Big Tech has big plans for the 2024 elections — and you

When it comes to Big Tech, most people would say Google is the top. Given the fact that Google is the No. 1 search engine in the world and has its hands in every Android phone on earth, “most people” wouldn’t be wrong. Google also owns YouTube, Fitbit, Waze, and Gmail — the largest email provider since 2004 — and is responsible for the approval of every single app on Google Play. Google has a direct, constant attachment to billions of people across the planet.

Anyone who does not suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome or who is not a brainwashed liberal knows that Big Tech censors conservatives online. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter under Jack Dorsey with the FBI in residence at its San Francisco headquarters, or manipulated search engines, censorship is always prevalent. That’s especially true in an election year.

If Big Tech wants you crippled, it can cripple you.

I’m no stranger to Big Tech censorship. I have just fallen victim again.

One of my applications, Wimkin Social Media, launched in September 2020 as a true free-speech alternative to Facebook, Twitter (now X), and Instagram, was the target of mass censorship in January 2021. The Wimkin app was banned and deplatformed by Apple and Google Play, as we were unjustly blamed for facilitating the “insurrection” on January 6, 2021. Specifically, we were banned for “inciting violence,” which is more absurd than the people who insist that Joe Biden is cognitively sound.

When an app is banned by Apple, it is impossible for a person who is not tech-savvy to sideload the banned app onto iOS devices. Doing such would involve “jailbreaking” the device, and not many people have the time or inclination to go to such lengths to use their favorite social media app. So Apple can cripple any company by deplatforming its app and removing it from every iOS device active in the world, overnight. One day your app can be accessed on the billion-plus iPhones in the world, and the next day it can’t.

Google Play is different. On Android, apps are able to be sideloaded, but they will show a warning: “This file may harm your device,” when being downloaded from anywhere that is not the Google Play Store. How many users immediately reject the download because of that warning?

Whether you have an iPhone or an Android, the app stores for each are designed for user convenience and developers’ success. Nearly every phone in North America uses either an iOS or Android operating system. A developer has practically no chance of success if he loses nearly all of North America because two gigantic app stores do not like his app. The power Apple and Google Play have over their developers and their users is immense. Wimkin estimates losses of $4,000 per day in advertising monetization when our apps are not active in app stores.

If Big Tech wants you crippled, it can cripple you.

After an eight-month legal battle, Wimkin won its right to be reinstated on both Apple and Google Play in September 2021. Currently, Wimkin is releasing an app update for iOS and Google Play that offers new features and a far better experience for users.

Well, we’re trying to, anyway. Google rejected our app updates and is lying about why.

Google Developers — Google’s gateway for software development tools and platforms — informed me last week they were rejecting the updated Wimkin app because we lack “block and reporting features for content moderation.” This is a flat-out lie.

The fact is that Google’s own app review specialists used the block-and-report features when testing the app for approval by reporting eight instances of content and users while testing. We promptly appealed, providing screenshots of the report and blocking features, plus the app review specialists' reports proving they not only saw the features they say are missing but also used them.

Wimkin’s blocking and reporting features have not changed since our first launch in Google Play in 2020. Many updates have been approved since. Nevertheless, our appeal was denied on Thursday. We have every reason to believe Google’s decision is based on the upcoming November elections.

Big Tech censorship is very real. Election interference is very real. The fact that Google Play will not approve our app affects some 5 million Wimkin users who use an Android phone or tablet. The left has never been more desperate, and it shows in the indictments of Trump and the censorship in the mainstream media, on Meta, and other Big Tech platforms. Now, even the app stores are getting involved by devising the most ridiculous reasons not to approve conservative-leaning apps.

Americans need to be hyper-aware of what is heading their way in the run-up to the November elections. The left will stop at nothing to make sure Biden is once again installed as president. It is up to all of us to expose the left and its desperate acts of censorship and election interference and to ensure a free and fair election. Stay vigilant. Stay safe.