Kafkaesque situation when oligarch controlled tech giants X, Meta, and Google strangle “free speech”

Published May 17, 2025 | By Anton R. Misharin

It has long been known – and a problem for people on the internet – that their freedom of speech is being strangled, as well as other supposed rights they were led to believe they had by corrupt politicians, which are being taken away from them by the tech giants, who control the internet as an oligopoly when it comes to the major influential platforms.

Methods used to crush people’s freedom of speech range from censorship by moderators who delete content, to so-called “fact checkers” who are dispatched the moment someone posts something that goes against the global agenda of the Big Brother oligarchy – where a red light starts flashing and sirens go off in some of the control rooms of the power, as someone yells “shut it down” over the loudspeakers.

Then there’s the blocking and banning of accounts, and AI algorithms that technically manipulate what gets published so it becomes invisible to others – especially through so-called “shadow banning,” where you keep posting content for others to see, but no one sees a damn thing, because the tech giants have secretly blacklisted your posts using their AI-driven tools.

X (formerly Twitter) has become infamous for this latest trend in the censorship industry, where opinions that challenge the established Power’s narrative are routinely shadow banned. It’s a conveyor belt of silencing – targeting thoughts they fear, thoughts that don’t align with the official guidelines of the ruling class.

When it comes to Google – and by extension, YouTube – the story is just as bleak. In recent years, it’s become obvious that they prioritize content they want people to see and “raise” with, when using their search engine. If you search for something politically controversial, you won’t find it like you did 20 years ago when Google search actually did work. Instead, the new Google (and YouTube etc) ensures that sanitized, agenda-aligned content appears at the top – content designed to condition you into having the “right” opinions.

Google’s and YouTube’s search functions have effectively stopped working as intended, and this is no accident. It’s a deliberate strategy to keep you from discovering content deemed dangerous to the elite. Either they promote the voices of the wealthy, who can afford to pay for visibility, or those pushing politically correct narratives.

Google, which has been allowed by the political bureaucracy to hold a near-monopoly in many areas – especially through its ad system, AdSense – has been granted the power to cherry-pick who gets to participate in their ad network and who doesn’t. Unsurprisingly, it’s the politically correct, power-loyal lapdogs who get rewarded, while oppositional voices are shut out if they make too much noise.

Because money is power – and they don’t want the real opposition to grow economically or gain strength. Only “controlled opposition” is allowed access to their advertising network, along with those who toe the line.

In my book, The Power Oligarchy, I cover this kind of manipulative strategy and refer to it as “wrengxing“, which means “that one in advance, damage controls an event or condition, through distortions to a certain insignificant, negligible, and small extent, by making concessions and compromises. The idea is to prevent, whitewash oneself, remove all kinds of suspicions and accusations of bias and hidden egocentric motives, and thereby make it difficult for opponents to present criticism in a reliable way. Instead, one wants to turn the whole ship around and appear as a credible actor and hero, who wins sympathy everywhere.”

And that is what these tech giants are doing. They allow some criticism to flourish on their platforms, but only “to a certain insignificant, negligible, and small extent“, so to speak.

As for Meta (Facebook, Instagram, whatever), it’s common to see a combination of all the tactics used by both X and Google. Censorship, manipulation, shadow bans, economic exclusion – you name it. Meta applies them all in unison, forming the digital iron fist of the modern surveillance state.

Credit where it’s due – Meta’s major shareholder and tech oligarch Mark Zuckerberg has, to his credit, relatively recently admitted that they’ve used so-called “fact checkers” who, for years, have moderated and removed users’ posts that didn’t align with the agenda – and that these “fact checkers” were indeed biased and agenda-driven.

Following Trump’s election victory in the US, Zuckerberg pledged that these “fact checkers” would be removed from Meta’s platforms. However, whether this promise has actually been fulfilled or if it’s just another case of wrengxing remains to be seen. Because the broader censorship problems on Meta persist. The algorithms are still in place, the moderation is still opaque, and dissent is still being quietly filtered out.

