TL;DR: Censorship and content manipulation are real problems, as shown with Instagram’s hashtag blocking and how platforms like Twitter (now X) are used to amplify harmful ideologies. It’s a growing concern how these platforms are becoming vehicles for dangerous misinformation, hate speech, and even political manipulation—all while being run by billionaires with their own agendas.

Yes, and I’ll explain why (content warning: US politics but the truth about the billionaire-controlled racist media is political)

With the three richest men on EARTH, “Zuckerberg, Bezos and Musk seated in front of cabinet picks” (Guardian) at the inauguration, it’s clear who’s really in control. We must stay vigilant and communicate on decentralized, open-source, or encrypted channels. Use lemmy, mastodon, and bluesky for public communication and Signal for private communication. Edit Wikipedia. Donate if you can. Be aware who controls what media, and don’t encourage them or feed into it: Twitter (Musk), Facebook (Zuck), Instagram (Zuck), the Washington Post (Bezos).

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/21/instagram-democrat-hashtags-blocked-search

Several Instagram users have reported seeing hashtags such as “#democrat,” “republicans,” “#jan6th” and “#johnoliver” being blocked, accompanied by a message stating, “We’ve hidden these results.” For example, if a user searches “jan6th,” a popup states that the results had been hidden as they “may contain sensitive content.” A “learn more” link takes a user to Instagram’s generic sensitive content help page. Between the lines: Trump, who had once threatened Zuckerberg with life in prison, took credit earlier this month for the changes in Facebook’s content moderation rules. “Probably,” Trump said when asked if Zuckerberg is “directly responding to the threats you’ve made to him in the past.”

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/04/media/washington-post-cartoonist-ann-telnaes-resigns-bezos/index.html

Talnaes, who had been with The Post since 2008, wrote in a Substack post announcing her resignation that, “I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations—and some differences—about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now.” The cartoon depicted Bezos, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI chief Sam Altman on their knees, handing over bags of cash to a statue of Trump next to a lipstick-holding Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and bowing Mickey Mouse.

You know as well as I do what this means and why we use lemmy — "Lemmy is free, open-source software, meaning no advertising, monetizing, or venture capital, ever. "

Given that "Elon Musk agrees with antisemitic X post that claims Jews ‘push hatred’ against White people" (CNN) and trying to censor Wikipedia over his Nazi Salute (SCMP), it’s clear that the White South African is turning his personal Xwitter shitter into a tool for the billionaire class — and for unbridled racism. Under Musk, the word “cisgender” is treated as a slur, but not actual racial slurs (AP)

I’m sad to say this is no longer a “conspiracy theory” but verifiable facts about how our world works in 2025.