Down and always out
with Big Sister

Above is an X post featuring one of Donald Trump’s latest ads aimed at prising black voters, especially black men, from the Democrats’ grip. Naturally, it has been denounced by the Left, as have similar Trump ads airing on black radio stations. Suggesting that blacks might want to reconsider their fealty to the party that has replaced fathers with welfare cheques and allowed blue cities to become the daily battlegrounds of gang-bangers and drive-by shootings is, apparently, deeply and offensively racist. Slave owners in the old South must have reacted similarly when Abolitionists demanded their human chattels be set free.

The ad is a masterpiece of political marketing which helps to explain why Trump, even while ordered by a Democrat judge to quit the campaign trail for the duration of his so-called “hush money” trial, is building a handy lead over Joe Biden in most polls. Keep an eye on the background and note how many symptoms of a society in decline Trump is slyly sheeting home to Joe Biden’s maladministration. (If the clip won’t play, the original is here)

Well Google has now pulled the ad for “violating community standards”, with other narrowly targeted Trump ads also flushed from the platform. No expanded explanation has been forthcoming nor is one expected or needed. Google doesn’t want Trump to win and that’s that.

In this instance censorship has backfired because the ad is getting the sort of viral exposure and eyeballs the Trump campaign’s money could never buy. But what of future ads that are disappeared? When scratching content that Google and other platforms don’t like becomes even more commonplace,who then will notice?

There is also something of an Australian angle: eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has repeatedly stated her eagerness to work with social media platforms to protect “the Australians” from online “harm” by taking down “offensive” and “dangerous” content.

Has anyone ever heard her utter a peep of warning to platforms not to deep-six material for nakedly partisan reasons?

No, didn’t think so. That wouldn’t be her style.

–roger franklin