Tech Censorship is Communism | What We Must Do Now

Tech censorship is communism. China Does it and we see it happening in the US. We have seen government working together with non-government entities to direct their censorship. 

This is exactly what happens in China. In an interview I did with Kay Rubacek, she tells all about the training that every single journalist in China goes through. She explained how they are taught what they can say and what they cannot say. They are all literally turned into the propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP. 

We also have viewpoint discrimination, which is another issue all together. One could argue that since social media companies are private companies (not government entities), they can do what they want. To some degree that is true, however 

Another issue is the difference between platform and publisher. A platform is like a stage, where people can come to say what they want. But the stage has no liability for anything that is said, whether it was true, not true, slander or any other issues that come with public speech. This is how social media platforms are supposed to be operating. But instead, we see them operating as publishers.

A publisher has editorial control over the content, like a newspaper, book publisher, magazine, news website, and even podcasts like mine. Publishers choose what gets published and what doesn’t. They have editorial control and along with editorial control comes liability. 

Publishers are accountable for everything they publish. That means they can be taken to court to be held legally liable for any false claim, such as slander or libel. 

What we see happening today is that the social media companies, who are supposed to be platforms like a stage, are acting like publishers with editorial control. That means the freedom from liability should not exist. They are operating with the best of both worlds: liability protection of a platform and the editorial control of a publisher.

But how can this be? 

It is because of the blurred lines in Section 230 of the Communications Act. It is utterly absurd and must be corrected.

Lawmakers continue to stand by while the issue goes on unaddressed. It is not a complicated issue. It is quite simple. Are they a publisher or a platform?

They are clearly acting like publishers, when they talk about censoring speech, especially on behalf of government. When they talk about stopping misinformation, it is no different than the Chinese Communist Party doing the same. 

But even if a social media company acts on their own to censor speech, without government influence, they are still acting as an publisher, with editorial control. Which means they should be held legally liable for any missteps. 

That means if someone is de-platformed because of supposed mis-information they shared, but the information was later found to be correct, that individual could bring a lawsuit against the social media company for lost earnings, reputation damage, and so on. 

One approach that would future proof any new platforms and developments is a Digital Bill of Rights. That would include critical issues today like speech and privacy. Although laws are starting to form, there are massive gaps in the law today that allow companies to exploit people’s private information without their expressed consent. 

Today social media companies can remove people, posts and videos simply because they don’t like what they have to say. Twitter removed President Donald Trump while terrorist groups like ISIS continue to have accounts. How insane.

The right legal environment would allow citizens to bring legal action against social media companies who wrongfully de-platformed or de-monetized them.

Today many make their living through monetization via social media platforms. Of course, social media platforms make money when people use their platform. And when influencers bring big followings, it means even more money for the platform. 

The time has come. The gig is up. The one-sided legal setup must go. 

Platforms must either operate as a platform or be recategorized as publishers and bare the legal consequences.

Christmas Prophecies and Jesus is the Reason for the Season

Episode #128

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This episode discusses the prophecies of Christ’s birth and how we can be confident they were written centuries in advance. It also discusses the importance of remembering that Jesus is the reason for the season. The historical certainty and mathematical probabilities of the prophetic fulfillment will show how great God is and how supernatural and miraculous the Birth of Christ was.

Resources mentioned in the show:
The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, by Josh McDowell
Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy, by J. Barton Payne

Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, RSS Feed, and others.

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Christian Persecution in North Korea Today

Episode #127

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This episode discusses the current persecution for Christians in North Korea today, including labor camps, prison and torture. This episode will share what the people of North Korea are experiencing today under the communist regime of Dictator Kim Jung-un n and former Dictator Kim Jung-il. It also gives details on the brutal reality that Christians are facing today in North Korea and how the gospel is spreading despite the massive government led oppression and harsh persecution.

Voice of the Martyrs (VOM): www.persecution.com
Interactive world map of Christian persecution: VOM Global Prayer Guide
Donate to Voice of the Martyrs: www.persecution.com/donate
Free magazine from VOM: Free VOM subscription


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Christian Persecution in India Today

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Episode #126

This episode discusses how the political, corporate and Hindu leaders in India are working together to persecute Christians today. The Christian church is growing in India, but it hasn’t been without a cost.

