The Biden Administration Tried To Shut Down An Independent Media Outlet.

The Biden Administration Shut Down "Africa Stream" with evidence free Russia gate allegations.

In the latest blow to free speech, secretary of State, Anothony Blinken has accused the independent outlet “Africa Stream”, without evidence, of being run by RT, the Russian state-funded news outlet.

In a statement to the press, Blinken claimed without a shred of evidence that:

RT also secretly runs the online platform African Stream across a wide range of social media platforms.  Now, according to the outlet’s website, “African Stream is” – and I quote – “a pan-African digital media organization based exclusively on social-media platforms, focused on giving a voice to all Africans both at home and abroad.”  In reality, the only voice it gives is to Kremlin propagandists.

The baseless claim was then used by multiple social media platforms to shut down “Africa Stream” Their page was banned from Instagram and Facebook and more recently banned from Stripe the independent payment platform that many independent outlets- including this one- rely on to deliver payment from their audience.

In a statement put out by “Africa Stream,” they pointed out that they have often criticized the Russian government directly. They pointed out that when Russian senator Dimitri Rogozin put out a racist tweet calling American defense secretary Loyd Austin a monkey, they criticized him for this and the Russian government for refusing to condemn it. They also pointed out that they have criticized Russia for allying with unsavory groups in the Sudan conflict, such as when they criticized the Russian state-backed mercenary group “Wagner” for supporting the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) who they called a “genocidal paramilitary group”.

This attack seems to be more about Africa Stream’s criticism of American foreign policy and any kind of support for Russia.  

This Mcarthite campaign seems to be a direct attack on Africa Stream for criticizing U.S. foreign policy in Africa and around the world. On August 28th the U.S. government-funded propaganda outlet VOA (Voice of America) put out a hit piece on Africa Stream for their criticism of American drone strikes in Somalia. The hit piece claimed that “The U.S. conducts drone strikes in Somalia to protect civilians from the terrorists” and that the U.S. government claimed that drone strikes only “killed 3 civilians”.

On September 6th Africa Stream put out a response debunking the hit piece by pointing out that the U.S. government and AFRICOM’s statistics on civilian casualties are highly understated. They pointed out that research from the Intercept’s Nick Turse has shown that the civilian casualty rate in Somalia is “3000 percent higher” than what AFRICOM has claimed and that the civilian death count from Drone Strikes in Somalia is closer to being between 87 and 398.

The statment also pointed out that the Human Rights Group Amnesty International has said that AFRICOM “utterly fails at its mission to report civilian casualties in Somalia” and “doesn’t seem to care about the fate of the numerous families it has completely torn apart”.

They also pointed out that a Joint Letter was sent to Defense Secretary Loys Austin urging him to “take immediate steps to address the requests of families whose loved ones were killed or injured by US airstrikes in Somalia” and quoted a victim of an American drone strike that killed civilians who said, “The US has never even acknowledged our existence.” The letter also stated that AFRICOM has “not contacted nor offered amends to civilian victims and survivors or their families”. The letter was signed by 24 Human Rights Groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute.

Shortly after “Africa Stream” put out this well-researched, thorough, and fact-based debunking of the U.S. government's attack on them, Anthony Blinken came out on September 13th and accused them, without evidence, of being connected to RT.

For a quick recap of the timeline

August 28, 2024: U.S. government-funded propaganda outlet VOA (Voice of America) puts out a hit piece on “Africa Stream” for their criticism of U.S. foreign policy and tries to whitewash the U.S. drone war in Somalia.

September 6th, 2024: Africa Stream puts out a thorough debunking of this hit piece quoting news reports and credible human rights organizations showing the civilian casualty rate from U.S. drone strikes in Somalia is much higher than what AFRICOM claims.

September 13th, 2024: Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken in a press conference accuses Africa Stream of being funded by the Russian government, with no evidence, leading to their removal on Facebook, Instagram, and Stipe.

It is clear that this was an intentional effort by the U.S. government to shut down a popular media outlet for its accurate criticism of American foreign policy.

The U.S. government-funded “disinformation” research group Stanford Internet Observatory -which the Twitter Files showed pressured Twitter into taking down “stories of true vaccine side effects” on behalf of the U.S. government- put out a report listing the supposed Russian talking points echoed by Africa Stream, but everything listed is just accurate criticism of American domestic and foreign policy. The supposed “pro-Russian and anti-American/Western narratives” listed by SIO are:

• Denouncing both parties as two sides of the same coin

• A video showing a black woman describing her treatment at an Israeli  checkpoint

• Criticism of the U.S. military intervention in Libya

• Criticism of apartheid South Africa

• Criticism of Israel

• Criticism of racism in the U.S

• Criticism of French involvement in West Africa

• Reports on police brutality in the U.S

• Discussing recent claims by former U.S. President Donald Trump about immigrants eating pets

• Harris’ anti-Black record as a prosecutor

• U.S. President Joe Biden’s age

• Criticism of Elon Musk

• Criticism of Ukraine

• Criticism of Western involvement in Venezuela

Just like Anothony Blinken, the U.S. government-funded Stanford Internet Observatory could not provide a shred of evidence that Africa Stream was funded by Russia and instead provided a long list of accurate criticism of U.S. and Western government policy as proof of supposed “Russian talking points”. The reports tried to tie them to Russia by claiming they have offered praise of “Russian-Kenyan relations” but as stated earlier they have been scathing in their criticism of Russian involvement in Sudan.

All of the reporters, commentators, and activists at Africa Stream have clearly been long-time critics of official U.S. government policy long before Africa Stream was even created and they need no Russian funding to point out these factually true critiques. In fact, when looking into this story I remembered watching (and really enjoying) Africa Stream’s founder Ahmed Kaballo’s multiple appearances on “The Michael Brooks Show”- a progressive YouTube show hosted by the late journalist and commentator Michael Brooks- where he made the same criticism of U.S. foreign policy years before he even founded Africa Stream.

This Story is yet another development in the Democrats’ war on free speech and their desire to go the way of the U.K., where criticism of Israel and Western backing of Israel has effectively been outlawed with pro-Palestine activists Richard Barnard, Richard Medhurst, and Sarah Wilkinson having been charged with bogus terrorism charges over their criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Many prominent Democrats have recently made extremely disturbing comments against the First Amendment such as Kamala Harris’ Vice President Tim Walz who said “Free speech does not include hate speech and misinformation” and Hillary Clinton who took it a step further and said Americans should be jailed for “misinformation”.

The current Biden administration is using claims of “Russian” interference to shut down independent media that criticize their policies. The FBI recently raided the house of Former weapons inspector Scott Ritter and pundit Dimitry Simes because they work for RT and Sputnik. The SDNY recently released an indictment that claimed the right-wing outlet “Tenet Media” was secretly funded by RT. In my article on that indictment, I warned that it would be used “to crackdown further on independent media and McCarthy smear anyone critical of the official State Department narrative”. Since I wrote that, the U.S. government has baselessly accused Africa Stream of being funded by RT leading to their de-platforming on social media companies over a baseless state department claim. Disturbingly, it looks like my claim was vindicated and that the U.S. government is now targeting independent outlets that question their official policy.