouglasMathieu January 27th, 2019 at 6:19 am
  
  I understand why they aren’t boosting the Hitler doc, since so many normies are flooding in now/soon and image is important. As long as they don’t ban or strike these materials they will be okay in my book.
  
  That said everyone should watch that documentary, and the Holocaust Handbooks one (“Why We Believed”).
  
  Reply
Steve Erdmann March 8th, 2018 at 2:47 pm

Alert! For those who own Minds.com accounts, strange things are happening! This is a general alert and request for help. Message sent to Minds: “Dear Minds office and Security: I tried to login to my Minds account today at StepehnErdmann2017, only to discover my ID and password don’t work. ATT helped to reset the same ID and password so I could get into my account, only to find ‘all’ my postings and hard work in my account since October 31, 2017 have disappeared. There are about four postings from Facebook which I never posted there.

“Where did all my files go and how can I retrieve them? That has been a lot of HARD WORK putting those postings. All my subscribers are missing as well. I need to have your support team contact me and help me with all my minds.com files.

“This is a total mystery, disappointment, and discouragement. Who and how can I get help with this. Are there telephone numbers I can call? I need to be contacted on this problem and how all those postings and files restored.”

I just visited my Minds.com account a few days ago, and everything looked fine. Something very mysterious happened in the last few days. Any help of phone numbers you can forward will help. Do you have Bill Ottman’s telephone number?

independenterdmann.gmail.com

dissenterdisinter@yahoo.com

Steve Erdmann

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Steve Erdmann March 10th, 2018 at 2:08 pm

Thanks for printing my comments of March 8, 2017 in a gmail to Minds, of which there has been no action or reply (and I must remind you, such antics of censorship is currently happening in ‘mass’ across all media, Twitter, Google, and several other noted sites), note the ‘friendly’ Minds has with Facebook and Twitter, when you share things from Minds (note, the ‘hacker’ mysteriously pulled several unrelated and private family photos ‘from’ Facebook). Here is my most current gmail to their advertised email sites:———(a gmail) A second (maybe third or fourth) request: Well, we’ll try again to communicate with the security and customer service minds: I reported this yesterday and they even censored that complaint. I have put a lot of work into my site StephenErdmann2017 since I jointed October 31, 2017, and was shocked and disappointed to find on March 8, 2018 that all my positing before that date had been deleted. The ‘hackers’ (whomever they may be, you take your pick) somehow ‘pulled’ four family photos from my ‘Facebook’ photo gallery (photos I would never have posted, nor did I post) onto my Minds.com site. So, like any concerned member would do, I contact the emails given by Minds and sent a description as to what had happened. Silence. I even called Ottman’s residence and left a message. Silence. I asked that they ‘retrieve’ my files and put them back: they must have storage and archives of them like most reputable companies do. Silence. And deletion, here at this site. Surely, they would be concerned when this happens to one of their members, right? Or, give answers or some kind of response? Silence. What I am asking is not unreasonable, And as far as that goes: I’ve sent far, far, more radical political comments on Minds, and I even seen pornography(came across one site that showed actual sexual intercourse): so who or what happened here and why the lack of membership contact? This will be copied and possibly shared, until Minds. contacts me and gives professional help in this matter. Those who are concerned can contact me at independenterdmann@gmail.com, visit Stephen.Erdmann2017 or visit my Facebook site at stephen.erdmann1, or any other way of contact. It is March 10, 2017 at 4:41 a.m.

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- Smksmk March 11th, 2018 at 4:10 pm
  
  Delete Facebook from your devices. I had the same thing happen with photos that I had stores in my phone. Somehow FB has access to your entire phone and will automatically post pics and sometimes will ask which pics to post? I deleted app and no problems with accidental pic posts since.
  
  Reply
Steve Erdmann March 23rd, 2018 at 11:10 am

Corrected spelling and grammar: if you please: Well, I have arrived, perhaps I was too pushy for actually sending in a complaint each day and even posting my complaints on my own site, but they say my site was ‘spam.’ In actuality, it was tame compared to other(s) there. So they use an arbitrary ‘standard,’ just like Facebook and all the other(s). Minds.com is a scam, their anti-censorship policy is a ‘hoax,’ they ban anyway for all sorts of reasons, just like Facebook (they just banned me for ‘complaining about their deleting my files—and they called my complaints—‘spam’), all I was (was) doing was trying to find out what happened and get a professional response. My postings, in itself, were no different than any others on their domain, and far less radical. They just didn’t like me protesting their unjust actions (please, no dribble about their be(ing) a’private’ corporation). I also suspect that I did not join in and pay for ‘boosts’ as many others had done, they say you don’t need to: and some other members had been wiring me boosts.

