Sam Harris Deletes Patreon Account in Protest of Corporate Censorship
Richard Moorhead
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Atheist commentator and “intellectual dark web” figure Sam Harris announced that he would be deleting his Patreon account in response to the company’s gravitation towards political censorship Sunday night. In a statement on Twitter, Harris explained that although he didn’t share the political views of those who were banned, he no longer saw a reason to patronize an engine of political censorship puppeteered by Patreon’s “Trust and Safety” committee.
Patreon is a fundraising platform that provides a means for content creators of various sorts to be supported by their fans. Harris’ departure from the platform, which he used as a way for his fans to support his podcast, could singlehandedly represent a threat to the San Francisco company’s business model, as the author’s account was the 13th biggest on the entire website.
A few suspensions of prominent Patreon users on transparently political grounds had directed a wave of criticism towards the company. Liberal centrist YouTuber Sargon of Akkad was purged from the platform earlier this month, and other figures recently deleted entirely from Patreon include Milo Yiannopoulos and counter-jihad author Robert Spencer.
Despite a deluge of bannings targeting any content creator even vaguely located on the political right, a bevy of nakedly violent left-wing extremists continue to use Patreon to raise funds for activities that are openly violent and terroristic.
Patreon’s CEO, Jack Conte has taken numerous opportunities to make his leftist views clear to the world. He’s spoken of his “disgust” for Donald Trump, and has described patriotic immigration laws as the antithesis of “everything we’re building at Patreon.”
The corporate left will stop at nothing to silence skepticism and critical inquiry that represents a threat to the dream of a progressive, milquetoast political climate that places the premises of the left beyond question. It remains unlikely that Harris’ departure, while impactful, will prevent Silicon Valley tech bigwigs from continuing on their cultural quest for a sterile and boring corporate online environment in which Big Brother is placed beyond reproach.
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