Senator Marsha Blackburn Questions Biden Administration Collaboration With Big Tech

Marsha Blackburn Big Tech

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) called on the Biden administration to explain the extent of their collaboration with Big Tech companies to censor individuals on social media.

Blackburn’s letter comes after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki indicated that the administration has worked with Big Tech to limit “misinformation” regarding COVID-19.

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Psaki Dodges On White House Revealing Which Facebook Posts It Flags As Misinformation

During a press conference Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki dodged addressing whether the White House will reveal which Facebook posts it flags as misinformation.

Psaki said last week that the White House will flag posts deemed vaccine misinformation to Facebook. But the White House press secretary did not address Monday whether the White House will “publicly release information on posts that it considers misinformation on vaccines that it’s asked Facebook to block.”

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Facebook Working with White House to Censor Content

In a Thursday press conference, Press Secretary to President Joe Biden admitted that the White House is colluding with Facebook to censor content on the social media platform.

“We are in regular touch with the social media platforms and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff and also members of our COVID-19 team — given as Dr. Murthy conveyed, this is a big issue, of misinformation, specifically on the pandemic,” Psaki reportedly said

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Commentary: The Battle Against Big Tech Is an Existential Fight for Conservatives

Person holding phone up in Times Square.

For Big Tech billionaires, these are the best of times, and the worst of times.

Why the best? Because the long arm of social media and online commerce has never reached further and deeper into Americans’ culture, spending habits, lifestyles, and worldview. Likewise, the net worth of these billionaires has risen to undreamed-of heights. COVID was, for tech barons, a blessing in disguise: it trapped Americans indoors, where they could do little else but browse the web, consume digital entertainment, and spend their stimulus dollars on imported Chinese doohickeys. Even as the dreaded virus has retreated, Big Tech has successfully locked in its gains.

Why the worst of times, though? The very rise of Big Tech has portended greater scrutiny. The debasement of Big Tech’s competitors and natural enemies—from brick-and-mortar stores to Trump supporters—has ensured that the drumbeat of criticism of social media companies and online retailers has never been more stridently percussive. 

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CloutHub Founder Jeff Brain Reacts to Trump’s Big Tech Lawsuit

Jeff Brain

The founder of CloutHub, a free speech social media network, has responded to former President Donald J. Trump’s class action lawsuit against several Silicon Valley titans, which the forty-fifth president announced Wednesday. 

“I am pleased that President Trump is fighting back against Big Tech corporations after enduring months of blatant injustices,” Jeff Brain said in press release. “His lawsuit is based on the infringement of his fundamental free speech rights that powerful companies such as Facebook and Twitter imposed based on their own political bias; a bias that has no place with such important keepers of our national public square online.”

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Trial Update on Tennessee Principal Placed on Leave for Warning Students About Social Media Censorship

A lawsuit filed by a Shelby County Schools (SCS) principal placed on leave for warning students about social media censorship is making steady progress. As The Tennessee Star reported in January, Cordova High School Principal Barton Thorne had lectured students during a weekly “principal’s message” on the importance of free speech and the marketplace of ideas following the Capitol Hill riot, which he condemned.

Shelby County Board of Education (SCBE) reinstated Thorne the day that he filed the lawsuit against them. The Liberty Justice Center (LJC) is representing Thorne in the case, Thorne v. Shelby County Board of Education. In the lawsuit, Thorne alleged that SCBE violated his right to free speech and had damaged his career, reputation, and family through their response to the public and media.

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Klobuchar Praises Trump Facebook Ban on NBC

Amy Klobuchar

A Democrat senator from Minnesota sided with Facebook, a multi-billion dollar international corporation, in its decision to ban former President Donald J. Trump from its platform for life. 

“That was the right thing to do. He’s the disinformer-in-chief. He told the biggest lie of all time, which led to an insurrection by getting his followers to believe that the election was a fake,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said on “Late Night” with Seth Meyers. “It was an outrageous moment with a number of Republicans calling him out on it at the time.”

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‘Enemy of Free Speech:’ Republicans Hit Back at Facebook After It Upholds Trump Ban

Republicans are hitting back at Facebook and the Big Tech giants in Silicon Valley after Facebook’s Oversight Board announced Wednesday that it will uphold its ban of Former President Donald J. Trump.

Facebook claimed in a statement that Trump post “violated Facebook’s rules prohibiting praise or support of people engaged in violence,” when he called Capitol protestors “great patriots” and and “very special” on Jan. 6. 

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Florida Senate Passes Elections Bill, Restrictions on Social Media Platforms

On Monday, April 26th, 2021, the Florida Senate voted 23 to 17 in favor of of a controversial bill (SB 90) regarding election administration and its tightening grip on mail-in voting. SB 90 includes changes to the current Election Code like, supervising and reducing the number of mail-in ballot drop boxes used by a supervisor of elections, and requiring voters to submit an application for a mail-in ballot every two years rather than every four years. 

