CBS News’s 60 Minutes platformed a famous author’s stunning claim that America’s political right is anti-free speech just as much as the political left, but MRC has the evidence to show heavy leftist censorship and bias.
Appearing on 60 Minutes Sunday, writer Salman Rushdie claimed that leftists silencing free speech online is no different than the right opposing racist and sexualized books in schools. While the author acknowledged increasing censorship efforts, he obfuscated the reality of which speech the Constitution protects. Meanwhile, MRC’s unique CensorTrack database—documenting over 8,100 documented cases—shows that online censorship overwhelmingly favors the left.
Rushdie—who gained international notoriety after the Iranian Islamic regime issued a death threat over his The Satanic Verses, and who later survived a knife attack—told CBS correspondent Anderson Cooper: “There seems to be a kind of growing orthodoxy, particularly amongst young people, that censorship … is a good thing.”
While this may be true, Rushdie then strangely equated right-wing objections to radical race and sexual material in school libraries and curricula to censorship of political dissidence. “It used to be the case that very conservative voices were the places from which you would hear that such and such a book should be banned, or was obscene, or was disgusting or whatever,” Rushdie stumbled.
The author continued claiming, “[T]here’s a whole project to deny children the ability to learn about the history of their own country, and the part that race has played in that history, which is central.” His deceptive statement seems to refer to legislative efforts to ban critical race theory in most states and Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which banned teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity in first through third grade.
“The thing that's different now is that it's also coming from progressive voices,” he said, referring to calls for censorship.“There are progressive voices saying that certain kinds of speech should be not permitted because it offends against this or that vulnerable group.”
Rushdie went on to admit the dangers of censorship. “To support censorship in theory on behalf of vulnerable groups is a very slippery slope. It can lead to the opposite of what you want,” he said. He argued that censorship usually impacts minority groups first, undermining the very people it claims to protect.
The author also argued it is “enormously valuable” for everyone to hear opinions they find offensive. “How would we ever challenge ourselves if we were not challenged?” he asked, bashing the growing “offense industry.”
Indeed, Big Tech censors, often working in tandem with private entities and even government officials, have created an “offense industry” to censor viewpoints that certain people find offensive.
Over the last four and a half years, MRC has logged over 1,300 cases into CensorTrack of individuals and accounts censored for COVID-19 related content. That includes criticism of masks, lockdowns, vaccine mandates and other pandemic-era policies. Even President Donald Trump and now-HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were among those silenced.
Platforms like Facebook, Twitter/X, Google and TikTok also engage in election interference by censoring candidates and voters, with over 750 election cases logged in CensorTrack. Trump, RNC Research and Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) were among those censored during the 2024 election cycle.
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech and government 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.
Editor's Note: This piece has be updated for greater clarity.
