WEBVTT - Censorship Resistant 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:07.680 So the big question is this, how do investors like 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:11.800 us get access to the ideas, information, and most importantly, 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.880 the right people that give us the tools and information 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:19.000 we need to make informed and educated decisions to have success. 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.319 That is the question, and this podcast will give us 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:25.480 the answers. This is Mark Moss, your host. Let's get 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:29.360 this started. Hey, welcome back everybody to another episode of 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:32.080 the Market Disruptors podcast. We like to talk about disruptive 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.760 technology and people who are constantly disrupting the status quo 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.239 finding new solutions to old problems. And today we have 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.560 a new guest that I'm super excited to talk about, 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.680 Ben Swan. He has been in the media for over 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:49.440 a decade or maybe even twenty years, pushing media. However, 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:52.720 he noticed that the way media was going was not good. 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:54.480 It was there was a lot of fake media coming out. 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.040 They're trying to sensationalize headlines, bearing stories and really just 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:00.480 not bringing the truth. So he started as own company 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.440 called Truth and Media to bring the truth and he's 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:05.399 been doing a great job. And he's and he's found 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:09.160 a way to use blockchain technology to help bring even 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.200 more true to the space to the space, and so 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.479 I'm super excited to talk to him today, so let's 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:17.160 get right into it. Cool. So, hey everyone, thanks for 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.160 tuning in. I am here today with Ben Swan. He's 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:22.120 been in the news and media for like the last decade, 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:24.920 asking tough questions, really looking for the truth and and 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.480 disrupting the traditional media you know that we all consume. 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:32.160 And and now he's harnessing the technology blockchain technology to 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:34.959 even further disrupt and the kind of helped fight censorship, 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.360 protect privacy, build trust. Uh. And I'm super excited. So 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:42.000 welcome Ben Mark. I might have summed it up good enough, 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:43.640 but why don't you give everyone listening just a better 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.039 idea of who you are, what you're doing, and maybe 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.200 why you're so passionate about it. Sure, absolutely so. UM. 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.240 Twenty years I've been a broadcast journalist. UM. Started out 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.560 as a as a news photographer UM, living in Texas 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:58.000 and New Mexico, my hometown of El Paso. UM, and 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:00.200 then spent, like I said, twenty years kind of moving 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:02.600 up the ranks. I've been a morning anchor of Eurouchief, 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:06.400 primetime ancor iver, work for NBC, CBS, Fox News, most 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.600 recently CBS News in Atlanta. UM. Have you know won 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.760 tons of awards. I've just kind of run the gamut 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:15.239 of what it means to be a broadcast journalist. UM. 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:18.600 But I've also found throughout my career that there's an 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.919 enormous amount of censorship that takes place as a journalist 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.919 in the United States UM and really got tired of it, 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:28.240 UH and saw an opportunity a year ago, a little 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:29.800 over a year ago, about a year and a half ago, 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:33.760 to move completely independent with the help of a couple 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.440 of cryptocurrencies, um dash and smart cash. So I was 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:39.560 actually able to do that, moved it offline away from 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:43.680 these networks, and then realized beyond that the the opportunity 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:48.359 to combine the power of blockchain and cryptocurrency with the 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.280 need for independent media and to make those two things 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:56.000 kind of coexist. And to me, they're they're an incredible 0:02:56.400 --> 0:03:00.799 um synergy between those two things, simply because UM, disruption 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.160 in the news media has to come from independent media. 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:06.560 It's never gonna come from corporate media. There is so 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.560 much disruption being created on the financial side in terms 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.840 of blockchain right now, in cryptocurrency, and so these two 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.400 forces together I think are actually kind of married in 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.639 terms of intent and idea, and so the question is 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:20.200 how do we how do we make it all fit together? 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:23.959 And that's what we're working to do. Great. So, Um, 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.280 I like to talk about disruptive things. The channel is 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:28.040 called market disruptors, and I believe there's a lot of 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:31.480 opportunity by going against the status quote and I love this. 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:33.519 You know, new things are created and kills the old way, 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:38.040 and you're obviously disrupting the market or the media industry 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:39.840 as you said, it kind of has to be independent 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:44.120 now having't been in it for twenty years now, Um, 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:46.760 this evolution, right if we've seen have you seen this 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:50.200 evolution to where things are getting more controlled, more censored, 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.080 And that's kind of where you're acting out on that. Yeah, 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.000 so so obviously you know things have been somewhat censored 0:03:56.040 --> 0:04:00.160 for a long time. But something pretty incredible happened in 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.360 uh the you know, with the with the advent of 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.480 the internet, but then especially with social media. Really about 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.000 two thousand twelve to two thousand sixteen, there was about 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:14.600 a four year period where an incredible quantum leap took 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:16.480 place in terms of journalism. And a