In the wake of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building in the days leading up to the just concluded Presidential election, social media giants have been on a strict censorship campaign.

Quite a number of high-profile personalities, notably former President Donald Trump, have had their social media accounts permanently suspended for airing views that were deemed “inappropriate” and “inciting violence”. However, there have been accusations that this censorship by social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat have been biased and targeted towards conservative voices and activists.

To combat the problem of selective censorship, a new free speech and human rights social media network is giving users such as Trump, the platform to express themselves freely without fear of censorship. ShoutIt.ca is a community-driven social network and not-for-profit initiative with the primary goal of providing a free speech platform for those seeking an alternative to social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, which has been riddled with worsening censorship.

In a statement following Trump’s ban from Twitter, the company noted that the decision to ban Trump permanently from the platform was due to his continued violation of their terms of use by inciting violence and therefore, a suspension would minimize the risk of further violence.

By far his most preferred platform, Twitter was Trump’s primary mode of communication since assuming office and through this medium, he has made several policy announcements and commented on different societal and political issues. But with his account suspended, communicating becomes quite a struggle and this has led many conservatives to seek alternatives to these major social networks.

“(The social media platforms) have overwhelmingly censored Trump and his administration,” said Lon Safko, industry consultant and author of The Social Media Bible in a report.  

“Any form of censorship, any form, is unacceptable. Social platform such as Facebook, whose primary business is open communication between its over 2.7 billion members, have a moral and legal responsibility to allow those conversations to transpire, organically.”

All sides of a conversation must be heard and if any viewer disagrees or takes offence by a certain conversation, they are well within their rights to ignore the conversation and walk away.  ShoutIt.ca gives everyone the freedom to express themselves, increasing public engagement and awareness on various topic. Also, it limits the level of cultural, political and religious intolerance.