Persecution in India started in the 1st century and has continued to grow since. India as moved further up the world watch list for persecution since 2014 , when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected. Laws allowing freedom are often not followed and new laws are being enacted to further persecute Christians.

This episode discusses the many different areas that Christians are suffering today. From explicit discrimination and social duress to violence and imprisonment, Christians are impacted at every level.

Listen to this episode to learn more and to find out what you can do to help advance the Kingdom in India today.

Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, RSS Feed, and others.

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Christian Persecution in China Today

Episode #125

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This episode discusses the surprising persecution that is happening in China today and the incredible revival that has grown since the 1990s. This episode will give you a closer look into the daily life for 130 million Christians in China today, who mostly meet in “illegal” house churches. Under President Xi Jinping, China continues to pressure even the state-run TSPM church and persecute the underground church of faithful believers in Jesus Christ. You will also learn how you can support the ground to spread the truth of Christ in China.

Voice of the Martyrs: www.persecution.com

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3 Things You Must Know About Thanksgiving Day

Episode #123

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This episode discusses 3 important things everyone should know about Thanksgiving, from its founding to the attacks on it today. Listen to find out about the Christian heritage of Thanksgiving Day and how we must stand strong to keep the foundation front and center.

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5 Steps to Keep Your Cup Full

Episode #121

This episode will give you 5 simple steps you can take to get full and stay full so you can be the best version of yourself every day.

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STEP 1. Reflect on how you’re showing up – get honest with yourself

STEP 2. Identify what fills you up

STEP 3. Recognize when and why you’re NOT full

STEP 4. Commit to prioritizing filling yourself up and staying full

STEP 5. Stick with it and adjust as needed

Text STAY FULL to 833-261-1784 and I will send you a list of over 30 ideas to help you brainstorm what you can do to stay full.

A Key to Gideon’s Calling (and yours!)

Episode #120

This episode highlights an often overlooked aspect of Gideon’s story that is critical to fulfilling our own calling from God.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

DISCLAIMER: The below transcript was automatically generated and has not been reviewed to ensure complete accuracy. Any references or quotes should be taken directly from the audio recording and not the below transcript.

(00:00): Preview

Well, on this episode, we are going to get into Gideon’s story in judges six, but we’re going to talk about a specific aspect of that story that often goes overlooked and it has the potential to be life changing for you. So stick around for the whole episode. Let’s get into it right now.

(00:19): Introduction

Hey, this is Ryan S. Howard. Thanks for tuning into my podcast. I call it your faith at work, because we want to get your faith out of the church and into the world. We want our faith to be active, and I’m here to help you get unstuck and fulfill all the God-given potential that you were created with. I’m going to help you find your God-given assignment so that you can advance the kingdom every single day. We’re going to do that and work in the culture and in life, visit Ryan S howard.com to learn more well,

(00:49): Episode

We’ll be in judges six today, and I’m going to highlight something that, as I said in the introduction has the potential to be life-changing. It’s a small aspect of this story of this history that often goes overlooked. And you may not have heard it highlighted before. And you may not have seen it there before, but we’re going to highlight that because it has an impact on everything that we do in every area of life. Everything God calls us to do, this is one key aspect. It’s like a Lynch pin. And before we get into the details there, let’s read judges chapter six, verses 12 to 16. So it says when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the Lord is with you mighty warrior. Pardon me? My Lord, Gideon replied. But if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?

(01:44):

Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about? When they said did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt, but now the Lord has abandoned us. And given us into the hand of Midian, the Lord turned to him and said, go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you? Pardon me? My Lord, Gideon replied, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. The Lord answered. I will be with you and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive. And then it goes on to talk about how he accepted that call and got his man. And they went and tore down. They started with, by tearing down the altar of bale and cutting down the Asherah pole. They did that at night and some men wanted to kill him, others disagreed.

