You are being censored. You are being “watched” and rated articles you might read are being withheld from you. If you are on any social-media platform, that is. Welcome to the era of Big Brother.

If you use its service, Facebook rates you. According to what you read and write. It catalogues your comments and opinions for future use against you. It assigns you a rating. That rating will determine how you get treated at Facebook. If you want to learn how you are rated, good luck. Facebook won’t tell you.

If you Google “media bias,” you will be served a long list of articles that claim it does not exist. Instead of the many articles that describe and decry it.

You will be served a graph which places CNN in the middle of the spectrum between liberal and conservative. That should tell you all you need to know about political bias at Google. CNN would not praise this president if he donated his billions to its pension fund. Yet Google pretends CNN is in the middle ground politically. 

One popular author appeared on Fox News with Neil Cavuto. Video clips of his interviews soared on YouTube. From 15,000 to 20,000 viewers a day. Suddenly, Google (which owns YouTube) pulled the plug. It hid the videos. It diverted traffic for them. Next day, the viewership fell to 30. His sin? He opined as to why Hillary had lost the election. Nasty.

Another of his videos was canned. Not because of what he and Cavuto discussed, but because while the program was on the air, a creeper message crawled across the bottom of the screen. It said that Trump called the Mueller probe a witch hunt. This was Google’s reason for killing the video. And for suspending his account.

Numerous public figures complain of the same shoddy treatment. If they wander into Trump or conservative territory with their remarks, social-media giants punish them. 

Recently Apple podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all suddenly blacklisted the right-wing voice of Alex Jones. In lockstep. They have done the same for several other conservative voices. Obviously, they are collaborating to censor.

Facebook now rates news websites based on the quality of the news they report. “Quality” in the minds of Facebook managers, that is.

Social-media giants have suppressed countless conservative groups. They have handcuffed them from organizing petitions, fundraisers, and rallies. They are deliberately crippling the ability of Trump supporters and conservatives to organize on the web. 

This is Big Brother in action. Disgusting and dangerous action. This has the whiff of totalitarianism. This is simply unchecked power.

It is the power to decide what you will get to read and view. It is the power to decide what you write. Or at least the power to severely limit how far your thoughts will be distributed.

Of course, Big Brother — and Big Sis — burrow their way into your life in many other ways. Zillions of closed-circuit TV cameras record your movements. Scratch your bum at the altar, madam, and a billion people will snort at the video of it goes viral.

Meanwhile, Google and Apple trace your smart phone wherever you may take it. Be careful. Israeli wizards learned years ago to secretly turn on cameras on laptops. I am confident they do the same with smart phones. You should don clothes before you go online.

Meanwhile, these tech and social-media giants track your every purchase. And your messages, queries, travels, and eating. Sneak a Snickers bar this evening and you will find an ad for it on your screen in the morning.

This is raw, unchecked power. The power to influence. The power to eavesdrop, even if indirectly for now. The power to deny you basic freedoms.

The president has complained, raised a red flag. Hate him if you will. But you had better hope lawmakers lasso these tech giants before they crush your freedoms further.

By the way, Google has agreed to work with China’s communist censors. To create more tools for China to control the thinking of its people. Well, Google will certainly bring a lot of experience to that task.

From Tom…as in Morgan.         

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home in upstate New York. You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com, read more of his writing at tomasinmorgan.com, or find him on Facebook.