The ongoing attempts by tech giants like Google, Twitter, Facebook to suppress conservative social media speech recently hit a boiling point when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign account suffered a stunning Twitter ban for posting the aggressive threats leveled against him by liberal extremists on social media.
Leader McConnell intended this transparency to serve as a learning moment that hate has no place in America. The president and fellow Republicans were swift to take action in response to Twitter’s ban and began to implement a social media boycott.
“Big Tech continues to censor conservatives — no matter the cost,” Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley reportedly emailed supporters in response.
“From unnecessary censorship to suppression of conservative content, Twitter has shown an incredible amount of bias against Republicans,” RNC Chief of Staff Richard Walters responded.
“Any future ad money we were planning to spend on the site has been halted until Twitter adequately addresses its biases and assures conservatives that we are on a level playing field with the rest of the users on the site.”
The president, in turn, has thrown down the gauntlet with intentions to police First Amendment violations by Silicon Valley liberal elites who own and operate online platforms. He and others voiced their outrage over the bias of various platforms at a recent social media summit.
“This double standard and bias is a growing problem in big tech,” Live Action’s Lila Rose reportedly said.
She operates a pro-life organization that has been routinely blocked from advertising on Twitter. The social media site suppressed Rose’s free speech based on its policy that blocks content “that is inflammatory or provocative and is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction.”
Twitter has consistently supported abortion clinics such as Planned Parenthood.
The president was complimentary of tech giants accomplishments but also warned there would be dire consequences for meddling with free speech as the 2020 elections near.
“With amazing creativity and determination, you are bypassing the corrupt establishment, and it is corrupt. And you’re bypassing the very, very corrupt media,” Pres. Trump said at the summit. “You’re challenging the media gatekeepers and corporate censors to bring the truth to the American people. You communicate directly with our citizens without going through the fake news filter.”
But by the same token that the president and others have taken full advantage of direct, online communication with the public, he noted that targeting Republican and conservative voices will not stand.
“Some of you guys are out there,” the president reportedly said. “I mean it’s genius, but it’s bad.”
Reportedly, the president has plans to issue an executive order that empowers the FCC and FTC to oversee and monitor social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter among others. Democrats are not happy.
“The law that I wrote, Section 230, allows platforms to get this kind of slime and hate off the platform,” Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden reportedly said. “Their proposal today amounts to nothing short of a speech police.”
An executive order would allow these agencies to impose impartial standards. Currently, liberal-leaning social media outfits apply their extremist ideology when blocking, banning, or shutting down accounts. Democrats want to keep the liberal censorship doors open so their comrades can meddle and influence the coming elections.
The president’s looming action and Republican boycotts of Twitter prompted a timely response from the Twitter. Its biased censorship unit backed down from political pressure and restored Leader McConnell’s re-election campaign account.
“After multiple appeals from affected users and Leader McConnell’s team confirming their intent to highlight the threats for public discussion, we have reviewed this case more closely,” Twitter said.
“Going forward, the video will be visible on the service with a sensitive media interstitial and only in cases where the Tweet content does not otherwise violate the Twitter Rules.”
President Trump has reportedly called for the boycott of more than 20 online entities that violate First Amendment-protected political speech. If online platforms such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook need to be broken up to protect American election integrity, so be it.
“Check out how biased Facebook, Google, and Twitter are in favor of the Democrats,” Trump tweeted. “That’s the real Collusion!”