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G March 23rd, 2018 at 1:41 pm

Hah — i told Bill back in the day when minds.com was first incepted (as gathering of the minds).. do not offer something people can use against you. Did they listen.. of course not. I was offed as a developer and swept under a rug. I was THE first developer of their idea back in 2008. We began to have issues with their not keeping me in the loop. Including other developers on code ive already done, then expecting me to know how to explain what they had done to my code. Sharing source code which i developed and they claimed they owned.. even though that was never the agreement. They owned the end product. Not the source.

They bought me off for a measly 2k to end our relationship. All the while theywent about keeping all my hardware that I brought on site. Multiple machines, monitors, you name it.

Good times.. NOT. Fuck them and the horse they rode in on.

Should have rm rf’d it all when i had the chance. Assholes will get theirs one day — want to see china or russia just own them, take them down and make them cry — hold everything for ransom sorta situation.

They seriously dropped me on my head when i was let go, caused me great anguish and in the end i lost my car due to them. Continual promising of payment in the beginning — and how did they pay me then? With a credit card and bill would come along and get me gas or groceries.. yeah.. no.. just no. and now hes sitting on fox news being interviewed and making good loot.. just no. then again life is not fair.. but i wish nothing but ever deserving lightning strikes to he and his clan of goonies.

/end rant

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Steve Erdmann April 1st, 2018 at 10:59 am

Well, for what it is worth, Minds.com offered me to enter the domain under a new login and site: so I took them at their word and opened a new account: TheDissenter, with a new password. Only thing, is sometimes I can get in, sometimes I can’t. I don’t think Minds.com really realizes: I’M BACK! But for how long? The other problem is their money currency and schemes are totally alien and foggy to me. I need all the help I can get. What warnings, advice and help can I get from everyone so I don’t fall into their traps again? They closed down StephenErdmann2017 as “spam,” which is really odd considering some of the junk, pornography and rabid political protest I’ve seen there. I think they objected to me not buying their currency and also posting my wordpress507 posts there frequently, but I can’t really tell. Open to warnings and advice; independenterdmann@gmail.com

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- Karel Donk April 1st, 2018 at 11:17 am
  
  Thanks for the update. Good to hear that Minds.com allowed you back in. I doubt you’d have that kind of support on Facebook for example. The advice I give everyone these days is not to rely on any single platform but to post your content on multiple platforms. And trust none of them. Not even Minds.com, because as mentioned in my post above, I doubt that they’ll do the right thing when they grow and once the criminal governments of the world start putting pressure on them.
  
  Apart from other platforms like Steemit, I would advise to seriously look into IPFS as a new publishing platform and Mastodon, which are more decentralized and more difficult to attack. For video content look at DTube (built on IPFS) and PeerTube.
  
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Karel Donk April 10th, 2018 at 9:03 am

Here’s a presentation showing a glimpse of what’s to come in the future with regard to P2P social systems.

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Bob July 8th, 2018 at 8:40 am

Read the terms edgelord. You can’t push nsfw stuff to Everyone. Deal with it.

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Wallys July 27th, 2018 at 4:52 am

Ha, ha, haaaaaa… Minds.com do not function since 29 March 2018 – I have an account there and I have tried to log on since the above date and… didn’t work… tried from my computer from library computer and… VERIFY GOOGLE… any activity AFTER ABOVE DATE? They announced some cryptocurency event… CAN SOMEBODY POST A PHOTO OF DESKTOP WHO SHOW AN ACTIVITY ON MINDS after above date? Why they were shut down? Hmmm, answer is simple : INTERNET WAS MENT AND EXIST TODAY… TO SERVE SOME INTERESTS NOT TO BE WHAT MINDS WANTED TO BE : FREE SPEACH PLATFORM… puppeteers of this world like to perpetuate their incompetent descendents as degenerated and impotent as they were… Free speech will show why ALL TIMES PREJUGES ARE VALID today like yesterday or tomorrow. Human farming has as objective to use humans not to let humans to get loose out of their loop. Facebook disaster is sign that new SOCIAL MEDIA is adapting and soon create the new platforms without any possibility but to agree or skip something… negative comments are not what they accept or expect from Their subjects. ONE LITTLE QUESTION FOR THE NEAR FUTURE : what will do current aggressive manipulators of this world if TOMORROW their juice will run out? INTERNET is the juice… Satellites are the device making possible the miracle… If a cosmic event will put out of work majority of satellites THE ENTIRE world will colaps due to ALL ACTIVITIES related and linked to internet activity. Conclusion YOU have to find it if you will have enough time left by the fear and struggle of IMMEDIAT SURVIVAL.

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D August 6th, 2018 at 9:24 pm

I deleted all my content on Minds today. They rejected two of my posts for “spam.” It wasn’t spam. My most recent was a two sentence blog that said, “CNN’s Logo is a Sperm,” the C is the head, and the NN is the tail, and the logo also has all the letters SEMEN in it. Very simple, to the point, rejected and called spam. It wasn’t spam, it was sperm.

