Florida Republican Governor. Ron DeSantis lashed out at Big Tech’s censorship against conservatives after the release of a Heritage Foundation video which highlighted the wide disparity in censorship between Republican House members and Democratic House members.
DeSantis stated on Thursday that “Big Tech” has now become the censorship arm for the Democratic Party and the political left, de-platforming and silencing anyone who disagrees with the left-wing narrative.
“The Silicon Valley oligarchs should not be the arbiters for free speech in this country.” He added, “We must fight back!”
Big Tech has become the censorship arm of the Democratic Party and political left, silencing and de-platforming anyone who rejects the chosen left-wing narrative.
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) December 2, 2021
Silicon Valley oligarchs shouldn't be the arbiters of free speech in our country. We must fight back! https://t.co/7x3UZGDlrT
The post shared a video from Kara Frederick, a Heritage Foundation research fellow, which was shown at a hearing held by the Communications and Technology Subcommittee on Wednesday, Capitol Hill.
“Twitter and Facebook censor Republican members of Congress at a rate of 53 to 1 compared to Democrats,” Frederick said.
“Twitter suspends conservatives 21 times more often than liberals,” she added.
She also noted that the September study she cited had:
But besides censoring those Republicans already in Congress, Big Tech has also reportedly taken measures that impact new Republicans attempting to join the legislative body. Republican candidates running for U.S. Congress have been censored at least 15 times since November of 2019. Free Speech America could not find a single example of Democrat candidates facing censorship.
Frederick was a Facebook employee from 2016 to 2017, and she helped create the Global Security Counterterrorism Analysis Program. She believed that she was improving democracy.
“But I was wrong, it’s 2021, and the verdict is in: Big Tech is an enemy of the people,” she stated.
Frederick also mentioned an October study in which the Wall Street Journal published leaked documents revealing that Facebook used two tools to suppress right-wing content, media traffic, and reach after Donald Trump’s election. Facebook’s research found that the removal of these tools would result in a significant increase in very conservative’ traffic.
In May, DeSantis signed legislation to prohibit social media companies from deplatforming political candidates. According to the law, social media platforms that de-platformed or applied post-prioritization algorithms or censor Florida candidates, users or residents, are not acting in good faith. … Social media platforms have unjustly censored and shadow-banned Floridians, deplatformed them, and applied post prioritization algorithms.
The Daily Wire reported in July that a Federal Judge appointed by Former President Bill Clinton issued an interim injunction preventing the Florida law from being implemented.
Robert Hinkle, U.S. District Judge, argued that de-platforming was likely to violate the free speech rights of tech companies. He wrote, “The legislation compels providers host speech that violates their standards — speech they would not otherwise host — and forbids providers speaking as they would otherwise.”
He added sarcastically, “Like prior First Amendment restrictions, this is an instance of burning the house to roast a pig. … Balancing the exchange of ideas among private speakers is not a legitimate governmental interest. And even aside from the actual motivation for this legislation, it is plainly content-based and subject to strict scrutiny,” NBC News reported.
