Now That We Know the Federal Government Is Calling the Shots on Social Media Censoring, Conservatives Need to Wake Up – Opinion

Many on the right, for many years, have avoided paying attention to what’s happening with social media. As social media companies ratcheted down the ability of anyone to oppose the conventional, and invariably leftist, wisdom, all we heard was “muh private company.” The idea is that if a private monopoly prevents speech on any subject, that’s fine because they are a private company and conservative, you know, worship at the altar of private property and free enterprise. The solution has always been something along the lines of “if you don’t like how they operate, start your own social media platform.” You’d think that by now, given the difficulties faced by Parler, TruthSocial, and other would-be competitors, the folly of that flippant statement would be evident.

Social media used its ability to influence political elections was evident from the beginning. Federal election law stipulates that broadcast media outlets must offer candidates for federal office the highest price for ads. Candidate ads are not allowed to be censored. So when a very attractive conservative candidate of Cambodian heritage ran a political ad showing a few frames of the horror of the Communist Khmer Rouge killing fields, Facebook banned her ad (Facebook Blocks Republican Candidate Ad for Daring to Show Horrors of Communism, Republican Candidate’s Ad Again Banned From Social Media and We’re Supposed to Think It Is an Accident). In the same vein, in 2018 Facebook approved an ad that the North Dakota Democrat Party ran for Heidi Heitkamp. It warned hunters they could lose their hunting licenses if they voted. (Facebook verifies Bogus Ad Designed To Suppress GOP Participation in North Dakota). If you aren’t a liberal Democrat, this kind of hijinks is called a felony. In 2019, Twitter temporarily banned Senator Mitch McConnell because his campaign account showed left-wing protesters wishing death on him and his wife (Twitter Shuts Down Mitch McConnell’s Campaign Account Because They Didn’t Like Him Making the Left Look Bad).

Social media fell behind Anthony Fauci and the rest of his team during the COVID panic. Any dispute or questioning about government actions was met with immediate retaliation.

Okay, fine, they were following their natural progressive or anti-freedom impulses. Since these companies are privately owned and not the government we can support them suppressing free speech. It is almost as good a blessing to liberty as the story time with the drag queen at your daycare center.

Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce at the time of commercial radio’s infancy observed:

One person, or any group of people, cannot decide which communication is made to American citizens. … We cannot allow any single person or group to place themselves in a position where they can censor the material which shall be broadcasted to the public.

But, of course, we’re much wiser now, and what did he know anyway?

Over the past few weeks more information was discovered that suggests the social media conglomerates do not act as independent agents. Instead, they are agents for the federal government. This is an important development.

In the late-fifties, a Rhode Island state commission on obscenity would tell a major book distributor serving the state which books they had found to be “obscene, indecent or impure language, or manifestly tending to the corruption of the youth.” Based on that communication, the book distributor would block the books from being sold in Rhode Island. US Supreme Court determined that, even though the book distributor was a private business, and not government, it had been acting as government agent. The purpose of this was to allow the government to do by “advising” the company rather than a process open to court challenge and therefore violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

Alex Berenson is one of my favorites authors. Last year, he was removed from Twitter for publishing opinions and scientific papers in opposition to the COVID hoopla. After the COVID controversy had subsided, he was able to file a lawsuit against Twitter. As part of the legal process, Berenson received in discovery emails from Biden’s White House to Twitter directing that Berenson be banned because of the problems he was causing them, see Journalist Alex Berenson Busts Biden Team, Says WH Demanded that Twitter Ban Him. Berenson’s previous activity and his ban after receiving the mail seem to suggest that Twitter was acting at the request of the Biden White House in order to silence an important critic.

During the 2020 election, the epic story of Hunter Biden’s laptop, complete with Russian hookers, crack smoking, and underage girls, blew up. Twitter removed all mentions of the story. They went so far as to shut down the New York Post’s Twitter account for promoting its own frontpage story (Twitter Admits to Blocking NY Post Story Regarding Hunter Biden — Might the Supreme Court Have Interest?) and silence President Trump’s campaign Twitter account (Unreal: Now Twitter Has Shut Down the Main Trump Campaign Account Over the Hunter Biden Story) over its mention. If viewed in dim lighting, it could appear as if the action was taken by a private corporation. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief honcho, spoke with Joe Rogan and discussed the fiasco (Smoking Gun – Mark Zuckerberg makes big admission to Joe Rogan Concerning FBI, Censorship & Hunter Biden).

In the interview, Zuckerberg admits the FBI approached Facebook about censoring mentioning the Hunter Biden notebook because it was “disinformation.” Zuckerberg says, as though this was heroic restraint on his part, that Facebook elected to use an algorithm to make it difficult to share stories about the Hunter Biden notebook rather than banning it altogether. In the interview, he seems to confirm that an FBI visit also drove Twitter’s actions.

It is difficult to fathom a scenario in which the only two times federal agencies have intervened with social media companies to quash the flow of information in the United States were Berenson’s ban and the crackdown to suppress news of Hunter Biden’s laptop. The whole COVID crackdown looks more like an information operation by the government than a group of high-strung SJWs with pierced tongues and gender-questioning SJWs wreaking havoc on us. If social media companies restrict information flow based on the federal government’s request, it has to stop. The White House or FBI can request information from you. They have the power to imprison and close down your company if they don’t comply. Conservatives must recognize that we are nearing a point of protofascism, where large private corporations are acting as an extension of the government and can do what the government cannot. This can be stopped by a Congress and Justice Department who are ready to take down these massive corporations, and a president willing to go to jail and ruin the financial future of those who have obstructed the flow of information for the American people.

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