The anti-free speech and anti-gun social media platforms like Instagram and Youtube have been going on a censorship rampage lately. Firearms-related Youtube channels are being shut down. Here is the message Youtube sent Tim Harmsen from Military Arms Channel claiming he’s encouraging illegal activity . . .
Instagram posts with images of guns are being removed, like the image below which is apparently inappropriate and violates Instagram’s standards.
As a result, gun industry types have been joining a new social media platform called VERO. This new platform seems pretty cool; the layout is clean and easy to use. Users have a convenient way to control who sees their posts and who doesn’t.
According to VERO’s manifesto, they’re a subscription based social media platform with no advertisements. The subscription fee is supposed to eventually be a few dollars a year; the first one million users get a free lifetime membership.
Like all social media platforms, VERO has a just-vague-enough set of community guidelines that allows them to censor what they deem to be inappropriate content. If this platform takes off, it’s only a matter of time until censorship begins. Here is a link to VERO’s terms of service, and here is a link to their privacy policy.
Here’s what you agree to when signing up.
You are required to give your phone number, which is verified via a code that is text messaged to you during registration
According to their privacy policy they are allowed to capture your Facebook username and other usernames of other websites and apps. Lets think about that for a second, a lot of people use one password for their social media accounts. So now a company has your Facebook username and a known password for your VERO account. This is a hackers dream.
If you use the Invite Contacts feature you give VERO permission to access your phone numbers and email addresses stored in your phone to send text messages and emails to your contacts.
When you download the App you agree to allow VERO to receive or collect and store a unique identification number associated with your device (“Device ID”), mobile carrier, device type and manufacturer, phone number, and location data (e.g., city and state) of your mobile device.
VERO explicitly says they are allowed to share you personal information with other parties. The privacy policy states basically that they can share what they want with whomever they want.
VERO states in their privacy policy that they can store your information in “any other country in which Vero or its subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities” Like their Russian facilities, more on that later.
If you delete your account they are allowed to save your personal data.
They explicitly say they do not honor “Do-Not-Track signals from your browser at this time.” meaning they can and do track your movements even if you tell your browser not to allow this.
The privacy policy can change and they only way you will know it is if you check their privacy policy page.
You wave your right to class action lawsuits and jury trials. Your legal rights are limited to mandatory individual arbitration.
The CEO and Co-founder of VERO is a Lebanese billionaire name Ayman Hariri. Mr. Hariri is the son of former Lebanese Prime Minister who was assassinated in 2005.
After the assassination Mr. Hariri moved to Saudi Arabia to take over a business his father had started called Saudi Oger. The company went out of business in July of 2017 due to mismanagement and alleged corruption. Employees claimed that they weren’t being paid — or given much food or water.
Also worth noting: VERO admits to using Russian developers: “We are fortunate to work with a team of talented individuals from across the world. Like nearly every global technology company, that includes developers based in Russia, plus talent across the US, France, Germany and Eastern Europe,” a spokesperson for Vero told TIME.
Let’s sum this up . . .
The gun industry is migrating to VERO in large numbers because of censorship concerns. VERO is owned by a man who ran a company that used slave labor in Saudi Arabia. VERO is developed by Russian Programmers. The agreements you agree to when signing up with VERO allow them to track your movements, capture your usernames and other information. It allows them to store and share this information wherever they want and keep your information even if you delete your account.
How great is that?