All of this, of course, isn’t exactly breaking news – most people online are already aware of it to some extent. What is most striking about these shady methods used across major platforms to bypass the principle of the supposedly sacred and untouchable “freedom of speech”, is how they’re applied.

Very often, users are hit with suspensions, blocks, shadow bans, or even permanent bans without any clear explanation whatsoever. Instead, they’re handed some vague, corporate gibberish nonsense like: “We’ve noticed unusual activity from your account, blah blah blah…” – and that’s it. No details, no evidence, no appeal.

A perfect recent example is X, and how they responded to NewsJive’s activity on the platform with this Orwellian message:

“Transparency on X is very important. This is why we are letting you know that we have found your account may contain spam or be engaging in other types of inauthentic behaviors. You may not engage in behaviors that manipulate X or artificially impact how content is discovered and amplified.”

When Google denies websites access to their ad network, AdSense, they often give vague and utterly incomprehensible reasons, like “low value,” without explaining what they actually mean. This is, of course, a deliberate strategy to remove competition for the narrative and a sneaky way to filter out dissenting voices. The real message behind these vague responses is clear: they don’t want alternative perspectives that challenge the status quo.

One common explanation across these platforms for why certain content gets flagged or restricted is the use of “offensive” words like “fuck” or “shit,” which they claim are vulgar, aggressive, or inappropriate for children. But why are they so afraid of swear words, really?

As I discuss in my book, swear words represent creativity, uncontrollable energy, aggression, defiance, and intelligence – things that the Power fears. Because swear words break the mold, disrupt the narrative, and refuse to conform. And that is also something that I go through in my book in more detail.

What those in power want is an obedient, pacified, and passive population – slaves who play by their rules, who stifle true freedom of speech, and who are easy to control. They want people who accept sanitized, filtered versions of reality and who are too scared to step outside the box. That’s why they’re so scared of the power of language and what it represents.

If Google is smart, after reading this text, they’ll use a bit of the wrengxing method and once again grant access to their ad network, for example, to NewsJive. That way, they can manipulatively claim, “See, we give everyone access to our ad network AdSense, and it’s only the ‘conspiracy theorists’ who lie and spread propaganda.”

And I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this happens – that NewsJive regains access to AdSense once again. Wrengxing is, as said, a clever method to knock the legs out from under all critics of power, by, as mentioned, giving in a little and thereby disproving the critics.

And by the way, it’s not about protecting children at all, it’s about controlling children and brainwash them with their narratives, and at the same time “protect” them from alternative real oppositional explanations. Just take a look at the kind of harmful content that’s openly available on the internet on all of these platforms for kids – far worse than seeing the word “fuck” in a political debate between adults on platforms like X, Facebook, YouTube, or on websites that Google suppresses through shadow banning. The content allowed to circulate freely is often far more damaging, yet they claim to protect children from “vulgarity” like swear words. It’s all just a smokescreen. It’s bullshit and people buy their fucking explanations.

The real issue here is control over the narrative, not safeguarding children. These platforms use the “protecting kids” and “hate speech” excuse to justify their censorship while allowing far more insidious and harmful content to slip through the cracks. It’s a manipulative tactic, and unfortunately, many people buy into these explanations without questioning the true motives behind them. The double standards are glaring, and the narrative they push is all about maintaining power, not protecting anyone.

The bottom line is that their methods are inherently Kafkaesque in nature. You’re accused of violating “freedom of speech” by exercising your freedom of speech – yet you’re never clearly told what crime you’ve committed, or what exactly you’re being accused of.

Instead, you’re simply shut down – permanently, in many cases (as I was recently on Instagram, without any clear explanation) – or subjected to other forms of censorship. It’s pure surrealism. The Kafka vibes are off the charts.

At its core, all of this boils down to one thing: a power struggle over the narrative. And that’s exactly what I explore in depth in my book The Power Oligarchy, with the original Swedish title Maktoligarkin – where power struggles over the narrative are at the center.

By Anton R. Misharin, author of The Power Oligarchy, truth seeker, political observer and power analyst.

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