lot of people 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.320 don't even recognize this happened because they think you know, 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:22.480 social media came along, sure, and and newspapers kind of 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:26.080 died off more. But what really happened, what's super significant here, 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.240 is that from two thousands twelve to two thousand and sixteen, 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.960 social media moved away from just being a way to 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.720 connect with friends, and it became a platform, um kind 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:41.719 of an unprecedented platform for information to be spread um 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.280 through without the need for broadcast journalists, without the need 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.160 for traditional media, and it became a way for independent 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:52.200 media to reach audiences. And because of that, over the 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.120 last four years, what we saw from two thousand twelve 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.240 and two thousand and sixteen was this kind of growth 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:03.400 in that area. And so now since and all, there 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.440 has been an incredible pull back by those who are 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:10.839 in powered by government entities, by NGOs, by think tanks, 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.400 by political operatives, by media itself to say, we're going 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:17.760 to get control of that again, and we're going to 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.840 heavily censor anyone who does not fit our narrative. And 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.839 so what they've been doing since really the summer of 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.520 last year especially, there's been an unprecedented purge on Twitter, 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.760 on Facebook, on YouTube to to cleanse these platforms of 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:36.479 anyone who is not fitting that mainstream narrative, and a 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:38.400 lot of people think, you know what they've heard about it. 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.800 They say, oh, yeah, I've heard that Google censors conservatives. 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:43.640 Well that's true, but Google, since there's a lot more 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.400 than conservatives, Google is censoring anybody who is not fitting 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:49.800 that mainstream narrative. Facebook is doing the same thing. They're 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.159 working with the Atlantic Council, and that's been really hyped 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:55.560 up over the last year, where the Atlantic councils coming 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:57.720 in and saying, you need to remove these groups, remove 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:02.160 anyone who's saying these things. It's fascinating, Mark, because all 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.839 of this has been done under the guise of we've 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:07.640 got to protect elections, right, we have to have have 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.919 safety for the electoral process in the United States. But 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.520 what is actually happening is by purging all these independent 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.640 voices from the right, from the left, libertarians, anti war activists, 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:20.800 Green party folks, everyone who's getting censored, who's being taken 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:25.080 off is anyone who actually could provide a counter narrative 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.560 to what the mainstream says as they approach elections. And 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.680 so it's Facebook, by removing people, has done more to 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.200 actually affect the outcome of elections than any you know 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:38.680 anything they claim that they're trying to stop. Yeah. Wow, 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:40.919 there's so much here to unpack it. We could go 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.440 in for so super deep. But it's almost like they 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.120 got kind of caught off guard and information got decentralized 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.120 with the Internet, which was good, and then they realized like, 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:50.840 oh man, we're losing power, and it was kind of 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:53.440 this knee jerk reaction and as you said, write their 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:55.479 de platform and everybody and not just left or right, 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:59.080 but anyone not owing that that line, right, Um, And 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.960 we're really see in that. I I say, to understand 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.800 bitcoin or essentialized cryptocurrencies, you have to understand a bunch 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.840 of things and money and you know, politics, all these things. 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.560 But one of them is like philosophy. So the philosophy 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:17.440 of freedom of speech. Why do you think that's so important? Well, look, 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.360 I think when you get down to what the founders 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.800 essentially tried to create, right when when the documents were 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:27.880 first drafted, they gave birth to this nation. Um, there's 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:33.160 a reason why freedom of speech and freedom of religion 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.600 and freedom from government imposing religion, um, are all kind 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:40.760 of fitting together in this this first Amendment to the Constitution, Right, 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.520 this first right in our Bill of Rights, UM. And 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.280 and there there's a reason why freedom of speech and 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.200 freedom of the press are both included together because the 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.840 press was not And this is important for your viewers 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:55.400 to understand. The freedom of press was not about UM 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.640 a a profession and a lot of people have been 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:01.040 referring to it as such lately, and it's not true. UM. 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.200 You have to remember that that Thomas Payne Benjamin Franklin 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:08.880 Benjamin Franklin was a professional journalist and owned newspapers. UM. 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:11.640 Thomas Payne was not Thomas Paine was a guy who 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:14.520 started writing leaflets and pamphlets and handing them out everywhere, 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:16.680 but saw himself as a journalist. Some people say he 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:21.040 was a propagandist, but he began to to share ideas 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.960 and concepts through writing. And so the idea of freedom 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:27.840 oppress and freedom of speech fits together, not because it's 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.600 a profession, but because you have the written word and 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.920 the spoken word both being protected as your God given 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.480 right UH to use. And so what I think what 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:41.559 we're seeing right now is this incredible crackdown on ideas 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:45.480 and on speech that is not accepted speech. There's a 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:50.440 big difference between UM having speech that is considered appropriate 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:55.240 or you know, um, um, not hateful and accepted speech. 