We’ve been hearing the headlines for a while now:  “...... kicked off ….”, “.... banned by….” “First they came for Alex Jones…” More or less we accepted this could always happen.  Voices removed for extreme content.  But until recently it was only done on truly extreme examples - like legit NeoNazi channels on YouTube - but still plenty of stuff that made others mad allowed to stay.  Extreme PC channels (Feminist Frequency) extreme right wing channels, or just out there conspiracy stuff - Alex Jones. However, a media character started pretending to be President of the United States.  Among his motley crew of soon to be dismissed and sometimes convicted associates was a puppet for the telecommunication industry who was against “Net Neutrality” the argument, the legal decision that internet providers be neutral on content.  Interestingly enough said person likely would not have become able to pretend to be President if not for unimpeded information, the quality not valid, being flooded all over. After that the media and internet tech giants started casually banning people.  Divide and conquer.  They started with a few out there nuts and legit extremists to test the waters, then went for the far right, the left wing the more ‘useful idiots’ then kept going forward.  Their goal - one man’s opinion - is to turn the net into “T.V. 2.0” where it’s the same bland tedium you have to subscribe to and if you even have a G-Rated ‘cat website’ others would need to know about it and call tech support to be able to look at it. But - remember the term “Website”? That’s where we went wrong. For a decade we’ve been trusting “Social Media” - websites made by others to be easy to use - trusting they’d not mess with us unless we really, REALLY went out of the way.  1000 photos of goat dot se, or Tubgirl (don’t look up if you don’t know!) or legit criminal stuff.  Until recently that was true, you could shout any direction, they were too busy dealing with tons of legit criminals and hackers to care if someone’s cat video offended anyone. But that’s what it comes down to. I don’t say this to defend Nazis, extreme SJW’s, crusaders for this or that fashionable fake lie media cause… I say this for the person who posts “Cat Videos” on YouTube but likely by now is “De-Monetized” so that even if Mr. Snuggles got 1 million views you don’t get that few cents.  I say this for the person who writes their own novel and wants to sell it to the public, not submit it in the stack of manuscripts to ‘traditional’ publishers.  I say this in defense of the independant musical band, who can make a good rockin’ tune but don’t want to sign their souls, have Johnny pretend he isn’t married, Joey pretend he’s gay, get rid of Danny and end up $1 million in debt, not even legally owning their names in a few years.  I say this for “Indie” game developers who are trying to eat after working 90 hours a week for years on AAA titles to get laid off just before christmas and are promoting their own games… Social media has betrayed them.  YouTube, Facebook - you name it.  All they care about is maximum advertiser saturation and so they are very easy to get manipulated by SJW’s, right wing hotheads or just a few pathetic trolls hit the complain flag for the “Lulz” and now its demonetized…  Or filed a CopyWRONG claim on the background noise, even if it was you playing your piano and your melody.  Maybe they even threatened you by demanding BitCoin lest it happen?  Serious, stuff like this is happening. You see - I’ll say “One Man’s Opinion” to protect my arse - the motive is on sites that pay to “De-Monetize” using modern “un-Personning” to get any excuse not to pay.  When the medium is “Free” you can’t argue you didn’t get what you paid for.  The product was not what they offered, free use of their site, the product is YOU.  Notice the ads for kitty litter, local vets, clickbait for fake articles on sites full of virus and malware that are auto generated but triggered to get your attention?  Emails from said people?  YOU are the product and if you delete your page they still have it and sell it (very cheaply) to anyone interested. So, what can YOU do? A lot, actually. I’m not going to say remove your YouTubeFacebookTwittter….especially if have them already.  Damage is done. But get your own voice.  Get your own website. Ten years ago, or longer, it made sense for non geeks to just go to social media rather than the more fashionable having one’s own website..  No “How to do crude HTML in 30 days if you read this 3 hours a day) books and high fees and financial ruin if your “Cat Video” earned 1 million hits due to bandwidth/disk usage charges.  Social media was good and people turned to them as the internet moved mainstream.  No need to pay for a hosting service that offered limited or expensive web construction and could update/change at a whim. Frankly, thank G-d they got this greedy this fast.  If they’d waited 10 more years with or without any “Net Neutrality” there might not be web browsers in common use, just apps for sites and stores. Right now you can get your OWN website. It’s cheap.  It’s easy.  Few if any catches.  