(02:37):

And you know, he went on and to have the, the 300 men and they conquered these tens and tens of thousands and thousands of thousands of soldiers in these other armies. And he did it with just 300 men, but I want to go back and highlight something specific here. If you look at what took place with this little interaction here, just these few verses, now God was with Gideon. But you know, as it said in verse 12, you know, the angel appeared and said, the Lord is with you mighty warrior. And God was with him, but he asked, well, if the Lord is with us, then why has this all happened to us? You know, he asked, you know, where are the wonders that we heard about? And, you know, he, it appeared that he believed that the Lord had abandoned them and abandoned Israel.

(03:24):

And you see, God gave no answer, though. He didn’t give an explanation. He just moved right into his assignment for Gideon. God simply offered, you know, am I not sending you? In other words, you know, what else is needed? What evidence, you know, that that should be that’s enough. That’s convincing enough. He didn’t bother spending time. And it could be that maybe he, you know, we don’t hate it. Didn’t have the capacity to really understand what was going on there, or just wasn’t the time to explain it. And God doesn’t need to explain that, but it’s just incredible. He just went right into his assignment and then Gideon responds by giving another question. But it’s about him personally, you know, Gideon believed see that the angel called him mighty warrior or a man of standing. This is that’s what this word means. You know, it designates a person who has a responsibility or is a upstanding individual in the community, or you know, a man of standing really speaks about their importance.

(04:25):

And he, he mentions that he’s the part of the, his family was the weakest clan and that he was the least in his family. And so he’s basically saying, you know, I, he, I don’t even have standing in my own family and how am I going to lead? All the claim were from the weakest clan. I’m how am I going to lead all the clans, all the Israelites, all the tribes, all the families to go and into battle. How am I going to do that? You know, he didn’t, he believed he didn’t have the ability. He didn’t have the authority and he didn’t have the standing. And he saw himself as, not as a mighty warrior, as, as the angel called him as a man of standing, he saw himself as a weak unimportant man with no authority and with no standing. And well, did he sit there and continue to argue with the angel about it?

(05:18):

Or did he argue with God about it? He didn’t, he, he, he moved on God, responded and said, I will be with you and you will strike down the Midianites. He didn’t sit there and try and convince Gideon that he had everything it took in himself. And he had to do all this stuff on his own. Of course he has a big part to play in this, but God is the one that’s going to do it through him. And God simply offers. I will be with you verse 16, and you will strike down all the Midianites period. End of stories. Simple as that. And Gideon had a choice, meaning he could accept what the angel said about him, what God said about him, that he was a man of standing, that he was a mighty warrior, or he could accept what he already thought in his head about himself was that he was weak unimportant no authority you know, from this weaker family, all that he could have accepted that.

(06:16):

Now that is the linchpin that I’m talking about. Look at all that he did when he accepted the identity and the call that God gave to him, regardless of his background. And regardless of what he thought of himself, you know, he went on to unite, Israel to take down these high places, these places of idol worship. And then he went on to conquer the Midianites and on and on and on and on and all these great conquests, but it all started when he accepted what God said about him. And, you know, he looked at what he would’ve missed out on. If he continued to deny his true identity and see himself as just this week, unimportant man with no authority and no standing, but praise God that he didn’t. And he, but he would have missed out on all of that. But if he continued to argue with God about that, and so he didn’t though, and his background didn’t matter.

(07:13):

He needed to change his self image to do what God had called him to do. I say that again, he needed to change his self image to do what God called him to do. How does he see himself? He needed to see himself the way God saw him otherwise, how’s he going to pick up that trumpet to blow it and have the men come and follow him, come and go to battle with him, go to war with him. You know, he’s going to have to hear from God, he’s going to have to do and take the, take the action. But if he doesn’t really see himself that way, it’s not going to have confidence. It’s not going to do, you know, he needs to see himself the way God’s saw him. And, but it’s, it’s not because of his abilities. It’s because God is with him.