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Jmaes August 30th, 2018 at 7:02 am

minds.com is not free speech. I got banned in record time 20 hours. After just posting an article on the site. Would somewhat understand if it was something really political, illegal or obscene.. but it was just a blog post about how my business got censored by google. Minds.com are frauds trying to make a quick buck out of the big tech giants censoring conservatives

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Shlomo Vinishsky September 1st, 2018 at 2:31 pm

Frankly, the only just network may be only under the central authority which is God Himself. But until it happens, the question is why to that day there is no viable P2P platform? Is it being suppressed by the Invisible Hand?

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- Karel Donk September 1st, 2018 at 3:21 pm
  
  Perhaps the monetary incentive. In any case, I’ve been working on a P2P networking platform called QuantumGate, code available on GitHub. It’ll take 2 more years to get it where I want it to be, but it’ll kick ass.
  
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The Knave November 3rd, 2018 at 11:29 am

Joined Minds a few days ago. At the moment, I’m experiencing some form of shadow banning.

Comments on my posts do not appear in the comment bubble on my TL, so I can’t respond to commenters…because I can’t see them. Occurs only on some posts and only with some commenters.

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Paul Nehlen November 6th, 2018 at 5:42 pm

Just joined Minds a few days ago. This blog post (sent to me by a friend) took a bit of wind out of the sails, but glad to see others fighting the good fight. This was the proposal I announced Dec 14, 2017 during my Congressional campaign against then sitting Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. https://shallnotcensor.com

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Tim St. John November 9th, 2018 at 5:38 pm

fuck jack and fuck bill, too.
they’re both a couple of rat-bastard, sell out shitheads.

“free speech” is a marketing tagline to them – it has no real meaning on the platform.

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Soul Sojourner November 18th, 2018 at 10:48 am

I can’t say if you’re right/accurate that these cases of not being boosted fall into a form of censorship as it seems to me that there is a lack of reasons provided. I believe that if they are going to be allowed to stop you from boosting your content (which, honestly they shouldn’t be, like at all), then they should also be forced to provide their reasoning for doing so.

Perhaps their reasoning was decent or even simply due to confusion? Regardless, I agree with you on this and feel that there shouldn’t even be the option to block you or anyone from boosting their own content.

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Jeff Bayazit December 28th, 2018 at 3:19 pm

Even if a company states they have policies against censorship, their employees still make arbitrary decisions from time to time. Like one company posting a ‘Hitler is Awesome’ article, while another declines it. Nothing new about that. If you have opinions, present them well and persuasively, and you will be received well. I think young people these days over-react concerning censorship. Censors are dumb, so don’t be as dumb as they are. Choose words that convey your meaning in a more subversive and persuasive manner and you will rule everyone.

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roo3story January 29th, 2019 at 2:45 am

Holy crap, man; how can you be so dense? I saw that nipple to nose image of Mark Zuckerberg and instantly knew what it had been rejected as a boost.

You strike me more as a person who wants it all their own way. You can’t have it all your own way, except on your own website.

Get a clue.

Oh, and addendum: since that time Minds blurs the image. I could be wrong but I bet that image of yours could be boosted–and yes, you’d have to pay for it–but the image would be blurred, with a “click on this if you are of legal age.”

As for not suitable for work; I guess you’ve never worked in an office where any member of the general public could walk right by and see the tits on your screen. If you’re suggesting you work in an office that allows this, I applaud your employer; but generally, businesses are rated PG.

Have fun.

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- Karel Donk January 29th, 2019 at 8:57 am
  
  You either have censorship or you don’t. Perhaps you’re someone who subscribes to the sexual hypocrisy in society, so censorship of a nipple on social media might be “understandable” to you. And only female nipples at that — perhaps you also like that kind of double standard. I would have hoped that you would be smart enough to realize that hypocrisy and double standards lead to all kinds of problems. A better approach in this case would be to not censor me, and instead to provide other people who want to be hypocrites with the option to filter out certain content only for themselves.
  
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Oscar February 4th, 2019 at 6:15 pm

I agree with the notion that boosting /promoting differently for one group than another, or a specific post that don’t call or incite immediate violence, or to be arbitrarily decided on a whim, or on a trend is a form of censorship.

I don’t know that these particular cases are reflective of an agenda based on censorship or just a bad call on their part. I remember seeing certain posts get approved right away while others would take a long time. It would be interesting to rest this now after all this time.

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Harry August 20th, 2019 at 8:53 am

Your Nazi posts are terrorist propaganda, the same as if you posted ISIS crap. Nazis are terrorists and should be locked up in cages like the beasts they are.

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Harry August 20th, 2019 at 8:53 am

Why is my comment awaiting moderation if you are so keen on no censorship? Clown

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- Karel Donk August 20th, 2019 at 8:55 am
  
  That is for actual spam, such as advertisements for viagra pills, scams, phishing attempts etc.
  
