Many people are now becoming aware of a shift in the political effort to shut down speech. The Conservative Treehouse has been notified our “content” is not permissible, and after ten years we are kicked-out of WordPress/Automatic hosting services. Some people asked if we would inquire about the specific ‘terms of service‘ that we violated, so I did.
Here is the direct response from WordPress/Automattic (rec’d 6:48pm ET this evening):
No specific violation is noted. Below is the “Prohibited Content under section 5”
(source)
I have no idea how “violation against prohibition on calls to violence” pertains to our content. You can read CTH for yourself and see if you can identify anywhere where we have promoted a “call to violence”, it doesn’t exist.
For the sake of fairness, that’s their entire reasoning as provided. That’s their reasoning; you can make up your own mind if it makes sense.
We are working on relocation now. However, many people are rightly alarmed by this move by WordPress/Automattic because over the course of ten years there has never been any previous contact about any violation of any terms. Nor is any specific violation noted in the reply.
Tomorrow we will find a new host.
Be of good cheer and live your best life.
Sundance
It’s because of the comments. I come here for you, but the commenters have become gross, and disgust me. Calling everyone trolls who disagrees, calling to hang Brennan and others, calling for firing squads etc…….just end the comments section and keep going. Or go on sub stack and charge a monthly fee.
Never get rid of the comment section. That is one of the features that draws many of us long-termers here, in addition to Sundance’s superb analysis. Lately, it does appear many newbies have appeared who may or may not be trolls. Sundance used to have advanced algorithms running that could detect nefarious activity coming from limited IP addresses. I suspect that this has been a planned attack to come and voice outrageous comments that could then be used as rationales to claim terms of service violations. Please don’t ever get rid of the comments as we all learn so much from one another.
“I suspect that this has been a planned attack to come and voice outrageous comments that could then be used as rationales to claim terms of service violations.”
EXACTLY and I have said the same here recently.
Winston has it locked down here. I have followed this site for 5 years now, and find it to have some of the most thoughtful, intelligent and interesting discussions on the internet. Because of this, I contribute a modest amount monthly—as a thank you.
I am looking forward to our new home. Sundance has this under control.
I endorse Spren’s comment, this is the most intelligent and well mannered site I have found, please do not change this format. The first amendment is too precious to lose.
spren,
I emphatically agree. I know personally that I have given, and received invaluable information from the comments section. I indeed, do try to “tailor” my words so as not to get you ‘in hot water”, but where does this end?!
In the name of my Dear Beloved Irene, I pledge whatever hard-drive space (and she was a HARDCORE PATRIOT and IT) I can avail to CTH. You people have been a Godsend to me. All I need is guidance..
AdRem, you know where to find me..
God Bless,
skipper
Seriously? Do you not understand that people like Brennan are traitors in the truest sense of the word? Do you not understand that he and many others, like the Antifa slime, literally WANT US DEAD? My God… they want the President of the United States dead! Some of them HAVE literally killed some of us, simply for being Trump supporters. So do I want some of them tried, convicted, and maybe even sentenced to death? You better believe I do… and I’m generally OPPOSED to the death penalty. Maybe all this hasn’t affected you as PERSONALLY AND DIRECTLY as it has many of us, so maybe you’ll never understand.
WordPress sent the trolls.
Foolishness, like a rape victim asking wha they did wrong. Have been reading comments regularly and there is nothing warranting censorship. In fact this is an extremely civil group.
Exactly. Sometimes we get really loud and angry about some of the scum in this country, and yes we may call for justice. Sometimes true justice can be really harsh. But in my opinion, it’s wrong and immoral NOT to demand justice. So any such conversations are totally legitimate. But of course there IS the occasional comment that crosses the line, sometimes regarding violence, sometimes regarding racism (not fake SJW racism), or whatever. But guess what happens then? For every such comment, there are usually a dozen or more condemnations of that comment, and the comment is usually deleted in short order. I’d say we have 99.9% really GOOD people here, and anyone who would claim otherwise is, at a minimum, just not paying attention.
Give me liberty, or give me death!
Do you want to censor that.
I think this a very biased opinion. IF you get out of line, even slightly the commenters will whittle you down. I have not read any rational hate, nor have I demonstrated on my own part anything but the issue to defend the constitution. I am a originalist and have loved this blog site since finding it a couple of years ago. I have found all the Michael Flynn legal documents and have read thoroughly. I think WordPress is suppressing free speech and is not interested in hosting any opinions but its own. Good riddance. I just cancelled my personal blog because of this. I will relocate my business elsewhere. What a bunch of dolts.
Calls to violence = having the audacity to not agree with leftist dogma…my goodness!…how dare you!…why…why…you are committing…THOUGHT CRIMES!!!!!?