 Democrats in the Florida Senate who voted against the bill say that SB 90 retains voting restrictions that that are unnecessary and will have disproportionate negative effect on Hispanic, Black, and older voters. They also commented on how the proposed measures of the bill is in reaction to the voting fraud allegations made by former President Trump in the 2020 elections. 

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Trump Will Return to Social Media on His Own New Platform, Aide Says

Former President Trump will return to social media on his own new platform in around two or three months, Jason Miller said.

“But I do think that we’re gonna see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here with his own platform,” Miller said during an interview on Fox News Channel’s program Media Buzz. “And this is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media. It’s gonna completely redefine the game and everybody is gonna be waiting and watching to see what exactly President Trump does, but it will be his own platform.”

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China Blocks Use of Private Messaging App

Users trying to access the secure messaging app Signal from mainland China reportedly had to use a virtual private network to get around what seems to be a government block, according to the Associated Press Tuesday.

The Chinese government maintains censorship of websites, services and apps through a “Great Firewall” which can be bypassed using a virtual private network (VPN), according to the AP. Signal is one of the few messaging apps that allows for encrypted communications between users in China.

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Salesforce Execs Caught on Video Canceling RNC, Project Veritas over Politics

In a 10-minute video, Project Veritas exposed Salesforce executives bashing the GOP for the mostly peaceful protests at the Capitol on January 6, just weeks after the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) company unexpectedly severed ties with the journalistic nonprofit.

The footage from virtual meetings held by high-level executives was sent to Project Veritas by a whistleblower inside the company, according to Veritas’ founder James O’Keefe.

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Commentary: They Have Opened the Gates of Hell and It’s a One-Way Passage

Recently, we received a copy of a private commentary sent around by a tech founder in Silicon Valley, who wrote the following, which we quote here with permission provided the author’s anonymity is preserved:

The entire American tech stack – which enables Americans to buy, sell, pay, and communicate – has been weaponized in furtherance of a radical anti-freedom agenda.
This is the single most chilling week in my lifetime, and America’s since the Civil War.

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Tennessee Principal on Administrative Leave for Warning Students About Social Media Censorship

A Tennessee principal was placed on paid administrative leave after warning students about the dangers of social media censorship. Principal Barton Thorne recorded a homeroom video on Monday, reportedly sharing his thoughts via the Shelby County Schools (SCS) virtual learning platform to address several Big Tech companies’ recent decisions to censor various individuals and platforms.

In a recording of the video since deleted from YouTube, Thorne emphasized the need to allow for free speech and a “marketplace of ideas.” He condemned the Capitol Hill riot and stated that his statements had nothing to do with President Donald Trump.

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Martha Boneta Commentary: Beginning to Look Like Time to Invent Another Internet

Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the Internet, says he is fed up with what it has become and he’s taking action to fix it.  

He has expressed frustration for years with how major corporations have taken what was supposed to a free environment and restricted in a variety of ways. He doesn’t like the way Facebook, Google and Amazon have centralized it and he especially doesn’t like how they control the data of almost all Americans.  

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Trump Could Face More Censorship on Twitter If He Loses Re-Election

President Donald Trump may be subject to increased censorship on his personal Twitter account if he loses the election and becomes a private citizen, according to Twitter.

Twitter allows for public officials to push the community guidelines further than private citizens in the interest of information and direct engagement of users with their elected officials, according to an official statement from the website.

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Commentary: How to Restrain Big Tech Immediately

A year ago, University of Georgia professor Cas Mudde took to Twitter and asked: “How do you manage to stay informed about political news and stay mentally balanced?” In his next tweet, he confessed too much time on social media was contributing to anxiety and depression.

With this, Mudde expressed a sentiment many social media users share. As we discuss policy issues tied to social media—tech regulation, free speech, foreign influence—we shouldn’t lose sight of the damaging psychological effects of today’s information environment. You may not want to hear this a week before the election, but social media addiction is a public health issue. Big Tech is the new Big Tobacco.

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Senator Marsha Blackburn’s New Bill Tackles Big Tech Censorship and ‘Fact-Checkers’

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is co-sponsoring a reform bill tackling Big Tech’s censorship and “fact-checking” policies. The bill, “Online Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity Act,” is a reform of Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA).
Section 230 hasn’t been updated in nearly 25 years. The goal of the reform is to “clarify the original intent of the law and examine Big Tech’s content moderation practices.”

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Commentary: Is Twitter, Facebook Censorship of New York Post Biden-Ukraine Story the Beginning of Social Tyranny?

Twitter and Facebook have both limited distribution of an Oct. 14 report from the New York Post’s Emma-Jo Morris and Gabrielle Fonrouge entitled, “Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad” detailing an alleged meeting between former Vice President Joe Biden and Burisma executive Vadym who Biden’s son, Hunter, used to work for, in April 2015.

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Arizona State University Journalism School Removes People, News Items Decried as too Pro-Police

In the last four months the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University has repeatedly removed pro-police related items after students and activists cried foul.

