The blogging platform Vocal is censoring religious content because it deems it to be alienating and divisive to society.
Vocal: Stop Censoring the Faith-Based Community
Vocal: Stop Censoring the Faith-Based Community
Big tech upstart, Vocal, is censoring religious content because it deems it to be alienating and divisive to society. In reality, censoring faith-based content is actually causing more alienation and division because it is excluding a group of people who are passionate about their faith.
This petition is an opportunity to stand up for the faith-based community that is without a voice in today's Silicon-Valley-ran digital world. Sign now to tell Vocal that religious content can be creative and is unifying.
The blogging platform Vocal.media, is censoring religious content while posting many articles that are over-sexualized, promote homosexuality, and that support drug use.
The blogging platform is gaining momentum through paid ads on Facebook and Instagram. Vocal encourages writers to be creative and provides communities for those who want to write about marijuana, homosexuality, and casual sex. But the platform discourages “overtly religious” literature.
One writer submitted a Gospel reflection and an article about religious community on the site and Vocal rejected them both because they contained "religious content". While comparing its stance on religion to its stance on hate speech, the platform claims that religious content creates "alienation and division in society", and apparently believes promiscuity and drug use do not.
Help us stop Vocal from discriminating against religious content.
A simple reflection on the Gospel passage about Jesus healing a deaf man got flagged for being overtly religious. Then another article about young adults living in a faith-based community got flagged for the same reason.
Regarding religious content, the site says:
"We've seen far too many instances of religious content creating alienation and division in society. That's why we do not publish stories that take an overtly religious stance, or function from the vantage point that a certain religion is truer, or in any way superior, to another. Characters in fiction can, of course, be religious, and we will publish stories that talk about religion in historical and journalistic contexts, but similar to our stance on hate speech, there's just no home on Vocal for content that risks creating deep divisions rather than fostering engaged communities."
Meanwhile, the "Pride", "Filthy" and “Potent” communities on the site cover the aforementioned topics that are considered divisive by many people. So clearly, Vocal is open to discussing controversial issues, just not religious ones and definitely not Christian ones.
This typical progressive approach to writing topics has to stop. People are being pushed away from exploring religion through writing while being encouraged to write about more sensitive and divisive topics like sex, homosexuality, and marijuana.
How can a website for writers allow content about sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, and the “marijuana lifestyle” and not publish articles reflecting on the words of Christ, the most well-known figure in the history of the world?
It's simple... Vocal Media is the latest example of the big tech industry censoring faith-based communities. They are following the lead of Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and so many more that delete or shadow ban religious or conservative content.
Big tech can only keep this up if users refuse to fight back.
The longer we wait the more momentum the platform will get and the harder it will be to reach them. Right now, Vocal is relatively accessible and there is a good chance they will heed our petition.
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Stop Vocal Media from Banning Religious Content
Dear Vocal,
We are asking you to stop censoring religious content on your platform. In your guidelines you say religion causes “alienation and division in society”, but not all religious content is alienating and divisive. Most religious content is creative and unifying. Many people have found life-changing inspiration through religion. There are truths that no other topic can reach or convey except religion. Our natural desire to know and explore the supernatural is one of our most creative faculties as human beings, one of the things that make us human. We all have that desire to know the unknown. Many of us want to share what we have discovered about it, and find out what others have discovered about it.
By censoring religion, Vocal is actually causing more alienation and division because it is excluding a group of people who are passionate about their faith and want to write about it more than they want to write about anything else.
Stop Vocal Media from Banning Religious Content
Dear Vocal,
We are asking you to stop censoring religious content on your platform. In your guidelines you say religion causes “alienation and division in society”, but not all religious content is alienating and divisive. Most religious content is creative and unifying. Many people have found life-changing inspiration through religion. There are truths that no other topic can reach or convey except religion. Our natural desire to know and explore the supernatural is one of our most creative faculties as human beings, one of the things that make us human. We all have that desire to know the unknown. Many of us want to share what we have discovered about it, and find out what others have discovered about it.
By censoring religion, Vocal is actually causing more alienation and division because it is excluding a group of people who are passionate about their faith and want to write about it more than they want to write about anything else.