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:57.360 And so what we've done, we've kind of brought everything 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.160 under under one banner and it's all now you have 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.480 to have acceptable speech and acceptance speech, and anything you'll 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:06.640 notice that does not fit mainstream narratives, suddenly it is 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:08.880 not acceptable speech in this country. I mean, you're not 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:11.719 allowed to talk about vaccines at all. Like I have 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:13.000 a lot of people and I've done a lot of 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:17.040 stories on vaccines and scientifically, you know, showing this this 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:21.359 very simple idea, right, which is that not all vaccines 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.280 are safe for all people in all quantities, at all 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:28.400 at all times. How dare you That's a very simple concept, right, Yeah, 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.240 And yeah, when you when you say that, that is 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.320 considered to be dangerous. That's a word that's used a 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.719 lot now, dangerous, um, And the idea that you are 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.320 pushing ideas that are a danger to society, a danger 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:45.160 to the public, that can harm other people with your words. Um. 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:49.040 It is a very dangerous time in reality, uh, to 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.360 to speak any kind of truth to power, because everything 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:56.320 is deemed as being a danger a threat. Yeah, it's 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.200 it's almost if I mean, they just want everyone to 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.320 be just the sheep right where they're just seeing one thing, 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:03.959 and if you say anything out of line, then it 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.960 then it disrupts them. It it agitates them, and it 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:10.359 makes them angry. Um. And I guess that is disturbing 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:14.160 the peace, right if everybody could just be thinking it brainwashed, right, 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:16.200 And I guess it keeps the peace. And I think, 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:18.480 uh so, I guess there's both sides, right, I mean, 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.840 I think I we both agree that having open dialogue 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.480 and discussion is really what brings that, but they think 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:26.719 everyone could just think the same thing. But what I'm 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:31.200 really bothered with is then once, once you're especially with 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:35.040 loss of privacy and fear of being censored, and people think, well, 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.240 I have nothing to hide, I don't care, but there's 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:38.600 always gonna be some one on the other side of 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.760 the table, And then what happens is we censor what 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.000 we start saying, and then we start censoring what we think. 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:45.360 Right then all the creativity dies. I mean that's a 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:49.400 big problem. Yeah, it absolutely, it's a big problem. And 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:56.600 and creativity dies, honest dialogue dies. Accountability dies. Um. And 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:00.079 as a journalist, you know, the number one responsibility that 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.480 the journalist has is to bring accountability to those who 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:04.839 are in power. That is the main thing that we do. 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:07.480 Unfore we're supposed to do. The main thing we do 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.200 now is we actually defend those who were in power 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:15.040 against criticism from the public. Um. And that's what what 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.200 journalism in America has turned into. It has turned into 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.800 and advocating for those who are in power um and 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:25.840 defending them against criticisms or questions from those who are 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.559 not in power. And our exact charge is supposed to 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.480 be the opposite, the fourth estate, that is journalism is 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.360 supposed to be diametrically opposed to that. We're supposed to 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:37.400 be the ones who challenge those who are in authority 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:41.920 and make them accountable. And free speech allows for accountability. 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.840 It demands accountability from those who are in power. And 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.440 that's not what we're seeing anymore. Yeah. Now, we can 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.360 talk about the political side of this all day, but 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.360 jumping into the tech side of it a little bit, um, 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:54.920 Like you were saying before, social media really kind of 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:59.040 helped this escalate and evolved pretty rapidly. Um and and 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.000 and it's a tool, right, So tools can be used 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.640 for good or bad um And in this case, it's 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:05.960 it's a tool for us to get information out there, 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:08.920 but it's also a tool for the powers that be, 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.440 whoever they are right to actually impose their will on us. Um. 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:14.520 And we're seeing that, right, Like you're talking about the 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:18.679 d platforming and the censoring and whatnot, but we're also seeing, um, 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.040 you know, instances where now Facebook has been accused of 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.880 using their AI to actually mold people and get them 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:28.720 to act and feel certain ways. Right, Yes, absolutely, And 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.599 so that's that's pretty interesting. Uh. I know there was 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.679 a book Cass Sunstein wrote this book, um uh Nudge 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:37.640 where he talked about maybe we should have this way 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.000 where we can just kind of nudge people along in 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.240 the direction that we want. Um, that's really scary when 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:45.680 you think about that. Well, and and and the nudge 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.360 is no longer being being used anymore, right, which is 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:53.160 because because so on the tech side, right, you had 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.880 a lot of independent media who came along with the Internet. 