Daily Wire podcast host and renowned psychologist Jordan Peterson called on President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Communications Commission to address a major secretive aspect of social media censorship.
During a Wednesday interview on Fox & Friends, Peterson urged FCC Chairman Nominee Brendan Carr to hold social media platforms accountable for their lack of transparency, rampant censorship and twisted algorithms.
“I think at a minimum, he should ensure that we know how the algorithms operate on social media networks and how things are promoted and how things are hidden,” Peterson said, “because one of the real dangers that confront us is that our discourse is going to be mediated by intelligent systems whose mechanisms are completely hidden from us.”
Peterson’s comments came in response to Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade's inquiry on his outlook on President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Carr as FCC chair.
Peterson conveyed the danger a deficiency of transparency on social media platforms poses, warning that this “actually interferes with our perception not just our conception because what we see is pre-screened in ways that are invisible to us and increasingly automated and that’s not a good harbinger for the future.”
He continued, “Transparency with regards on how things are promoted and demoted, that would be real helpful.”
Following Peterson's denunciation of the lack of transparency, Kilmeade aired a clip of Carr from a Tuesday interview on Fox’s America Newsroom, where he named free speech a “top issue” and “bedrock of our society.”
Carr’s elevation at the FCC follows Media Research Center President Brent Bozell’s endorsement. “It is imperative that the next FCC chairman is committed to restoring the public’s trust, increasing telecommunications access for all communities, and protecting the fundamental right to free speech,” Bozell said. “Brendan Carr has proven he is more than capable of accomplishing that task.”
MRC also recognized Carr with the Free Speech Award in October, recognizing his valiant effort to preserve the First Amendment for all Americans. “Pressuring social media companies into censoring the constitutionally protected speech of everyday Americans is not how you protect democracy,” Carr tweeted in rebuke of then-Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA)’s calls for increased censorship.
Pressuring social media companies into censoring the constitutionally protected speech of everyday Americans is not how you protect democracy.
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) October 3, 2024
Quite the opposite.
Free speech is essential to democratic self-government. We all benefit from the robust, wide open exchange of… https://t.co/o3OOvc4TId
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