Grassley: Big Tech is Censoring Conservatives
By Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa
I was surprised to learn that
Facebook recently flagged a news article I posted on one of my Facebook pages as “false
information.” The article I posted was about
new Durham investigation allegations against the Hillary Clinton campaign and its
associates. The article clearly cited a federal court filing and a former
congressional investigator with a deep understanding of Democrats’ work to
concoct the bogus Russia collusion narrative that divided our nation for years.
This wouldn’t be an issue today if more
journalists did their job of being the police of our society and reported on
all investigations – not just ones that appeal to a certain political party.
What kind of message does this censorship
send to a reporter who does take on the new allegations against the Clinton
campaign and its associates and it’s labeled disinformation? I don’t think that
will encourage more journalists to cover this issue.
It’s truly mind-blowing that these
companies continue to interfere in free expression. Big Tech is silencing
everyone they disagree with and clearly they see no check to their power.
The article I cited in my post was on
FoxNews.com, a mainstream news organization. Why does Facebook and one of its
third-party fact-checker partners get to make the decision that this news
article is considered false information? That decision should be made by the
American people who should be able to view that content and decide for
themselves.
It shouldn’t be decided by our Big Tech
overlords who seem to only find fault with content that is conservative or goes
against the liberal narrative.
These are the same outlets that allowed
information relating to the Steele dossier to run wild and free yet censored
Hunter Biden news articles during the 2020 election. Now they’re doing the
bidding for the Clinton camp. Why are they so afraid of reporting that exposes
the Russia collusion hoax?
Silencing or chilling free speech and the
back-and-forth discussion of ideas is wrong.
Increasingly we see the tag
“misinformation” or “disinformation” given to content that the liberal
mainstream media simply disagrees with or goes against their chosen narrative.
Finding and seeking the truth should not be about silencing voices but allowing
robust discourse.
It’s time that we examine the Section 230
immunity that has enabled these companies to avoid any liability. We must stop
these companies from arbitrarily deciding what speech is acceptable for the
country.
It has become increasingly clear that
these dominant platforms controlling discussion and dialogue are more beholden
to cancel culture and not to the fundamental free speech principles that this
country was founded upon.
These Big Tech companies have few
competitors and are immune from liability. These companies are unaccountable to
their customers, the courts and the government. If not for their monopoly power
and Section 230 immunity, these companies might not be involved in the actions
and censorship we see today.
As a United States senator and someone
who has been vocally outspoken about my concerns with censorship on online
platforms, I’ll continue to do everything in my power to prevent the censorship
of speech and ideas on behalf of Iowans and all Americans.
Simply put we deserve better than woke
monopolists and their liberal lap dogs deciding what we can discuss.
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