Cancelled

what it's really like

The Wikipedia page for Twitter Suspensions is missing an entry:

Foundring (@foundring1) - Musician - June 18, 2023 - Permanent - Unknown - 7,200

The “unknown” part sure is shitty (as it’s supposed to be). BandCamp pulled the same BS in early 2022, removing my entire account, without warning or explanation. When they refuse to tell you what you did wrong, you were probably doing something right.

One year later, YouTube nuked 16 years (hundreds of videos) of my work in an instant, again without warning or explanation. But at least YouTube had the courtesy to explicitly deny my appeal 10 days later, although they refused to explain the decision.

I initially suspected the ban was due to both “You Will Never Be a Woman” and “mRNA: Speed of Science” closing in on 100,000 views. But the amazing musician peacedozer helped identify the likely cause, and at great risk to his own channel. His cover of YWNBAW is still up, but YouTube outright *removed* his version of “Speed of Science” and gave his channel a *strike* for “medical misinformation.” You read that right: even *covering* my song puts your YouTube account at risk of getting terminated. That’s insane. It’s a satire song inspired by the Kingston Trio, and it’s 2023! I think “Speed of Science” was the last straw for my account, with YouTube realizing that aggressively suppressing my channel would no longer suffice. Twitter would eventually follow the same script.

YouTube had been messing with my channel for at least a decade, maybe longer. In 2014, my viral video “Foil” had its view counter frozen for several years and hundreds of thousands of views were removed. That’s just one example, albeit an egregious one. I had largely given up on YouTube by the end of 2019, but COVID clown world lunacy reawakened my satirical muse, and I was compelled to write Pandemic Dance the following year, which YouTube shadowbanned immediately.

The “new and improved” Twitter under Elon provided a convenient and welcome buffer following my YouTube ban. The fresh networking opportunities and support helped me process what had just happened and lessened the psychological blow. Although I had less than 100 followers on Twitter at the time, I used the smallish Streisand Effect to rebuild my song collection and community. I never was given an opportunity to say goodbye to my 17,000 YouTube subscribers. Obnoxiously, I was stuck with a 2:20 video limit on Twitter and blocked from upgrading due to being labeled “organic misinformation.” Despite this, I proceeded to churn out dozens of 2-minute videos over the next few months.

I was exhausted after 16 years of fighting a losing battle against the censorship juggernaut. But somehow I found the drive to double down, working harder than ever before. Surprisingly, I actually got results. In a few months, I had jumped from 70 to over 7,000 followers, at times gaining 1,000 followers a week. But the same fuckery was afoot. Twitter was repeatedly shadowbanning me and suppressing my videos.

They were freezing view counts, removing video plays/impressions, and eventually they just started deleting my videos. I wrote a song about the hate mail I got due to my Transurrection video and Twitter removed it for hate speech.

“Transurrection” was the moment I realized satire just might be dead. A shockingly few number of people actually understood what the song was about (credit to those that did). The true Court Jester mocks ‘em all, from the king to the peasant. I grew up watching Monty Python, South Park, etc. They didn’t spare anyone; it was all fair game. “Transurrection” was meant to parody *both* extremes on this very polarizing issue. The job of the satirist is not to fan the flames of discord (à la Eris). A successful satirist should add nuance to the discussion, ideally causing those with extremist positions to reevaluate and moderate their stance. The song admittedly pokes fun at the trans extremist that justifies violence in response to the wrong pronouns. It *also* teases anti-trans evangelists who think they need to “hide their kids and wives” from trans people, as if they’re contagious. Although the true number on either side that actually fit these extremes is vanishingly small, the divisive rhetoric on social media has been exacerbating this rift. It’s the job of the Court Jester to try to get everyone to chill tf out and laugh at one another, and more importantly, at themselves.

Well it didn’t turn out like I’d hoped, but I suppose that’s the nature of Clown World, where the Court Jester eventually fades into irrelevancy as he becomes indistinguishable from his surroundings. Even after everything I’d been through, I was still shocked by the backlash I received on Twitter over that song. In 2013 my Inspector Gadget theme got 600,000 views in a day on YouTube. 10 years later I never had a video (officially) gain a fraction of those views. Transurrection quickly blew past 600,000 plays on Twitter, temporarily becoming my most watched video ever (minus Big Tech fuckery).