In June, the school rescinded a job offer to the new dean of its journalism school, Sonya Forte Duhé, after students accused her of past microaggressions and other insensitive comments. Mostly notably, Duhé had recently tweeted support for “good police officers who keep us safe.”

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Commentary: Silicon Valley Ramps up Censorship of Conservatives

Silicon Valley’s pre-election censorship of conservatives is rapidly increasing, with anything that questions the imposition of a new level of COVID-19 lockdown misery and economic devastation a top target.

The latest example of this pre-election censorship occurred yesterday, when Facebook, Twitter and Google removed a press conference video by frontline doctors featuring U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and organized by Tea Party Patriots.

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Google Deliberately Alters Search Results for Breitbart News

As the 2020 election draws nearer, search engine and tech giant Google is being exposed as engaging in election interference by artificially altering search results to negatively impact right-wing sites, as reported by Breitbart.

Breitbart reports that its own visibility on Google search results has been reduced by as much as 99.7 percent of its previous performance since the 2016 election. In contrast to its performance in April of 2016, when it was among the top ten search results for 355 key search terms, it now ranks in the top ten of only one such search term in the month of July of this year.

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Commentary: Big Tech’s Escalating War on Free Speech

On June 19, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld 9-0 the right to freedom of speech, including “hate speech.” As Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court: “The proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express the thought that we hate.” Justice Anthony Kennedy added in a concurring opinion: “A law that can be directed against speech found offensive to some portion of the public can be turned against minority and dissenting views to the detriment of all.”

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Project Veritas Exposes Rampant Anti-Conservative Bias of Facebook’s Content Moderators: ‘I Am Going to Delete Them for Terrorism’

A shocking new undercover video from Project Veritas exposes the rampant anti-conservative bias of Facebook’s content moderators, the employees who are responsible for deciding what posts are censored.

Zach McElroy, a former Facebook employee who worked as a content moderator in Tampa, Florida, told Project Veritas that he’s willing to testify before Congress about Facebook’s bias against Trump supporters and conservative causes.

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Censorship, Antitrust Probes: Big Tech Is Back to Fighting Familiar Foes After Taking on Coronavirus

Amazon, Twitter, and other major tech companies are facing intense criticism on antitrust issues and censorship claims in the months since government officials reportedly began asking for help from Silicon Valley on ways to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The president and lawmakers have turned their sights on Twitter and Amazon, respectively, while Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other attorneys general are reportedly ratcheting up their antitrust investigation targeting Google’s business model. The White House asked them in March to fight coronavirus disinformation while also assisting the government in its virus response.

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Conservative Journalist Banned from Gov. Walz’s Press Briefings Without Explanation

A conservative journalist has sued Gov. Tim Walz’s administration after he was barred from participating in the governor’s daily press briefings on the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the lawsuit, Scott Johnson, an attorney and writer for PowerLine, was allowed to participate in the daily briefings until April 27, when he was suddenly “excluded from all future daily briefings without explanation.”

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Crom Carmichael: The Democratic Party Opposes Conservative Speech

Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio.

During the second hour, Leahy and Carmichael discuss the Democrat Party’s opposition to Conservative and common sense speak as recently witnessed by the shaming of New Orleans Saints’ quarterback Drew Brees and Denver Broncos Head Coach Vic Fangio. Recently, both men have walked back their comments and apologized due to accusations of racism.

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Commentary: Trump Executive Order Strikes at the Heart of Social Media’s Leftist Censorship

President Trump’s long-hoped-for Executive Order on social media censorship is a good first step in dismantling the Left’s dangerous influence over these 21st-century communications vehicles. (You can read the draft that was available online when this article was posted through this link to The National Pulse, edited by Raheem Kassam.)

We particularly agree with this part of the EO’s statement of principles, “In a country that has long cherished the freedom of expression, we cannot allow a limited number of online platforms to hand-pick the speech that Americans may access and convey online. This practice is fundamentally un-American and anti-democratic. When large, powerful social media companies censor opinions with which they disagree, they exercise a dangerous power.”

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Twitter Censors White House Account for Quoting Trump’s Flagged ‘THUGS’ Tweet

Twitter censored the White House’s official Twitter account after it shared and quoted a President Donald Trump tweet Friday that the company’s moderators hit for “glorifying violence.”

The account shared a tweet Trump composed early Friday morning in which he called people rioting and looting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, “THUGS” and suggested that he will send in the military, adding that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter hid Trump’s tweet under a banner noting that the post violates company rules against glorifying violence.

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Executive Order Takes Aim at Leftist Tech Giants’ Censorship of Conservatives

After years of warning, President Donald Trump took action Thursday in the form of an Executive Order to remove a key protection companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Google enjoy that shields the tech giants from lawsuits by individuals and other entities with claiming bias, censorship, and otherwise unfair treatment.

The Order, titled “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship” comes two days after Twitter added a controversial “fact-check” of two of his tweets about fraud and absentee ballots, NPR reported.

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