  Reply
  - ZippyDSMlee January 24th, 2020 at 4:10 pm
    
    that’s still censorship if you take it to an extreme. You are blocking a person from spamming their crap, so you are getting in the way of them making a buck. Still an extreme view but one worth mentioning.
    
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JM January 20th, 2020 at 5:53 pm

I saw I was banned for no apparent reason. I guess they don’t like me promoting my digital marketing website, but Facebook and Twitter don’t seem to mind me. I am shocked that these platforms claiming to be democratic or decentralized are anything but. Anyway, I will appeal the decision to learn what is going on at Minds. I am seeing many cases of censorship as I search online.

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- MJ April 21st, 2021 at 11:52 am
  
  Similar story here. I posted videos i found educational and interesting mostly about tech, EVs and anything i found interesting. I never took the tokens seriously. After a flurry of congratulatory messages with exhortations to keep it up. I was suddenly accused of spamming and banned.
  
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ZippyDSMlee January 24th, 2020 at 4:08 pm

A simple counter point, while censorship is anyone changing or blocking a thing from adult distribution to adult consumption, I’d say this is less censorship and more “we don’t know how to advertise it so we will block it” type deal, I know its not much better but its at least a foothold for reasonable debate.

Mind you the captcha thats sued in the comment system is a form of censorship if you want to take up extremes.

I feel we can better focus advertisers and complainers that hate anything they don;t agree with if you split the difference 3 ways, NSFW porn/nudity, NSFW controversial subject matter and the general PG13 slop that goes around for sloppy seconds.

I mean you kinda have to deal with the fact free speech is a legal matter that’s not easily 100% defensible at all times, the platform, the middle man the one doing the heavy lifting has to distribute and stay in business to keep distributing stuff, its gotten somewhat cheaper in the modern age.

So free speech and other things are not really a god and creation issue since creation runs on the strongest always devours the weak and as far as the God goes, which God are you referring too? Because none of the exist as you think they do and if there is one then the rest are as easily validated, choose thy poison, choose wisely).

When it comes to free speech in the digital age we kinda have jumped the shark, instead of using user controlled lists and public lists of keywords in a type of paternal control setup to block out the stuff we do not like we with law ensuring the more racey stuff is labeled correctly or fined(I dislike hate speech law, since freedom of speech prevents most from rioting or calling others to violence agisnt individuals), as we always do hand it off to a middle man whose going to use it to profit…like all the politicians in office do with their elected office… its a shame we are enslaved by mobish groups who own to many IP’s that block trade and the distribution of information and technology..it would have been nice if we did not allow the individuals to choose large groups over other individuals and small biz…. but humans rarely want a middle path….
they tend to be all or nothing just look at the noble cast systems, the many grouped together under lords and kings because they did not want outsiders to take their stuff but were fine with giving up anything to the lords and kings for a bit of stability… still better than anarchy and a constant state of re setting..since that’s how dumb humans are…

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ZippyDSMlee January 24th, 2020 at 4:59 pm

Uhg that long rambling counterpoint could be better proof read, dyslexia and anixty makes me want to post and not hold off for a bit to check it a fourth time ><

A thought on spam, specifically advertisements, I want to say that adverts have a more specific use that goes beyond free speech, for obvious reasons, you'd see no content by big blue dck pills. Its almost like coming into your house and setting the amp to 11 as you give a full dissertation on humanity and society in quad stereo.

Everything has reasonable limits after all.

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Froster February 4th, 2020 at 5:27 pm

Try BITCHUTE,, the one and only alternative of minds.com

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CryptoJim7 July 24th, 2021 at 8:48 pm

Minds banned me for posting about graphene oxide in vaccines. They are just another Facebook platform disguised as free speech.

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Aiah March 14th, 2022 at 2:38 pm

I’m a young woman in my 20’s. Since I was a teen, I’ve been a huge advocate of decentralization. I thought it could address the rampant censorship problems with Big Tech and the State. So I signed up with many of the “censorship-free” new social media alternatives to test them out, including recently Minds. I’m very disappointed. While I’ve not been censored (yet), most of the content I find on all these alternatives is at least as politically and values biased as what I find on Big Tech. I’m neither Left nor Right. I don’t want to suffocate in echo chambers. Which, sadly, is what social media seems to have turned into. Maybe it’s time I gave up on social media.

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d_i_ii May 13th, 2023 at 3:05 am

MINDS censored my account: all my posts are immediately removed. Why? Because I posted about default in USA. And about murders of journalists in Ukraine (there are users from Ukrainian special operations center and they report everyone who posts truth). Now I cannot make any posts on MINDS: post – bam – post removed.

So, MINDS _IS_ censored platform.

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