Recent events highlight alarming trends of #censorship and politically-motivated attacks on livelihoods in the #online #world. The decision by #Pornhub to freeze payments to Mia Khalifa and send her money to #Israel aid funds over her political views sets a troubling precedent of using financial leverage to control speech. This case echoes a wider pattern emerging globally, where #ideology is weaponized to undermine dissenting voices.

Since the COVID pandemic began, many have raised concerns about the unchecked power of public pressure and cancel culture to silence opinions, often arbitrarily. Small #businesses suffered immensely from prohibitions, while large corporations emerged relatively unscathed, despite equal responsibility to bear the costs.

Similarly, when the Russia-Ukraine war started in 2022, tech companies violated agreements with Russian and Belarusian partners, even resorting to blackmail and intimidation of Russian customers. Justified as opposing Russian aggression, these actions directly damaged individuals financially and eliminated competitors under a supposedly noble pretext.

Now with the Israel-Palestinian conflict, a comparable tendency has arisen, fueled by speculative claims that cryptocurrency financed Israel's invasion, supposedly facilitated by Russia. Despite the lack of evidence, public anger is preemptively directed at uncontrolled crypto exchanges, in an attempt to control them.

In essence, realizing their lack of control over information and finance this past decade, governments seem to utilize wars as opportunities to manipulate public emotion and irrationality. Independent power structures are treated as threats. Organizations like s.c Center for Countering Digital Hate emerge to restrain internet freedom, acting as information gatekeepers to impose external agendas.

Protecting people's careers and livelihoods from being held hostage to political slogans is vital for a free society. We must strive for stability, fairness and merit-based judgment in financial and professional realms, resisting the dangerous encroachment of censorship and ideological manipulation. Open debate and resistance to politically-weaponized attacks on incomes are essential to preserve #freedom.