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:58.679 So the early two thousands especially was the time when 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:01.120 a lot of people were creating blogs, creating websites, going 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.280 into chat rooms having discussions that were outside the kind 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.160 of the mainstream norms. And then but the problem was 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:11.199 there was no good delivery method to get that information 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:15.480 from independent journalists to the public, and and social media 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:17.959 had no idea that it was about to become that 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:21.240 delivery system. Mark Zuckerberg and the guys who were creating 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.000 Facebook never thought this was going to become the largest 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.080 media company in the world, right, which is a platform 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:31.360 for the public to be able to access information. There's 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:33.800 actually a very interesting memo that was put out. It 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:35.960 was a fundraising memo put out by Media Matters for 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.920 America after the election. What they found in this memo 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:44.400 was that after they did some analytical dives, uh, they 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.720 found that the public number one was no longer being 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:52.000 influenced by broadcast media, that the broadcast journalists in America 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:53.800 did not sway the election the way they thought they 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.200 thought that they would. Number Two, they found that social 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:01.079 media became the platform by which people we're sharing information, 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:05.960 you know. Um. Thomas Woods likes to say that the 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:09.280 journalists in America were the gatekeepers right for years. They 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:11.640 would stand there and say, if you want access to information, 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:13.640 you gotta come through us to get it. The problem 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.400 was that with the Internet and especially now with social media, 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:19.880 he says, the walls fell down, the gates were still there. 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.000 But the walls fell down, and so the journalist still 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:23.520 stand in front of the gates, but everybody's just going 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.080 around them like this on the around the side and 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.400 saying I don't need you to get the information I want. 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.760 So what's happened in the last especially two years, has 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.760 been a doubled effort to say we're going to take 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:40.560 back those social media platforms because that is where conversations 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.600 are happening that shouldn't be happening. That's where UM information 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:45.720 is being shared that shouldn't be shared. And so if 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:47.880 you look at what's what's really going on on those 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.640 sites in I want to say November of last year, 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:55.080 eight hundred pages were purged off of Facebook in one day, 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.560 eight hundred pages completely across the political spectrum. Pages like 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:05.200 the Thought Project, the Anti Media UM, Conscious Resistance, anybody 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:09.040 who was was saying things outside that mainstream narrative UM. 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:11.240 And so what we're also seeing, and this is pretty 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:15.040 interesting on the tech side, is Facebook's rapid decline. Now, 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.480 if you look at Facebook's Q four numbers for last year, 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:19.600 they started jumping up and say look, no, no, look 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.280 it's good news. We're not declining. But the reason that 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.160 they didn't decline was because they they suddenly for the 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:29.400 first time, lumped Facebook users, Instagram users, What's App users, 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.560 and Messenger users all together into one pool and said, well, 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.200 those are our Facebook users. And that's not that's not true. 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.000 Facebook as a platform is actually in decline right now 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.680 because so many people who were once getting information there 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:43.960 can't find it anymore and so they're not even bothering 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:48.560 to log onto Facebook. Yeah. Now, um, being a free 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.600 market uh thinker, maybe a free market hopeful. Um. You know, 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:54.720 there's different viewpoints of this, But what would you say 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:57.640 to people who would say that, well, Facebook and Twitter 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.760 are private platforms and they're not the woman and if 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:02.400 they don't want to have that person on the platform, 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:04.160 and that's okay, what do you say about that? I'm 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:06.320 totally okay with that. I agree with that. Actually, um 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.760 So from a free market standpoint, I believe that companies 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.360 like Facebook, um absolutely do not have to have anyone 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.120 on their platforms. Now, there are some who will argue 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:20.200 that because they are not private companies in actuality, they're 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:22.880 publicly traded companies, they don't have that right right. They've 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:26.560 they've actually, um, they forfeit that right. When they begin 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:28.840 to become a publicly traded company, and I think there's 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:32.080 probably an argument to be had there about it UM. However, 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.720 I also believe this that that companies like Twitter and 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.720 Facebook UM try to use their position once they have 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.400 gained an amassed a position to get government behind them 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:47.120 to impose new rules that won't apply to them or 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.640 that would prevent barrier to entry to competitors. So in 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:52.440 the free market, and that's what we have to watch 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.640 out for. In the free market, UM, companies like Facebook 0:16:55.680 --> 0:17:01.480 and Twitter will ultimately lose because they choose UM to 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.760 take positions that are unfortunately UM the public doesn't like, 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.600 and then their user base doesn't like, which means they 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.480 create the opportunity for a competitor where there wasn't room 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:13.880 for a competitor prior to that. So I think that's 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.240 going to happen now. The problem is watch out for 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.040 when you see Mark Zuckerberg going and writing op eds 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:21.960 like he did recently where he says, UM, we really 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.080 need governments to take have more control over the internet, 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:27.880 more control over social media, and even offering to give 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:31.040 up portions of his control to government. It's his way 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:32.919 of saying, I need to prevent their too. You know 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.960 that that create that barrier to entry for anybody who's 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:37.960 going to be a competitor for me in the future. 