After the October 11th, 2018 Facebook and Twitter purge of over 800 activist sites and pages — many of which were partner sites with MintPress — we believe our days as an independent journalism organization on authoritarian social media platforms are numbered.

Since 2012, MintPress News has been at the forefront of exposing the dangers of the national security state, the military-industrial complex, and the corporations that have hijacked our democracy and are destroying the planet.

We have stood up strong against a media Goliath — the corporate media — that controls over 90% of what we see, hear and read in equipping the American public with pertinent information that holds the establishment accountable.

Our independent watchdog journalism is creating a shift in consciousness among the millions of readers we’ve been able to reach in the last 6 years, and the powers that be are taking notice. They realize the impact MintPress is making and are trying to silence us where we reach most of you and where the majority of people are getting their news from: on social media.

The very establishment the media should be holding accountable are working hand-in-hand with corporate media giants, including The Washington Post and Buzzfeed, to play Thought Police and “fake news” spotters who have targeted MintPress on Facebook. To make matters worse, NATO-funded think tanks like the Atlantic Council have also partnered up with Facebook to suppress our content, flag our posts as “inappropriate” or “spam,” and in many cases censor us under the guise of fighting “fake news”.

Facebook has been flagging several of our articles and our readers’ political comments as spam. It’s only a matter of time before our page and some of our readers end up in Facebook jail, or purged completely. Facebook has also admitted to deleting user accounts at the behest of the U.S. and Israeli governments.

Hopefully, we’re wrong; but it feels like our Facebook days are numbered.

And it’s not just Facebook — MintPress articles are even being blocked by Google News in search results. Not only that, but we are consistently being threatened to have our ads cut off by one of our main sources of revenue, Google AdSense, which is flagging several of our investigative pieces as “not appropriate” for advertisers. This article addressing Obama’s policies as racist is just one example

This has affected our readership and drained our advertising revenue by over 70 percent. They are doing everything they can to drain our bank accounts and prevent us from reaching our own readers and operate as an organization.

As a result, we’ve had to cut staff and restructure our business plan time and time again to be able to function on a very small budget that is stretching us very, very thin. We can no longer rely on ads and are appealing to our readers and supporters to sustain us and help us create better, stronger content.

Our future depends on your support. We need your financial help to not only sustain MintPress operation costs but to help us make a comeback against the powers that be who are trying to silence us — before these social media giants wipe us off the map.

While Facebook, Google, and others ramp up their efforts to make watchdog journalism algorithmically disappear, we’re ramping up our efforts to circumvent corporate censorship and provide our readers with the kind of journalism that empowers we, the people.

How you can help: Help us raise $25,000 in 60 days

We have an initial first phase fundraising goal of $25,000 to help us sustain some of MintPress News’ operating costs and other journalism projects including on GoFundMe:

• An investigative unit led by award-winning journalist Max Blumenthal
• Bring back “Behind The Headline” video series, hosted by me — Mnar Muhawesh
• Series reporting in censored conflict zones like Yemen & more.

We are fighting real “fake news” that is choking up the airwaves produced by the establishment and corporate media, but we can’t win against them in educating the masses without your help.

We’re offering our donors special gifts like personalized keychains, stickers, reusable shopping bags, stainless steel BPA-free water bottles, and t-shirts with snazzy messages about peace and government accountability.

Restoring the Fourth Estate & Fighting the real “Fake News”

When I launched MintPress nearly seven years ago, I envisioned an independent watchdog journalism organization that goes deeper than just providing the basics of who, what, when and where, and instead focuses more on the “why” and “how”. MintPress has been since working tirelessly to expose who the special interest groups are and explain why and how they are pulling strings behind the scenes to shape policies at home and abroad, including their influence on the ever-growing military machine.

MintPress has been tackling issues like war and exploitation not just abroad, but at home, right here on our streets, from Native reservations to Flint to Baltimore and Charlottesville. These are the kinds of stories the corporate-owned mainstream media usually sweeps under the rug or explains only in terms that benefit powerful, monied interests.

