Dodging the Censors and the Shadow Bans

It isn't a level playing field

I am under a powerful shadow ban on both Facebook and Twitter. If I post anything of significance, or try and promote my work, they simply block most people from seeing it, or delay their access for a long time. I have the maximum amount of Facebook friends (5000), so that’s a lot of people I’m missing out on.

I tested this on Facebook 10 days ago. I posted something about it being the one year anniversary of my brother Ricky’s death. I included how he died because of hospital protocol. The post got one reaction in an hour. So I posted again, and this time left out anything beyond him dying a year ago, and how I’d never let him be forgotten. Hundreds of reactions and comments. I think I proved my point. Facebook will let me post personal stuff, about birthdays and the like. But if I comment on the news, or link to any of my controversial work, the Shadow Ban is activated, like a force field.

I hosted my first Twitter Spaces in quite some time last Saturday night. This was initially a great way to reach out to new people, and it seemed totally uncensored. My first few Spaces were a great success, with hundreds of people listening in and a good number participating in the discussion. But then something happened. When I hosted Saturday, for instance, we never even got up to twenty people in the Space. I guess it’s part of my Twitter Shadow Ban. I lost over 100 followers since yesterday. People have told me that the system “unfollowed” them from me. Others have said they have to keep going in and following my notifications, because Twitter just turns it off.

Elon Musk is supposedly going to end Shadow Bans. He hasn’t ended mine. I’ve tweeted about it several times, but received very little response. Certainly none from him. I understand, he’s got much bigger fish to fry. Keeping the likes of Alex Jones banned, while claiming to be a free speech purist. It’s a delicate balancing act, tweeting out great rhetoric while managing not to turn most of it into tangible action. Donald Trump, of course, was the master of that. Musk reminds me of Trump in many ways. Maybe The Simpsons will portray him coming down the escalator, too.

So I face a conundrum. How do I grow my presence, in a social media marketplace that is so rigged? How can one compete on such an unlevel playing field? Substack, in fact, appears to be the only big platform left that is not compromised in some way. They really seem to support and permit true free speech here. I have decided, therefore, to use this platform to promote things that I cannot promote any more on other social media. I apologize if such self-promotion seems an annoyance. I will still churn out the regular articles, I assure you. But I will need to do this sort of thing on occasion. This is now the only uncensored place for me to promote.

I am very grateful for how much my Substack is growing. All subscribers are welcome, but I especially appreciate the increasing number of you who have been kind enough to go with the pay option. If any of you are on Twitter, please consider following me there at https://twitter.com/DonJeffries. I’d be curious to know if you see my tweets, and if they “unfollow” you from me. Also, if any of you belong to Goodreads, my books need love there. At least ratings- you don’t have to write a review, just rate them here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/603543.Donald_Jeffries. Goodreads is notorious for the “one star bandits” who like to trash books without reading them. I’ve had them “rate” my book well before it was available to the public.

Hidden History has done very well in terms of Amazon ratings, and Crimes and Cover-Ups in American Politics: 1776-1963 has done okay, too. The others need some love. You no longer have to write a review to rate a book on Amazon- just give it (hopefully) 5 stars. These are the kinds of things that take very little time, and no money, but collectively mean a great deal in terms of support. Publishers and readers see the number of ratings a book has, and because most people are followers of popularity, they will be more likely to buy and read something with a good number of ratings. Ratings on Barnes & Noble, which are rare, would be appreciated as well.

I know some of you listen to my weekly live streaming show, which is called “I Protest,” too. It airs every Friday from 5-7 pm eastern, live on https://www.rokfin.com/americaunplugged and also over my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-ojMVzQIvAqsawJP9fFGlg I can’t archive my shows there, because YouTube will pull them and suspend me if I do. So we live stream, and then remove right away. We have an active chat there, and on Rokfin as well. All my shows are archived at https://www.americaunpluggedradio.com/

You can catch me on the same links above, live every Saturday at noon eastern, on “America Unplugged,” which I do with Billy Ray Valentine and Tony Arterburn. And every Monday night, I appear on the Jeff Rense show at 9 pm eastern. You can listen live at https://www.renseradio.com/listenlive.php He also reruns every one of my “I Protest” shows on the Rense Network every Tuesday and Thursday, at 6 am and 6 pm or 9 am and 9 pm (sorry, can’t remember which time zone).

I do have a publicist from my largest publisher, but they really don’t do much these days beyond mailing out review copies to interested radio shows and others who might help facilitate sales. So I have to do my own promotion. Holding out a digital hat is awkward for anyone. But what I’m asking for here is small acts of support that won’t cost anything. The best things in life are free, as the roaring twenties song once advised us. Funny, it’s a hundred years later, and we’re in another twenties. They’re roaring alright, but not in quite the same way.

I apologize if this seems like spam. I’ll make these promotional posts short. I’ll just use them to announce a new book coming out (and there are three on the horizon), appearances on Coast to Coast AM or some other big show, etc. I do get messages regularly from people who want to know where to hear me, or more about my writing. I’m thinking much of this information will be new to some of my Substack subscribers. Once again, I want to thank each and every one of you for your support.