Another shot was fired last week signaling the arrival of a Social Credit System in the US. JP Morgan’s Chase Bank abruptly closed several accounts of Dr Mercola, his businesses, his employees, and employees’ family members. Chase claimed it took the actions “because of unexpected activity.” Mercola Market employs 150 people and ships vitamins and a wide range of health supplements worldwide. It has a major web presence and transacts business on several payment platforms. Having accounts summarily closed with no warning causes massive financial cost and huge inconvenience. Is the closure of the Mercola accounts due to unexpected activity or due to Mercola’s strong beliefs, large social media following, and the impact of his speech?
Mercola is not unaccustomed to these hassles. In 2022 his extremely popular and busy website, which publishes large quantities of articles, videos, and podcasts, was put in a stranglehold by government censors. For several decades Dr Mercola and his various businesses have marketed vitamins, supplements, and other products while conducting a broad range of podcasts, videos, and other social media communications across multiple platforms, including authoring several books. Mercola has been a sharp and persistent critic of governments’ responses to the coronavirus pandemic. He was included in an infamous marketing and disinformation campaign conducted by a UK organization linked to the Labor Party termed the Center for Countering Digital Hate that identified a “Dirty Dozen:” twelve people that critics claimed were spreading vaccine hesitancy. What was deemed “misinformation” about the COVID vaccines then is now known to be correct. The so-called Dirty Dozen were censored and de-platformed for exercising their right to free speech. The substance of their criticisms has proven, since 2021 when they became poster children, to have been correct. The substance of the criticism of them by governments and media, has proven to have been incorrect. No apologies have been issued. No corrections have been made by “official” sources. In the US, speech is protected by the First Amendment.
Is a Social Credit System being implemented like the one used in China, where your social media postings, online transactions, and so much more are all monitored 24 x 7 and fed into an algorithm hopper which spits out permissions or punishments? Over the last ten years China has put in place a monitoring system that collects vast information on its citizens and turns that information back on them. While we might expect that in a communist dictatorship and totalitarian system, are we, as Americans, prepared to embrace such monitoring and its consequences in our own lives?
If anyone was wondering about the potential misuse of Central Bank Digital Currencies [CBDCs], one need look no further than this recent news. The implementation of CBDCs will greatly enhance the ability of governments, businesses, and financial institutions to swiftly shut off access to our money. This recent action against Mercola should wake us to the dangers of CBDCs and social credit systems that track our behavior, thoughts, and speech and then deny us access to financial marketplaces.
We should worry about unannounced and arbitrary shutdowns of our bank accounts that offer little recourse. While Mercola’s businesses will probably survive this crisis, the disruption threatens us all. It is a warning shot across the bow. We are seeing the early phase of implementation of a Social Credit System like China’s, carried out through the coordinated efforts of government, business and finance, and social media companies. The rule of law and our constitutional rights may be getting ‘updated’ behind the scenes, without our knowledge or consent.
Across the Atlantic, Nigel Farage, the vocal critic of British membership in the European Union, had longstanding accounts summarily closed last month. Farage led the vote in the United Kingdom that forced the Conservative Party to leave the EU and is, in many ways, the face of Brexit. He was a prominent critic of lockdowns and other measures during the pandemic. He is generally regarded as a lightning rod. Farage went public over his accounts being shuttered and, unlike Mercola’s situation, the CEOs of both the private wealth bank and its parent bank were forced to resign, after lying about the reason his accounts were closed. His accounts will be restored. The Social Credit System backfired, but they will do better next time.
We should all be concerned that bank accounts are now subject to closure without warning. The news media reported on banks refusing service to two rich and famous people, but thousands of ordinary people in the UK have also been “debanked,” and others are coming forward with the same story in the US.
This is real and it is now here. What will we do about it?
Further reading: IN DEPTH: Banks Take Lead in Establishing Personal Social Credit System, Critics Charge