We’ve been at the forefront of exposing the dangers of the national security state, the military-industrial complex, and the corporations that have hijacked our democracy and are destroying the planet.

We’ve been highlighting the human costs of war and regime change operations like those in Yemen, Syria, Libya, Sudan and much of the Global South.

We’ve been amplifying the voices of those who are usually silenced by the media, like activists for peace and inclusion, government whistleblowers, and third-party presidential candidates who prioritize the needs and interests of the people and the environment.

We’re filling the much-needed void of honest journalism in this world, and this remains integral to the future of humanity and the planet we live on.

Most recently, MintPress became one of the only journalism organizations that broke the media blackout on the U.S./Saudi-led genocide in Yemen that has left over 70% of the population starving and brought back a cholera epidemic. Our extensive coverage, which was made possible through the financial support of our readers, has brought the plight of the once silenced Yemeni people to the attention of the international community. Saudi Arabia took notice and listed MintPress as an international media organization disrupting their propaganda machine to justify the war there in a meeting in Jeddah this summer.

This is because MintPress has been covering Yemen since the conflict began in 2015, while the corporate mainstream media was promoting regime change coverage of the war in Syria.

MintPress also broke the school bus bombing story that left over 50 children dead before the mainstream media picked it up and made it headline news.

Independent coverage like this can force the mainstream media and general public to pay attention, even if briefly. Our coverage created ripples that have had an influence on the attitude of Americans regarding both the war on Yemen and the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia

We have the power to influence the overall narrative on Yemen and potentially the outcome of the war, but we need your financial help to continue doing so.

It’s not just Yemen; we’re giving a voice and spotlight to the people of the Global South ravaged by economic sanctions, regime change operations, military coups and wars imposed by the U.S. military and its proxies.

From apartheid Israel’s criminal acts against unarmed Palestinians, to the mines of Congo where children and people are living a colonial nightmare, to the streets of Mexico where a police state runs free to commit massacres against the people, to the neighborhoods in Venezuela where the people are trying to survive against U.S. economic warfare… the list goes on and on.

This is just some of the coverage we’ve provided our readers with, which we believe has made us a target for censorship by the 1%.

More about Facebook & Google censorship

MintPress News (and all independent media for that matter) have been censored and harassed like never before by the 1% since the 2016 election. Since then, war-funded think tanks, including the Atlantic Council, partnered up with the biggest players in information sharing — Facebook and Google — to exterminate independent, watchdog journalism like MintPress under the guise of fighting “fake news” after Hillary Clinton lost the election to Donald Trump.

The most recent example of social media censorship happened just last month.

On October 9th, Facebook purged over 800 alternative pages and activist accounts, accusing them of spreading spam. However, many of those purged were legitimate watchdog journalism pages including The Anti-Media and The Free Thought Project who were reporting on the ever-growing police state, infringement of our rights, and bloated war machine. Their Twitter accounts were purged within a few hours after Facebook removed their pages.

While MintPress was not purged that day, several of our cartoons posted to Instagram illustrating Israeli apartheid and war crimes were removed without notice.

We are afraid that this is only the beginning in a broader censorship campaign.

We ask for your support so we can expose the very entities working to censor us.

Other Ways You Can Help

We understand that not everyone can donate, but you may know someone who can. Please share this campaign on your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks. You can also become a monthly sustaining member on our website or through our Patreon page.

Please also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Minds, Steemit and Instagram, and subscribe to us on YouTube. Because of social media algorithms that limit post reach, we rely on you to like + share + comment (even if one word) to help our coverage reach the masses.

In solidarity,

Mnar Muhawesh

Founder & Editor-in-Chief, MintPress News

The post Help MintPress News Fight for Truth in the Face of Social Media Censorship appeared first on MintPress News.