Mark’s concern over supposed violence in the comments firing squads or Brennan’s hanging is nonsense. Any quick glance over at any left leaning content to see their openly vile and violent content will show you that that’s not at all the real reason. The commie Bernie dorks over at WordPress now feel emboldened after the election (they’re convinced Biden won and they’ve destroyed Bad Orange Man…even though that’s nothing but a media lie) and now they’re emboldened and are ready to be more brazen in their deplatforming of conservatives.
When Trump gets back in the White House he needs to go after Big Tech with a vengeance.
Hang in there Sundance. You have a loyal following thats not going to bail on you. Your hard work and diligence into unearthing corruption is vital to us! Never surrender!!!!!!!!!
They can’t stop free speech in America. Period.
That’s right! But they can kick us out of their baseball field and take back their ball. So be it. We can find another field to play and get another ball. I remember 4 years ago we were hoping conservatives or even Trump would start his own network and I am happy to notice this is already happening. Already people are noticing the stench of twitter and going elsewhere. Twitter seems to forget that Donald Trump put them on the map, prior to Trump twitter was just a mediocre social media platform not very many participated in. They want to get rid of the golden goose and expect to have golden eggs. They will soon learn that’s not how it works. Only the golden goose can produce golden eggs.
Without Trump, their beloved twitter goes back to being just a mediocre platform.
Screw wordpress.
Sundance, like PDJT, has exposed traitors to our country and constitution.
I keep getting the mental picture that we are to wipe the dust from our scandals at the doorstep of Word Press and move on. May God continue to bless Sundance and all the followers of his site.
Aren’t there a few legal free speech organizations that take these cases. Might be a good time for class action on social media.
Now, that is a super suggestion. If I had the time I would jump in and help.
It was the “by any means necessary” and a picture of a knife.
That is free speech as I understand it but then, I am a 75 white deplorable. Oh, what about that name calling, I have to read it over and over? Where was editing then? Where is it now. I am discriminated against everyday. Age, color, gender, in the Vietnam war by black soldiers in lunch line (I was a minority!) while stationed in Germany. The Germans hated me, so did most black soldiers. I know discrimination and racism. Don’t call me a racist or a deplorable. I served as a grunt when I was drafted. How many can experience all that hate, racism and conditions? US citizens hated me while I served and for serving. I served because my father and brother did. President Trump cared. I know. I got a PTSD rating after getting turned down in 1973. He cared enough about the veterans, he stepped in and thanked us by actions, not by “thank you for serving”, not that I want people to stop thanking me. I just appreciate the President for finally taking action.
I thank you, especially as a mother of a Navy Air Rescue enlistee, CBI, PTSD, had to go thru private areas to finally get a Service Dog. Perhaps the newly created (2years, I think) platform Parler. com can be worked as a solution here. There have been droves of trolls there since the election, the MUTE button works perfectly. Again, Blessings on you
Telling the truth is considered by Democrats as a “call to violence” — Big Mike was yammering about that today…
Let’s not forget Maxine Watters call to harass! That seems to be forgotten. The name calling but other dems.
“But” = from
Values, attitudes and beliefs exist within all of us. They come thru our nurturing or lack thereof! Thus the Good, the Bad and the Ugly human emerges. Three hundred million Americans and we are here at a crossroads in the life of our country. So, the values, attitudes & beliefs of the country instilled by our founding fathers was as pure a gift as a simple sinner could ever endeavor for and we did! Until, we fell asleep at the wheel and Evil inserted it’s seeds among us and the cancer mestastisized!
There is a rarified breed of Americans who are among us. Who do I mean? The person I will speak of will explain what I am driving at! Donald J. Trump, for example, a self-actualized man and Sidney Powell, a self-actualized women. They are not alone and I elude to another patriot who without his efforts, skills and critical thoughts would leave many of us scratching our heads and very depressed.
Sundance, like Trump, Powell and all of us have been given a challenge by God to show our raw devotion to overcome this Evil that has dared to overtly castigate, threaten, and steal what God has given us. It is ours to lose! God help Sundance and all of those who believe in him!
Has that part about Misrepresentative Content close to the bottom always been part of their Prohibited Content? The email says “We found consistent violations of our Automatic Ads Terms of Service (See “Prohibited Content” Under Section 5) as well as our prohibition against calls to violence, outlined in the WordPress.com User Guidelines.” The “as well as” leads me to believe there is more than one reason. The Misrepresentative Content mentions false claims about the Democratic process & some other political stuff. With all the censoring going on, I think that’s what they are doing! They are wanting to censor the information that you are putting out for people! I’m sorry that they are doing this to you! Change to another blogging platform & don’t look back!
