Deplatformed is a weekly column that looks into the nether reaches of the internet—outside the big few that everyone already covers—to tell you the political discourse online. It runs on Thursdays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
1) Biden’s mask off moment
President Joe Biden has long been accused of a raft of conspiracies. From participating in his son Hunter’s alleged schemes to enrich himself to weaponizing his Department of Justice to take down former President Donald Trump, there seems to be no bottom to the bumbling old man’s dastardly schemes.
One persistent accusation—although it’s unclear if it’s Biden’s own doing or the Democrats invested in propping him up—is that he frequently uses a body double. Biden’s age and fragility is a constant obsession of his opponents, painting him as a doddering old man who doesn’t have the capacity to run the country.
So when things go right, or not nearly as poorly as expected, it clearly can’t be Biden. But how can one prove that someone is playing the president?
When the person doing it accidentally starts to literally pull off the mask.
A video of Biden tugging at a flap of skin is making its way around Telegram as clear proof.
“Why the mask?” Captain Kyle Patriots asks, pointing to the clip where Biden is speaking to his son Hunter and scratching his neck.
Well, “why the mask” is a wild ride. Per Kyle Patriots, it is a “multi-layered PsyOp.”
Biden (or fake Biden, unclear) was put in place explicitly to screw up.
The problems facing America right now, he says, “The great awakening. They are amplifying and spotlighting REAL problems this country has had for decades, so to expose and motivate us to stand up and change.”
Which means everyone bemoaning Biden right now doesn’t realize that … Trump wants this to happen?
“Do you really think Trump just walked away?”
It’s—uhhh—unclear exactly how the mask comes into play, unless you believe that the people who believe this believe the actual Biden would be competent if in charge, so they swung the election to Biden, so they could replace him with a fake Biden, who would then screw everything up such that Trump could then regain control.
You might just think it’d be easier to keep Trump in charge in 2020, but that… is what they want you to think.
2) Deep Speaker
Recently, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson upset his hard-right base with his vote to extend Section 703 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows for some warrantless surveillance against Americans.
The base of the party, and Trump’s most fervent supporters, argued against it, especially given the provision was essential in the surveillance of Trump’s campaign, which led to the Russia investigation that dominated his presidency.
MAGA heads were hoping Johnson would buck the establishment GOP by rejecting the bill, but he instead cast the deciding vote, which sent the legislation to the Senate.
Now, they’re jumping on a claim from an NSA whistleblower that the deep state conducted an op on Johnson.
A piece by Revolver News is making waves in conservative social media, where Edward Snowden says Johnson is a prime example of congressional capture.
In a clip, Johnson says that when he was on the Judiciary Committee, he saw the abuses of the FBI. But in getting classified briefings as Speaker, he now sees the other side and the importance of the intelligence community.
“This is a textbook case of Congressional capture. With a single briefing, the intelligence agencies routinely transform their most strident critics into the tamest of cheerleaders,” Snowden wrote.
“Turncoat,” wrote one user on Gettr, sharing the article and summing up the base’s feelings.
Others pointed to a claim recently pushed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) who said that Johnson was being blackmailed.
“Hmmm, is he on flight logs, are there videos of him….these are questions that need to be answered,” asked another, baselessly tying Johnson to Jeffrey Epstein.
Another wanted Johnson, a prominent evangelical, to know that Jesus would never let the deep state get him down.
“It seems you should be asking what would Jesus do? HE doesn’t cave to fear and he sure wouldn’t approve of you succumbing to ‘Congressional Capture,’” he wrote.
Jesus could not be reached for comment.
3) Biden Kill Switch
Will Joe Biden come and shut your car down if you’ve had too much to drink? You might think that’s a good thing, the president doing whatever he can to keep drunk drivers off the road and save lives.
You also might think that’s a bit ridiculous, given the myriad of other responsibilities the president has on a given day. I mean, how many bars could he even reasonably visit?
But a claim that Biden’s infrastructure bill includes a provision that mandates a kill switch in cars is making waves on Rumble.
“In an effort to reduce drunk driving, government wants devices in cars that will monitor and limit impaired driving ..But there’s a big problem: these devices give government control over your car,” host John Stossel says.
It stems from a line in the bill, signed in 2021 covering drunk driving prevention technology, calling for a system that can “passively monitor the performance of a drive to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired.”
In an interview with former race car driver Lauren Fix, John Stossel said that it’s a sign of “government control” of how you drive, citing other governors on speeding and taxes on how much people might drive.
Fix claimed that cars would soon even tell the government what you eat, adding that the government might even stop you from driving your car if you wanted to buy a gun.
It’s enough that some commenters are even turning on American auto manufacturers, long a conservative favorite.
“No buying new cars,” wrote one in the comments.
“Name the car companies that will comply,” said another.
Republicans attempted to kill the kill switch in November, but failed. It’s set to take effect in 2026.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
