As detailed in “Spy Agencies Threaten to ‘Take Out’ Mercola,” this website has been labeled a national security threat by British and American intelligence agencies that are collaborating to eliminate “anti-vaccine propaganda” from public discussion using sophisticated cyberwarfare tools.1,2,3
One of the public frontrunners in this comprehensive attack on my freedom of speech is a U.K.-based group with opaque funding called the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), led by Imran Ahmed, a member of the Steering Committee on Countering Extremism Pilot Task Force under the British government’s Commission for Countering Extremism.
In its report, “The Anti-Vaxx Playbook,”4 the CCDH identifies me as one of the six most influential “anti-vaxxers” online that must be silenced for good. The other five are Barbara Loe Fisher, Del Bigtree, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Sherri Tenpenny and Andrew Wakefield.
The CCDH also admits tracking and spying on 425 vaccine-related Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter accounts that, together, have 59.2 million followers.5
The CCDH has been one of the most vocal organizations calling for the deplatforming of anyone who might have the ability to influence public opinion about vaccines.6 This despite the fact that public discourse and debate is a requirement not only for a well-informed public but also to protect scientific integrity and public health.
Anti-Hate Group Publishes Digital Hit List
More recently, the CCDH published an updated hit list on Twitter,7 now listing the “Top 10 anti-vaxxers” it wants digital platforms to eradicate. The list shows, by way of crossing out names, which have already been successfully deplatformed, and from which social media.
As of March 3, 2021, Kennedy Jr. has been banned from Instagram, and the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), co-founded and led by Fisher, has been removed from Facebook.
“Facebook has removed the NVIC, another page spreading vaccine misinformation run by Barbara Loe Fisher,” CCDH said in its Tweet.8 “But Facebook has allowed the NVIC to carry on spreading misinformation on Instagram, which it owns. Facebook, it’s time for action across your platforms.”
Good News: People Are Seeing Through the Propaganda
The irony of an “anti-hate” group posting a hit list — the only purpose of which is to seed public outrage and hate against those listed — did not escape unnoticed, and that’s part of the good news. More and more people are indeed starting to see the 1984-style double-think propaganda for what it is.
As pointed out by one Twitter follower: “You’ve posted what appears to be a digital hit list. Do you not see anything ironic about this considering your brand is ‘countering digital hate’?” “Project much?” said another. A third replied back to the CCDH saying “You should be on this list,” and a fourth said “It appears that by the word ‘hate’ you include uncomfortable truths.” Other responders wrote:
- “I have personally benefited from the free TRUE loving information that at least seven on your list have given me since 2011. I have only gratitude and love for them. No regular doctor could help me back then and thanks to the info I got I didn’t die and I have helped others too.”
- “’Misinformation’ … what a joke!! These people are putting their careers and livelihoods on the line to share the TRUTH, to empower us to take our health in our own hands and realize it’s the only way!! This is more a top list of who to follow!!!”
- “This is nonsense at the extreme. Censorship has gone mad and needs to be heavily questioned and stopped — this is what all dictators and extremists themselves do! How ironic! The CCDH are extremist dangerous hate criminals themselves for doing this!”
- “Stop the censorship! We are seeing through this failed attempt to spread valuable information from people.”
- “Congratulations to every hero on that list.”
I could keep going, but you can read the comments for yourself. I encourage you to do so if you feel downtrodden, thinking the dark side is winning the information war. They’re not, but they get an “A” for effort. We, in turn, cannot let up our own efforts to spread the truth. We must be just as persistent.
NVIC — The Latest Victim in the War on Truth
NVIC, the latest victim of the CCDH’s organized attack on the U.S. First Amendment, had maintained a Facebook page since 2008. The organization itself has been around for nearly four decades, and worked with the U.S. Congress to establish the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. Facebook deleted NVIC’s account March 2, 2021.
NVIC does not make recommendations when it comes to the use of vaccines, its sole aim being to “defend the ethical principle of informed consent to medical risk taking, including vaccine risk taking.” Part of that work includes publishing fully referenced information about vaccines so that consumers can make an informed decision either way.
