Despite months of fiery riots from the far-left, private communication app Signal and free speech app Telegram have come under fire after a single day of rioting in the U.S. Capitol building.
Big Tech companies are censorious enough, but far left groups are pressuring them to be even worse. “A Washington nonprofit group sued Apple in federal court Sunday, demanding that it remove Telegram, a chat and social media app, from its app store for failing to crack down on violent, extremist conversation in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol,” The Washington Post reported Jan. 17. The Post explained further that the nonprofit Coalition for a Safer Web’s suit “amounts to a pressure tactic to get Apple to act against Telegram as it already has against Parler.” Big Tech companies crippled Parler by both removing it from the app store (meaning it could no longer downloaded or used via phones), then denied hosting services so it couldn’t be a viable website.
The coalition’s leader, President of Coalition for a Safer Web Marc Ginsberg, suggested “his ownership of an iPhone gives him standing to sue Apple in federal court to require that the company enforce its terms of service barring hate speech and incitement to violence on apps carried by the App Store,” The Post summarized.
The suit “alleges negligent infliction of emotional distress and violation of the California business code, and seeks unspecified compensatory damages and an injunction requiring Apple to remove Telegram from its app store,” The Post summarized.
Liberal journalist and free speech advocate Glenn Greenwald tweeted his frustration that journalists, particularly tech journalists, rather than serving as the vanguard of spree speech and privacy advocacy, are instead firmly on the side of the censors:
“The 3 journalistic units most devoted to demanding online censorship are CNN's media reporters, NBC's ‘disinformation team,’ and NYT's tech reporters."
Greenwald linked to an article by The New York Times explaining how “The rise of Telegram and Signal could inflame the debate over encryption, which helps protect the privacy of people’s digital communications but can stymie the authorities in crime investigations because conversations are hidden.” The article engaged in typical pearl-clutching over the fact that censored conservatives are now flocking to alternative platforms:
“Telegram has been particularly popular for those on the far right because it mimics social media. So after Facebook and Twitter limited Mr. Trump on their services last week and other companies began pulling their support from Parler, far-right groups on Parler and other fringe social networks posted links to new Telegram channels and urged people to join them there.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your local representative and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form and help us hold Big Tech accountable
