July 25, 2019 (LD) - Facebook and Twitter joined forces to investigate and delete my accounts. This includes my Facebook page, as well as my Land Destroyer Twitter account, my Thai-centric AltThaiNews account, my personal Twitter account @TonyCartalucci and my LocalOrg account discussing solutions and technology.
It even made international news with Reuters in their article, "Facebook removes fake accounts from Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, Honduras," claiming:
The Reuters article and those citing it and celebrating censorship are engaged in the now familiar tactics of smearing targeted individuals to justify otherwise indefensible censorship.
I am associated with New Eastern Outlook. They regularly publish my articles, as do hundreds of other alternative media websites around the world.
What I perhaps noticed most were all the so-called "democracy activists" in Thailand - taking time from complaining about Bangkok "censoring" them - to celebrate Facebook and Twitter's censorship - including Thailand's Human Rights Watch senior researcher, Sunai Phasuk who gloated on Twitter that my "information operation" was finally "ended."
Reuters' Matthew Tostevin who includes #JournalismIsNotACrime in his Twitter bio - was also celebrating.
What's Next?
Honestly, Facebook and Twitter are not where I get most of my views from.
I get it from ordinary people finding my work and promoting it themselves. My Facebook page was read almost exclusively by my Thai audience, and it has been disabled for over a month already before finally being deleted. I have not noticed any drop in readers on my blog because other Thais on Facebook have been and continue to promote my work.
Twitter was also increasingly frustrating. Almost no one in Thailand followed me on Twitter. As for my international followers, many much larger and more capable voices in the alternative media regularly check for and include my work in their own articles and videos. So again, most readers came from other much more prominent and capable alt media journalists promoting my work.
If anything, I've been unburdened from social media and will use the time I wasted sifting through it to write even more articles.
If you want to get in touch with me, currently I only have e-mail: cartalucci (at gmail.com).
I am grateful to everyone who is supporting and defending me. I never expected Facebook or Twitter to play fair and never enjoyed being on either platform. Above all, I will continue doing my work.
It even made international news with Reuters in their article, "Facebook removes fake accounts from Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, Honduras," claiming:
The accounts removed in Thailand used “fictitious personas” to promote narratives about Thai politics, U.S.-China relations, protests in Hong Kong, and criticism of democracy activists in Thailand, Gleicher said.Tony Cartalucci is my pen name and a form of anonyminity - it is not a "fictitious persona." I write in a country where US-backed political agitators - referred to as "democracy activists" in the Reuters article - regularly use deadly violence against their opponents.
“We were able to determine conclusively that some of the activities of this network was linked to an individual based in Thailand associated with New Eastern Outlook, a Russian government-funded journal based in Moscow,” Gleicher said.
The Reuters article and those citing it and celebrating censorship are engaged in the now familiar tactics of smearing targeted individuals to justify otherwise indefensible censorship.
I am associated with New Eastern Outlook. They regularly publish my articles, as do hundreds of other alternative media websites around the world.
What I perhaps noticed most were all the so-called "democracy activists" in Thailand - taking time from complaining about Bangkok "censoring" them - to celebrate Facebook and Twitter's censorship - including Thailand's Human Rights Watch senior researcher, Sunai Phasuk who gloated on Twitter that my "information operation" was finally "ended."
What's Next?
Honestly, Facebook and Twitter are not where I get most of my views from.
I get it from ordinary people finding my work and promoting it themselves. My Facebook page was read almost exclusively by my Thai audience, and it has been disabled for over a month already before finally being deleted. I have not noticed any drop in readers on my blog because other Thais on Facebook have been and continue to promote my work.
Twitter was also increasingly frustrating. Almost no one in Thailand followed me on Twitter. As for my international followers, many much larger and more capable voices in the alternative media regularly check for and include my work in their own articles and videos. So again, most readers came from other much more prominent and capable alt media journalists promoting my work.
If anything, I've been unburdened from social media and will use the time I wasted sifting through it to write even more articles.
If you want to get in touch with me, currently I only have e-mail: cartalucci (at gmail.com).
I am grateful to everyone who is supporting and defending me. I never expected Facebook or Twitter to play fair and never enjoyed being on either platform. Above all, I will continue doing my work.
