It’s long past time for conservatives to reevaluate our ‘platforms’

Conservatives are being purged by Big Tech. President Trump joined a growing list of patriots who were taken out permanently by Twitter. YouTube took down Steve Bannon’s channel. Email providers are dropping conservative clients, including the Trump campaign itself. Google has taken down the Parler app and Apple is threatening to do the same. Facebook is a dangerous place for anyone who isn’t “woke.”

So, where do we go? It’s a serious question and right now I don’t have the answer. For years, conservatives have been operating on borrowed time. The trickle of accounts getting banned here or there was our warning sign. The hatred towards us by Big Tech executives was our red flag. The fact that we’ve had to be careful what we say on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube was well documented and largely dismissed. And that brings us back to the question, “Where do we go?”

Twice yesterday I was approached by friends asking if I could help build a new social network. My past life before politics was in social media, so I was a natural subject matter expert. But to both I said the same thing. It would take a huge investment to make it effective. The problem with social media sites isn’t in building them. Heck, there are white label software solutions out there that make building a Twitter or Facebook clone easy. Development from scratch wouldn’t be hard and would actually be ideal as new technologies would make it easy to come up with something much better than what Big Tech offers us today.

The problem is threefold. First, people like what they’re familiar with, and as much as we may hate YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter as companies, most of us still use them (unless we were banned, as NOQ Report was banned on Twitter yesterday and heavily restricted on Facebook). New things annoy or even scare people, especially when we’ve grown so accustomed to something tried and true.

Second, scalability is always a challenge. Parler has been growing rapidly over the past year and should have been prepared for a burst following the President’s banning. But their sites and apps were bombarded yesterday and took the service down multiple times throughout the day. They have serious backing behind them, and they still couldn’t handle the onslaught. It was reminiscent of the early years of Twitter and the long-forgotten “fail whale.”

Lastly, it would take massive marketing on alternative platforms since the primary advertising and marketing venues are favorable to Big Tech. In fact, Google and Facebook ARE Big Tech and they’re two of the most cost-effective venues through which to market. Word of mouth is not enough. Getting a couple of big conservative thought-leaders to back it isn’t enough. Sometimes, even advertising isn’t enough. Ask Google how their Google+ “Facebook-killer” failed miserably despite massive advertising pushes.

If we can’t replace these networks yet (and I’m not saying we can’t, but it will be hard), then what are we to do? I wish I had a concrete, universal answer, but right now I do not. All I have is to say what I am doing. I’m still on Twitter for now and will likely remain until I’m banned. But I’m also on Parler with a couple of backup accounts on smaller networks to get those accounts built up for whenever the big switch is made. Unfortunately, most of us are not Sidney Powell or Lin Wood, well-known people who were able to make the switch and instantly garner a bunch of followers. Most of us rely on actual connections, not fans, who were with us on Twitter and Facebook. It’s a daunting task to make the switch, especially for those who have tens or hundreds of thousands of posts on the platforms that hate us.

Video is a little easier. While most videos can still be found on YouTube and Facebook, a growing number are popping up on Rumble. Other than lacking livestreaming, we’ve been very happy with the video platform thus far. But it’s still small compared to YouTube despite growing for over seven years.

I’m transitioning my social media like Indiana Jones transitioned the bag of sand to he could take the statue in Raiders of the Lost Arc. Hopefully, a giant boulder won’t be rolling towards me any time soon.

As for Google, part of that is easy. I don’t use their search. I prefer DuckDuckGo. But I’m still on Google, at least on mobile. And if I wasn’t on Android, I’d have to be on Apple. Both hate you and me for our worldview. Are we supposed to make a conservative mobile operating system to compete?

One thing we do not want to do is abandon technological communication altogether. The left already has tons of advantages. If we stop connecting in order to spite Big Tech, they won’t be hurt by it. They want us to leave.

We are held captive by companies that hate us with software developed and managed by people who hate us. We got ourselves into this mess. Now, we have to figure out a way to get out of it.

COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet

Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.

Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.

When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.

Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.

The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.

The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.

We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.

As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.