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:40.320 I think that's what's happening. Yeah, definitely, and we see 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.960 that across every industry. Really they're using it's it's chrony 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.600 capitalism where they're using the government to to build those 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.480 modes for themselves. Now, like you said, they're public companies. Also, 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.840 there's a lot of government uh, you know, they're working 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:57.480 with the governments, you know, with an Amazon having servers 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:00.600 with the c i A, you know, potential uh Silicon 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:03.440 Valley funds come you know, from the CIA whatever going 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.560 into Facebook. So then then you can also argue that 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.320 as well, right, because that you know, what do you 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:12.560 think about the slippery slope that they may be setting 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.040 up for themselves. Right, So let's say that they're if 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:17.560 they're a platform, and they're a platform, and they're just like, hey, 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.320 all we are as a platform and we don't we're 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.320 not responsible for it's on there. Right now, they're taking 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:25.359 a position of Okay, it's up to us to be 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.440 a do good or we're gonna police this. But then 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.359 if they're going to take that responsibility. Then they have 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:33.920 to take the responsibility for the bad that comes with that. 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:35.919 Do you think they're a slippery slope there, Well, there 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:38.520 definitely is, and and in reality I can't believe that 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:40.520 based on the things that Mark Zuckerberg has set in 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.720 front of Congress where he was asked if Facebook is 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.000 a platform or a publisher, and of course they've always 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:49.320 said that we're They're just a platform, They're not the publisher, 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:53.600 and he basically repositioned the company in front of Congress 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.640 into no, we're actually a publisher, like, we take responsibility 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.800 for everything that's being published on our site. Well, I'm 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:02.040 so price that there has hasn't been a class action 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.840 lawsuits brought against them, were serious lawsuits brought against him 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.960 because of the fact that the moment you take that position, 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.840 you're no longer exempt under section two thirty of the 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:15.160 Communications Act in the US, which essentially means that you 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:20.840 have protections legal protections as a platform from what publishers 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:23.320 put on your side. So every song that you know 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:26.520 essentially has copyright issues that doesn't belong to the person 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.000 who uploaded it, every video clip, every you know, spoiler 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:33.359 from Avengers in game that ends up on Facebook. Um. 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:37.320 Facebook is now legally liable for and financially responsible for. 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:40.600 So it's it's incredible to me that there actually hasn't 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:44.520 been a lawsuit brought against Facebook yet. I'm shocked that 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:46.400 there hasn't been. I'd be shocked if there weren't one. 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:49.560 Because Zuckerberg has repositioned the company. Twitter has done the 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:53.600 same thing, jack Over. Twitter has taken the same position 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:55.720 that they're not so much a platform as they are 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:58.040 the publisher, and I think it's a very dangerous place 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:00.480 that they put themselves. Yeah, it's definitely gonna be interesting 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.600 to watch. Um could be could be their demise. I 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.400 I like to look at things like, you know, things 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:08.440 happen today and kind of imagine like where that goes 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:11.119 in the future. Now, Um, so this is kind of 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:13.360 this evolution that we're talking about and gidness to where 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.719 we are. Um. But now there's a new technology that's 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:18.800 coming out to disrupt things as well, right you you 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.800 mentioned you you're starting to use that with dash and 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.560 and whatnot. So tell me about what you think is 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.680 happening now, how how this new technology, blockade of technology 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:31.199 is going to disrupt now what we have which has 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:35.479 already disrupted the media industry, right, absolutely so, so in 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.720 terms of of blockchain and cryptocurrency has already created disruption 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.720 within financial spaces clearly, and that's been the case for 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:48.480 a long time. Bitcoin was making creating disruption and cryptocurrency 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.400 was creating disruption long before the most Americans even knew 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.000 what it was. Right, it's only at the point where 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.440 it begins to become kind of known to the masses 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.840 and have mass appeal that it's too late to to 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:03.640 for those who are against it to recognize the impact 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:05.320 that it's happened. So then now everyone's just trying to 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:07.679