(07:56):

God has called him and God will, God will, has given assurances of the victory. And so and God is sending him. So the question I have is what identity has God given you to have? Are you accepting it or are you arguing with God about it? Do you keep going back and forth or are you just accepting it? Has he called you to a certain career? Has he called you to a certain way to manage your family? Has he called you to a certain group of people? Has he called you to start a company to start a business? You know, whatever it is, maybe something smaller. Has he called you to lead a Bible study? Has he called you to disciple someone? Has he called you to share Jesus with somebody? Has he called you to pray for someone while I’m not that kind of person?

(08:45):

I don’t really pray out loud. I don’t really put myself out there really. Is that what God says about you or what you say about you? You know, so really you need to put it through the ringer. And this has been huge for me. I have, this has been monumental change for me, you know, throughout my life, where if you just see yourself, the way God sees you and the right way where you want to be, well, then you can go there and you actually will act differently. You will act as though you are that versus not acting that someday, you know, someday. So this, this mindset, the way you see yourself is very important. And what I think is really interesting is when God didn’t try to convince Gideon that he had everything that was needed to do what God called him to do.

(09:34):

He, he said, God told Gideon that it was because God was going to be with him. And because God was sending him, that’s why he should see himself that way. That’s why he will have the victory and he needed to go forward. He needed to accept that. So do you see yourself as someone who’s weak and lowly and no authority and no standing, or has a messed up past, or has made the same mistakes over and over, or doesn’t have the right background or doesn’t have the strength needed? Or do you see yourself as someone God has called and someone that God is with someone that God has equipped someone that God has given power and authority to do everything that he has called you to do. That is how you need to see yourself. You are someone God has called, and you are someone that God is with period.

(10:24):

End of story. Victory is already won. It’s already assured. And we just get to enjoy God while we’re doing this. And see. So like I said, Gideon went on to unite the Israelites against their common enemy, but he defeated them. He United them, he defeated them. He did this assignment, he did this, he fulfilled his calling with God’s power after he accepted what God said about him and that it would was in God’s strength that he was going to do it. And this, the spirit of the Lord was on Gideon. When he sounded the trumpet, all the warriors came to join him in the fight. It wasn’t sound the trumpet and then go and try and figure out how to scheme and get all these men to come join him. No, God put it in their hearts. God gave him the assignment. He accepted it, accepted the identity, and then God made everything happen around him.

(11:20):

And, but that was the linchpin. He had to accept the assignment. He had to accept his identity, what God said about him and, and, and well, what, what is it that you need to accept? And so he went on to fight and have all these great conquests and these victories that God did through him. So what is it for you? What is it that God has called you to do? Who is it that God has called you to be what’s in your heart right now? What is coming up to the top? What is it that you need that you’re looking for permission to see, as you know, if somebody came to you with what you’re thinking about right now, what advice would you give them? Would you tell them, you just need to own it. You need to own that. You need to accept that about yourself, what God says you need to move forward and, or, you know, would you be a little more discouraging?

(12:11):

No, that you wouldn’t, you would be very encouraging. You would lift them up. So why talk to yourself differently? So, so what is it commit, see yourself that way. Start to tell yourself, start to start to imagine what life would be like, seeing yourself that way. And if you really have no idea, nothing’s coming up. See what about mighty warrior man of standing or woman of standing and authority, spiritual authority, and things will change around you, that you had nothing to do with God is doing it, but see yourself the right way. And you will start to see these shifts happening. Just your mentality will be different things that you used to get caught up in mentally before. Just not there anymore. So take a step. What is it for you? Actually write it down, write it down and come back and look at it later today or tonight, and then look at it again tomorrow and look at it again the next day and look throughout the day. Just keep reminding yourself and keep, actually visualizing it and making sure that it happens and takes, takes fast action. Do something with this today, right now. What is it going to be, be committed to only believing about yourself, what God says about you, and you will see that it will make the world of difference in you accomplishing everything that God has created you and assigned you to do.

(13:37): Outro

If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to subscribe and you can help spread the word by giving us a five star review and sharing it with your friends. Visit Ryan S howard.com to learn more about how you can advance God’s kingdom every day.