Crush free speech ahead of the 2024 election? Two Democrat senators appear to be trying to push Big Tech to do just that.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) wrote a Sept. 17 letter to the CEOs of Meta, Alphabet (Google), X, Discord and Twitch. The lawmakers aimed to “express our persisting concerns about the spread of election-related disinformation on your platforms” this election year and urged the companies “to prioritize taking decisive action, including bolstering content moderation resources,” or, in other words, censor users.
Klobuchar and Warner fear-mongered about undefined and alleged “disinformation” online. “Your companies are on the frontlines of the risks to our democracy posed by online disinformation and technology-enabled election influence, and it is for these reasons that we urge you to prioritize taking action to ensure that you have the policies, procedures, and staff in place to counter and respond promptly to these threats,” the senators insisted.
Millions of voters view alleged “disinformation” on social media, the senators claimed. Rejecting the idea that voters should be able to access information freely and form their own opinions, the senators also zeroed in on a rapidly developing technology – artificial intelligence (AI). AI, the senators wrote, “has the capacity to turbocharge the spread of disinformation.” The letter vaguely claimed that “disinformation” online could “erode trust and confidence in our democracy.” But doesn’t undermining the First Amendment pose an even greater threat to our democratic republic?
The senators cited testimony to Congress from various officials on the subjects of AI and so-called disinformation to support their pressure on Big Tech, including from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Christopher Wray. But the FBI has been exposed both in The Twitter Files and in a recent letter from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg as having also pressured Big Tech companies to censor free speech related to the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and “Russian bots” — even in collusion with the Ukrainian government’s intelligence. Zuckerberg admitted the censorship in his letter.
In light of these revelations, Klobuchar and Warner’s attempt to remind the Big Tech companies that “the Intelligence Community has warned about growing efforts by Russia and Iran to sow discord using online platforms” rings hollow. After all, an American online movement for disillusioned Democrats, #Walkaway, was censored before and after the 2020 election. It was falsely linked to Russian bot activity and Congressional pressure was exerted on Twitter, per The Twitter Files.
Klobuchar and Warner claimed to be “safeguarding elections” from “election-related misinformation, disinformation, and foreign influence efforts” and asking the same from Big Tech, but their request for content moderation reveals the true goal.
The senators ended by requesting information on how many staff at the Big Tech companies are focused on censorship, what “additional measures, policies, or procedures” have been implemented to censor content (especially AI content), and if “legitimate media organizations” were consulted in policy updates.
But it’s not the first time Klobuchar and Warner have worked against the American principle of free speech.
In October 2021, Klobuchar pressured a YouTube executive at a Commerce Committee hearing to state how many COVID-19-related videos the platform had deleted — over one million. Klobuchar also introduced legislation in 2022 to address “misinformation” online.
Warner prodded Twitter to find more Russian accounts in the aftermath of the 2016 election even when there was not much to find, according to The Twitter Files. He again urged Big Tech to censor alleged “Russian information operations” online in 2022.
MRC and members of the Free Speech Alliance warned Big Tech in an August letter that this sort of pressure from the left would come and not to cave to the left’s calls for election-interfering censorship. “We know that governments across the world are pressuring tech firms to interfere in the 2024 elections just as so many of you did in 2020,” FSA members wrote in the letter. “Now is the time for you to affirm that you will not bow to this coercion and to reaffirm your commitment to providing fair and even-handed service to your customers.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives 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 using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
