Politics

Patreon bans conservative Lauren Southern, allows far-left violent Antifa

On Friday, Patreon — an online fundraising platform — shut down the account of conservative blogger Lauren Southern, alleging that she is raising funds “in order to take part in activities that are likely to cause loss of life.”  Meanwhile, the site continues to allow the far-left violent Antifa to operate with impunity.

Patreon sent Southern the following email:

Hi Lauren,

My name is Max and I am a member of the Trust and Safety team at patreon.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Here at Patreon we believe in freedom of speech. We are creating a platform that empowers creators to share and debate ideas. When ideas cross into action, though, we sometimes must take a closer look at what our creators are doing with the funds they earn through Patreon.

It appears that you are currently raising funds in order to take part in activities that are likely to cause loss of life. We have therefore decided to remove your page from Patreon, and paid out your final balance of $95.00 to you.

We understand that this will come as a disappointment. Please know that we have come to this decision after a long review process and will not consider an appeal. 

Thank you for your understanding.

Regards,

Patreon Trust+Safey

Southern discussed the ban in a video originally posted to YouTube:

It’s not known exactly why Patreon took this action, but Southern suspects it may have something to do with her intent to report on operations conducted by Defend Europe, an organization describing itself as working against non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that materially support both illegal immigration and human smuggling into Europe, the Daily Wire said.

Southern says the mission is well within maritime law and further said she would have nothing to do with it if that were the case.

“Patreon has no interest in the truth,” Southern said, characterizing the company’s action as being driven by left-wing ideology.

She may be onto something.

The Daily Wire added:

It’s Going Down” is a fundraising profile currently active on Patreon, describing itself as “[a] digital community center from anarchist, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist and anti-colonial movements. Our mission is to provide an autonomous and resilient platform to publicize and promote revolutionary theory and action.”

Patreon
“It’s Going Down” on Patreon.

The Daily Caller noted:

Patreon currently hosts a crowdfunding page for the Antifa website It’s Going Down, which earns over $1,100 a month despite openly promoting violence towards police officers and “capitalists.”

When the issue was previously brought to public attention, one of the site’s employees, Aaron Riggenberg, stated that he saw no problem with a site because it “looks like a great group with a good mission statement.” He further stated the necessity in “active anti-fascist groups in the age of Trump.”

But, the report further said, Southern rejects Patreon’s stated reason:

Southern rejects Patreon’s reasoning, and explained that her work on the Defend Europe ship is unrelated to any of her earnings from the site. The ship was chartered by anti-immigration activists to aid the Libyan coast guard in pushing back refugee boats to its shores, where they set off to Europe and sometimes capsize along the way.

“If the review process was so long and so thorough I’m wondering how they missed the small fact that 1. I am not partaking in the mission and had stated that on both my Patreon and YouTube. 2. Not a single dime I made from Patreon or any other platform was going towards the Defend Europe mission and 3. there is absolutely no intent to put lives at risk on this mission even if I were fundraising or taking part in it,” says Southern.

Southern said her ban was the result of lobbying by far-left radicals spreading false information.

“The only reason Patreon is doing this is because a radical leftist organization that have been spreading fake news about the mission in order to put the crew in harms way lobbied them for ages,” she said. “They are appealing to liars rather than defending their alleged dedication to freedom of speech.”

The Daily Caller further notes:

Senior members of Hope Not Hate, one of the organizations involved in facilitating the influx of refugees into Europe, openly bragged about causing Lauren Southern’s Patreon suspension.

Posting on Twitter, Hope Not Hate founder Nick Lowles and senior researcher Joe Mulhall stated that the organization lobbied the platform to ban her account.

“I think it’s shocking that anyone would accuse me of wanting to kill people,” says Southern. “It’s even more shocking that I have to defend claims like that from a supposedly neutral organization Patreon.”

Lowles’ Twitter bio, by the way, states that he is an “Anti-fascist with HOPE not hate, cricket fan and traveller.”

Others noted Patreon’s hypocrisy:

https://twitter.com/polNewsForever/status/888230098045984768

Making matters worse, the official Twitter account for Antifa bragged:

https://twitter.com/OfficialAntifa/status/882987818351562752

https://twitter.com/OfficialAntifa/status/888182850255802370

https://twitter.com/OfficialAntifa/status/889123492544876544

The question one has to ask is: Does Patreon support violent revolution that could cause loss of life?  Antifa, as we noted here, here, here, here, here and here, routinely engages in and/or encourages violence against those with whom they disagree.  The group, which sought combat training, has been labelled a domestic terror group by the New Jersey State Homeland Security.  And Patreon is apparently okay with that.

We reached out to the company to find out why it banned Southern and to give it an opportunity to provide evidence of their claim, but have not received a reply at the time of this writing.

Meanwhile, conservative YouTubers like Mark Dice and my good friend Josh Bernstein, use Patreon to help fund their operations since YouTube is now demonetizing conservative content.

https://twitter.com/CoachRedPill/status/889538304118579201

That’s easy.  Scratch a liberal, find a hypocrite.

(Editor’s note: After posting Southern’s video, Facebook moderators chose to label it as spam, removing it from the groups we posted it to.  We reached out to Facebook but have not received a response.)

If you really want to know why this kind of liberal censorship takes place, please go here and order this book:

Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad
Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad – Source: Author (used with permission)

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Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

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