Considering few doctors, and none of the pro-vaccine front groups, are transparent about reported side effects and science raising red flags, NVIC serves a truly crucial public health service. You simply cannot make an informed decision if you’re only ever told one side of the equation — the supposed benefit side — while potential adverse effects, which may be lifelong, are hidden or denied. As reported by independent journalist Sharyl Attkisson:9
“Far from a fringe group, as propagandists try to convince the public, Fisher has provided consumers with crucial vaccine safety information for decades and served as an appointed member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee as part of the Vaccine Safety Writing Group, on the agency’s Vaccine Policy Analysis Collaborative, on the Blue Ribbon Panel on Vaccine Safety, and Chair of the Subcommittee on Vaccine Adverse Events.
Additionally, Fisher has served as a member of the FDA’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. And she has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Vaccine Safety Forum.”
NVIC Responds to Deplatforming
In an official statement, Fisher responded to the deplatforming by Facebook saying:10
“We are not surprised that Mark Zuckerberg views the truthful information that NVIC publishes about vaccine science, policy and law as a threat to perpetuating false narratives about vaccine safety created by the pharmaceutical industry and its business partners.
The U.S Congress has encouraged the creation of public-private business partnerships between vaccine manufacturers and federal agencies for the past three decades.
In order to be part of those lucrative partnerships, Silicon Valley companies like Facebook are clearly happy to engage in censorship. If NVIC had not done such a good job educating the public about vaccination and health for four decades, our Facebook page would still be up.
NVIC encourages everyone to leave social media networks eroding civil liberties, which include freedom of thought, speech and conscience, and join those that protect freedom of speech.
To stay connected with NVIC, become a registered user of the free online NVIC Advocacy Portal and defend vaccine choices in your state; become a subscriber of our free NVIC Newsletter and free weekly journal digital newspaper, The Vaccine Reaction; and interact with our followers on MeWe, Telegram, Gab and Parler.”
Decentralized Uncensorable Web Is Part of the Answer
As more and more truth-tellers, public health watchdogs, civil rights advocates and investigative journalists are censored and deplatformed, it’s easy to get discouraged. However, there is light on the horizon. Part of the answer, apart from calling on our political representatives to take a firm stand against censorship at every turn, is the creation of a decentralized web.
I am currently working with some of the brightest minds in the tech space — cybersecurity experts and billionaire philanthropists who are very well networked. These individuals are committed to preserving your personal freedoms and liberties. We aim to redo of the entire internet by implementing a strategy proposed by Tim Berners-Lee.
For those of you who don’t know, Berners-Lee invented the world wide web graphical interface of the internet 30 years ago, and he didn’t take a penny for it. Had he licensed this technology, he surely would be the richest person in the world today.
You can read more about Berners-Lee’s plan in this February 5, 2021, article in The Conversation,11 but essentially, it focuses on maintaining data sovereignty, giving you control over your data and privacy and undoing the current system of surveillance capitalism where Big Tech profits off your personal data and uses it against you at the same time. In this Web 2.0, tech monopolies also will no longer have the ability to censor.
While you wait for a decentralized, censorship-free internet, I second Fisher’s suggestion to ditch all social media networks that erode your civil liberties, and to join those that promote freedom of speech instead.
For example, free-speech alternatives to Facebook and Twitter include Gab, MeWe, Minds and Parler. Uncensored alternatives to YouTube include Bitchute, Rumble, Brighteon, Banned.video and Thinkspot.
For content creators and alternative news sources that no longer have a social media presence due to censoring, subscribe to their newsletter if available, and/or mark their website in your favorites and check back on a regular basis.
Take Control of Your Online Presence
Beyond that, consider safeguarding your own online privacy if you haven’t done so already. To encrypt your text messages and keep them from becoming data mining fodder, download the Signal or Telegram app and/or use a virtual private network (VPN) on your desktop, laptop and mobile devices.
Telegram has grown in popularity as many who have been banned on other social media platforms have migrated there. In addition to encrypting your text messages, the app also allows you to subscribe to channels. Read-only messages (although some also have the ability to comment) are sent to your phone from any channel you subscribe to.
Lastly, if you care about privacy and free speech, stop using any and all Google products, including its search engine, browser, email service, Google docs, Google Home devices, Fitbit and Android phones. There are alternatives to all of them.
For search, check out DuckDuckGo and SwissCows. For a browser, consider Brave or Opera. From a security perspective, Opera is far superior to Google Chrome and even includes a free VPN service. For encrypted email, sign up with ProtonMail, which is based in Switzerland. As for online document sharing, Digital Trends has published an article listing a number of alternatives to Google Docs.12