Conservative Treehouse did none of that. CTH’s only “violation” is being pro Trump. WordPress is being run by the same lefties as is on twitter and Fbook. Senator Mike Lee of Utah(R) said at the hearing of twitter and Fbook today “99% of those that work for Fbook and twitter who gave to political campaigns and causes ARE DEMOCRAT.
We’ll all find a new avenue to communicate, let them have their ball and brush off the dust as you leave their field.
They are trying to wrestle a stream of water, no one can squeeze the neck of water. We’re fluid.
Onward! To bigger and better!
I’d say given the timing, this feels more like the left is pressuring WordPress.com. It also feels like Sundance is now a member of at least one (probably more) “Lists” out there and they are working their way through it.
Once Trump is re-elected and we regain majorities in both the house and the senate, let’s see if we can’t push for anti-cancel culture legislation. It is a violation of civil rights what they are doing. And it is especially illegal for politicians to be actively involved in this type of activity. Does it not occur to these politicians they are factually violating the law as they seek to deprive citizens of their constitutionally guaranteed rights in this way?
If the Democrats have their way, we won’t have a Constitution any longer!
What should I do with this?
I have an idea! Let’s to the “I’m Spartacus” thing where we all make a copy of the CTH (or some facsimile) and create a free site (like I did!) and then mirror the content! That’d be pretty awesome.
I checked my WordPress account and noted I had five with them. I dropped all but this one and another one that is HAM radio related. So that’s what I would suggest.
They are using the same thing against you that they did against the Federalist and another site.
They are kicking you off for comments made on threads I wager.
If you press them on the matter, that will most likely be their next response.
“Deceiving users through artificial or manipulated media (images, audio, video) with the intent to influence political or social issues.”
By this rule, all memes, satire and political cartoons would be violations.
I’ll bet that bullet point was added recently just for the purpose of limiting free speech, especially political speech.
Go to Epik. By far is the most free speech friendly of the companies in the US. They offer domain and hosting registration. Or else, go to an offshore hosting service.
This is strange: my comment didn’t appear… Well, I’m reposting it.
Uhm, interesting. The main claim is that you incite violence, which is shamelessly false. Infuriating.
As a sort of inadequate extra support to their case they cited the Automattic Ads Terms of Service, that if breached would only prevent you from displaying their ads.
The relevant section is clearly:
“Proliferating or creating verifiably false claims or content that could undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process.”
In other words, they can take your livelihood from you (ads) if you produce content that could convince others that a certain election is untrustworthy!!!
Notice the subtlety: the phrase could be constructed like this: (verifiably false claims) OR (content) and so technically one could be deplatformed for proving (!) that elections in Belarus are rigged, if they chose to enforce that rule. The mere idea that they refer to something that is verifiably false is meant to be reassuring to others, but we know full well how this “verification” is a subjective show of power with bonus verbal gymnastics on the side.
Now, this particular item on the list of prohibited content stands apart for its egregious uniqueness. It’s quite specific to a topic, and far from widely accepted as a principle.
Do we really expect this prohibition to be about any election, anywhere in the world?
I wanted to check, and this bullet point on the Automattic Ads TOS appeared on July 17 2020. See from yourself from the Internet Archive:
July 16: https://web.archive.org/web/20200716101552/https://wordpress.com/automattic-ads-tos/
July 17: https://web.archive.org/web/20200717110021/https://wordpress.com/automattic-ads-tos/
How convenient that such an otherwise seemingly puzzling prohibition appears in anticipation of _this_ US Presidential Election…
Yes, I think since May with all of the BLM & rioting & then the election they starting censoring the conservatives like the social media companies!
Posted this on another thread.
For the record Matt Mullenweg the founder/owner of Automattic is a woke Democrat (leftist). There is no question that CTH was de-platformed for non-compliant political speech. It’s the way he hires employees and fires as well, all need to be and remain leftists.
Like it or not, this is exactly what it boiled down to…
I’ve had a blog on WordPress since 2012. After hearing of your de-platforming, I deleted my own blog, and when asked why, specified “Censorship of The Conservative Treehouse.” In doing so, I wasted my recently paid annual fees, and gave up my domain (haveacivilwar.com.) My blog was never monetized, so I lose nothing but an outlet for my thinking, and I can replace that with no real loss. I will be off FB and Twitter by 2020.12.31, trying to get comfortable in the meantime on MeWe, GAB and Parler. Best wishes going forward.
I don’t think it is a bad thing to hang government officials that have been involved in election fraud or have been hiding election fraud.
Just run wordpress org and keep a backup at all times on your personal computer. soon the hosting companies start censoring. we are in a war with big tech. Stay safe.