When we were kids, we were always told to “play fair,” not to cheat. We were taught the rules apply to everyone. Except … there were cheaters.
Now, as we have matured, the cheaters have as well. These are the folks that make up their own opinions, including half-truths or no-truths and post online their gospel.
A classic example is Nextdoor. If your thoughts, ideas or comments don’t line up and agree with their leads or moderators “truths,” your posts are removed! That is correct. You may live next door but unless your ideas reflect Nextdoor ideas, you are dog meat!!!
Nextdoor is supposed to be a platform for sharing observations, ideas and opinions. They hold themselves out as a community sounding board. However, it appears the only sound they like is the one they promote.
Apparently, the only opinions allowed are ones that align with their interpretation of “free speech.” The arbiters of this “free speech” happen to be Mayor Lisa Gillmor’s political allies, assigned the positions of Nextdoor Leads and Moderators.
The Weekly’s staff apparently isn’t saying anything good. In the past month, posts linked to our Silicon Valley Voice stories have been pulled from Nextdoor, marked as spam or hate speech. Outrageous!
These alleged “spam” stories include one about two generations of Fremont High School athletes, and another about a high school student representative to Santa Clara Unified school board.
Gillmor’s “spam” gestapo has even blocked the community calendar, which was publicizing the Santa Clara Players’ Hound of the Baskervilles, Great America’s Oktoberfest, and Sunnyvale Public Safety’s Pancake Breakfast.
Oh, and also Santa Clara’s farmer’s market.
In 2020, Gillmor’s band of bullies got her political opponents banned from Nextdoor. And guess what for? You guessed it, bullying.
This “bullying” consisted of defending themselves against scurrilous attacks and lies published by Gillmor’s chief bully, Robert Haugh, and promoted by the rest of Gillmor’s gang.
This is not about political reporting. Nextdoor — as far as we know — has never blocked any of Haugh’s posts linking to his own outrageous, bigoted and degrading opinion posts. Neither has Nextdoor blocked the reposting of these links.
Sources, who asked not to be named for fear of revenge from Gillmor’s Nextdoor bully band, told us that our posts were being reported because we carry candidate advertising on our website. They don’t want people to see those ads. This would be defensible if links to other publications with political advertising were reported as spam and blocked. They are not.
History has proven that tyrants and dictators make their first move by silencing the “Free Press.”
Stay informed.
Previous Milestones:
Milestones – To Tell The Truth … – Opinion
Milestones – Milk Money – Opinion
Milestones – If it’s not Broken – Opinion
View Comments (6)
I stopped using nextdoor because many of my posts were being removed by the censors. If I recall correctly I was even suspended for a period of time. So I just stopped going there, which, sad to say, was probably their goal
What does it say about Gillmor and her minions when they cannot handle contrary opinions? We must first purge the city council then the city itself of her malign influence.
This opinion piece is misleading, and downright dangerous. I am a Nextdoor “lead” and I do NOT have the power to “censor”, remove posts, or “ban” people. Nextdoor moderators, who are employees of Nextdoor, make the decision based on a number of factors. Yes, community members like myself can “vote” on keeping flagged posts which is more like a recommendation to Nextdoor’s moderators, but that is a far cry from what Miles Barber is claiming. And I say his unfounded accusations are dangerous to leads like me because some people out there will think it is the truth, and take it upon themselves to do something dangerous in retaliation. Miles should do his research and reach out to Nextdoor to find out the actual process.
If you are a Nextdoor lead would you explain how it works from a post being reported, all the way to the procedures on how it is voted on and by who, for a post to be removed or allowed to stay? This happens a lot in Santa Clara during city elections.
Miles is right, it is a bunch of bullies supported by the mayor that will report anything that goes against the only narrative they want out in the public . Truth doesn’t matter to them.
Your expertise might be helpful.
The funny thing is after I was suspended I was invited to become a moderator (or lead, I can't remember). I looked at their guidelines and figured the lack of transparency was not for me. Leads can collude and vote to remove posts. If enough posts are removed, the nextdoor algorithm suspends the user.
What happens in nextdoor censorship stays behind closed doors, by design. Leads are not allowed to talk about the process.
I disliked Nextdoor the day it started, and could see it was going to be a nasty platform
Not one for FB either but Nextdoor is the worst, give me photos of puppy dogs and kittens!
Only thing I use it for is lost cats and dogs and managed to help a few strays get back home.
I'm not interested in the nasty bullies, a friend recently sent me to a thread to look at and I soon realized that it was all Gillmor's bullies, bullying other residents.
When are people going to wake up that the Gillmor's use to people for their own benefit to fill their own pockets. They are NOT nice people and Lisa and her snarky comments at council, under her breath have been going on since she lost the majority, but the Grand Jury is Blind to those comments - they probably got some sort of kick back, new car, or maybe free rent for a while because how they CANNOT hear her nasty mean vindictive comments is AMAZING. Theresa O'Niel has clearly aligned her self with the Dark side (I'll be saying prayers for her), Cox is so sweet and innocent she obviously has no idea she's going to have to answer to Cruelle de Vil maybe the Mercury news will explain property taxes assessments to her, Kertes well he's just plan nasty from the comments he's made at council meeting, and that Trump supporter on the North Side he needs to mix with new people he's hanging with Democrats, or maybe he's turned WOKE?
Thank you to the SVV for finally speaking out on how Evil this family is? reminds me of a dictatorship
I'll be getting my news from the Weekly no use looking any further
If "it" sounds to good to be true, it usually is.