When Twitter froze the play count on Never Be Rude to an Arab, I cried foul. The next day, Twitter suspiciously took away public view counts on videos, simultaneously removing 400,000 plays from Transurrection (bringing it down to 200,000).

I’ve dealt with threats for many years due to various shitpostings online. However, this was almost always in an anonymous capacity. YWNBAW even generated many threats and hundreds of angry comments, despite it being one of my uplifting and positive songs. But it paled in comparison to what happened with Transurrection. In addition to hundreds (thousands?) of raging tweets, I received dozens of explicit death threats, often boldly and publicly posted on Twitter. Although Twitter did act in a couple very extreme cases, they allowed the vast majority to stay up. I documented much of this, and plan on making a video soon detailing these overt shenanigans.

It came to a head when the doxxing started to increase, with people now posting my address. Twitter *allowed* this even after I reported it. This was when I realized history was repeating itself and my days on the platform were numbered.

These Big Tech juggernauts have the same MO. First they suppress & shadowban. Then they harass & gaslight. Then they ban & eliminate. Twitter started by actively limiting the reach of my songs. Then they unleashed the NPC brigade, and with a vengeance, while deliberately turning a blind eye to their weaponized extremism. When THAT didn’t stop me, they just nuked my entire account.

And here’s the rub: it’s been 2 months and they haven’t bothered to respond to my appeals or even explain their decision. That’s quite remarkable. Even YouTube took the time to turn me down! What’s even more remarkable is the collective silence that followed my ban. My account was larger than some of the ones listed on the Wikipedia Twitter suspension page. To this day I’m struggling to understand what happened here.

Without another “Twitter” to Streisand my way out of this one, “foundring” is pretty much toast. With some time to process, I’m starting to think it’s all for the best. If I can get repeatedly targeted and eliminated for just writing silly songs, and it’s not enough to generate some degree of attention, then I need to find a new calling. I don’t know why Twitter did it. I don’t think it was Transurrection. But it’s hard to tell anymore. The “Speed of Science” version on Twitter had just blown past 100,000 plays. Did they get the same memo as YouTube?

I’m sad that I can’t really write songs for the internet anymore. But I feel so much better not currently being gaslit and harassed by Big Tech and its minions. No one is meant to subject themselves to such an onslaught indefinitely. I’m proud of what I did. I’ve lost a lot of opportunities for speaking my mind. But it’s way better than the alternative: staying quiet.

Where *did* everybody go though? Where are the people that followed me on Twitter and beyond, especially the ones with larger platforms? A few dozen legends are still supporting on Subscribestar (thank you)…but I’m trying to distance myself from this whole sordid saga. It’s hard not to feel that my story is worthy of being told. This is pretty outrageous, right? It’s been a bit trippy to have this go down amidst the fawning praise for Elon and Twitter as a free speech zone. Something is off here.

I’ve shifted my priorities. I’m focusing my energy at a local level now to create the best possible situation for my daughter and her peers. The internet, in its current iteration, is a lost cause, at least for artists like me. I’m not really feeling sorry for myself at this point, I’m just disappointed. If someone like me who spent 30 years honing their craft can be snuffed out in the blink of an eye without generating much hubbub, it doesn’t bode well for the state of art and society in general. We need artists who speak their mind and challenge the status quo and we need them in a big way.

Getting cancelled isn’t the issue. It’s the lack of cohesion and camaraderie in its wake that causes the most demoralization. Who will rise up to take the place of those that fall? Eventually, no one will. We need to stick together, and not fall victim to social media’s clickbait 24-hr “news” cycle. My videos are still on Odysee, BitChute and Rumble (for now). I’ve even started a new YouTube channel to rebuild my library.

I’m excited for what’s next. It hurts a lot to let go of Foundring, at least for the moment. But now it’s time to find another outlet for my ideas. I’ve had many pseudonyms, and some have also been cancelled in equally spectacular ways (if not more so). But that’s the great thing about creating these personas. I can just make more, like a hydra of subversive monikers. Foundring might be taking a well-deserved break, but I’m still here, and I’m excited to see what comes next.

Thanks for reading, much love,

-Kylan