Elon Musk has his work cut out for him.
The eccentric billionaire recently took over Twitter, vowing to restore previously banned accounts and offer a healthier approach to content moderation.
We’ll have to wait and see how he lives up to those promises.
Twitter’s existing censorship is considerable, of course. Some progressive stars can Tweet the ugliest things possible and face no repercussions. The same isn’t true for right-leaning actors like James Woods.
Twitter censorship isn’t alone, though.
Other Big Tech platforms routinely censor thought, from comedians who mock corrupt officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci to august news sites breaking news no one else dares touch.
Yes, that’s the New York Post’s expose on Hunter Biden.
Now, Indiegogo appears to be doing something similar to a right-leaning graphic novel. “Private American,” written by comic book veteran Mike Baron, shows a Hispanic hero doing the job the U.S. government refuses to do.
Enforce the U.S.-Mexican border.
The graphic novel launched a successful Indiegogo campaign to fuel its production, more than doubling its $10,000 fundraising goal.
Now, Indiegogo is making it almost impossible to find that page.
Enter “Private American” in the Indiegogo search feature. You won’t find the site’s campaign page in the results. Now, type “Mike Baron” into the same search engine. Once more, you’ll find plenty of other Baron campaigns, but not “Private American.”
Type any other project name into the search feature and the corresponding campaign page pops up as the number one response.
Good luck finding the “Private American” page unless you have the direct link at the ready. Any word of mouth efforts to promote the project fail if people can’t find it via the search function.
Big tech censorship remains an existential threat to the grand American experiment. This appears to be just one more example.
Hollywood In Toto has reached out to Indiegogo.com for comment and will update this story as needed.
Campaign creator Chris Braly notes the move could be costing the project dearly.
“No telling how long this has happened, or how much has been lost. But our last campaign on IGG raised nearly $100K (“Thin Blue Line”), and typically the crowdbase grows, but this is an anomaly,” says Braly, adding his colleagues may seek other crowdfunding platforms moving forward.
“We’ve spent a lot of money on marketing, press releases, video, and more, and if we had known IGG was hiding us, we would’ve gone elsewhere,” Braly says.
UPDATE: Indiegogo has not responded to the author’s request for comment or explanation on the shadow banning.
A version of this story originally ran on the website Hollywood In Toto.
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at @HollywoodInToto.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