Free speech save the very razor edge of the law.  No ‘bandwidth nightmare’ where you are worried about overcharges.  Lots of utilities so you don’t have to learn programming like a college class.  And yes, “Streaming Video” is OK. Furthermore its more spread out, more democratized… Myself I use Dreamhost and have for years.  Yes I proudly put a pay link here where I do get some residuals when anyone signs up.  But I’ve vouched for them under lots of situations where I received no personal credit. They host lots of extreme sites, pornography sites (like Slipshine) and lots of tangled messes of encryption that might be the “Nightmare Fuel” you get from DeepWeb Creepypastas on YouTube and Reddit… So, if some whiny SJW is offended to the core at your CAT video…  Not kidding, extreme PETA people think there shouldn’t be pets, even to owners that adopt strays and treat them like furry royalty…  Well on YouTube (or any other “Free Media” site) they can get you De-Monetized and constantly taken down with complaint after complaint after complaint… A private server that takes $ to provide hosting….   They get some screaming hate mail over someone’s CAT video - they’ll tell them …..”.......  And the HORSE you rode in on, ….. It too!” because there are plenty of other providers out there and kicking you off would only be costing them money. We need to move back to private websites.  And to have our own voices.  The more people do this, the more social media dries up and becomes bland TV detritus and no indie voices because too many complainers complain for the “Lulz” as much as being offended.  People start uninstalling the “Apps” and demand better browsers for their phones. And we should merely use existing “Social Media” accounts to just point to our works.  Alex Jones for instance just got his own website despite the attempts to “un- person” him.  Not too much a fan, because at first I saw him as wishy washy and too right wing and for “Conspiracy Theory” I prefer David Icke - then I saw him as derivative of Mr. Icke.  But no way should he have been “De-Platformed”. So - get your own voice - long and short Dreamhost - not the only game on the net but the one I recommend by far.  Lots others too. OK - for the warchest: Dreamhost - I recommend them.  If interested please sign up using the link, it doesn’t increase your charge but gets me residuals.  Everyone's broke these days but if you can sacrifice a beer, a Latte, a comic book a month you can pay for Dreamhost.  And you’ll get “Site of the Month” not a big bill if your “Cat Video” gets 1 million views. Following these software sites do not have “Affiliate” links so I don’t get paid if I send anyone their way.  But I gladly paid my $ to them for their software and love it, well worth it - that’s the best advertising - make a good product that isn’t too expensive that people like so much they tell others. Xara - There are LOTS of web DIY kits out there.  I like this one the best, not saying otherwise on many others, just I like them.  Used them a long time.  No affiliate link on this one yet, but they make a good product. Core FTP - technically Xara can do this for you for your site.  But this is a good cheap one use tool good to send lots of data. Magix software - good for video editing, music making - cheap but very useful. Affinity - doubtless you’ll need some photo/text/vector software - maybe.  But don’t want to sign up for the “Shop”’s latest racket….  These are relatively cheap but very powerful packages, ones I bought gladly and use.  Haven’t EVER wished I had/subscribed to the “Shop” after I got these. Krita - Normally I remember a cartoon - rich rocker in mansion surrounded by Bikini models talking to his agent - “No, I’m not refusing the work.  This is professionalism, man.  The song - ‘the best things in life are free’ - do I sing to RETARDS!?”  That’s the rule - stuff like Krita the exception.  Well Krita is a very good art program that’s distributed for free though accepts donations.  Might be good to use with a tablet for digital painting if interested and simple editing. ---Oh, and for the really bad extremists, who might even get my fav hosting guys to kick them off - (good luck, that’s HARD save legit crimes, terroism, Kiddie P…. stuff) look it up on hosting your own.  Your own PC if connected to the internet can be a ‘Webserver’ and nothing can be done.  Well legit illegal activity gets a warrant and a knock on the door quickly unless its on TOR or whatever, but just offending some snowflake...nope.   Easier on the computer if you put it on someone else’s place for a small fee - but you can get a toy computer like a Raspberry Pi or a few of them and a Costco hard drive…  I like it’s easy to do now without being a tech geek, a few searches away.  Do the searching yourself, please, but I tell you it’s possible and not too hard.  I don’t say this in support of Hate crime extermists, criminals, sellers of illegal wares - but if they are on the net the real screaming (and legal attention) goes to them so they have 1 million things better to do that hassle me if I write “retro” stories and whoop the cast of my scifi space exploration is mostly white males...