Appearing late Wednesday/early Thursday on the Fox News Channel’s Fox News @ Night, MRC Founder and President Brent Bozell shared the findings of Free Speech America’s (FSA) blockbuster study on secondhand censorship by Big Tech, saying the efforts to censor information have had “enormous” impact on our public discourse to the point that it’s “never happened in human history.”
Host Shannon Bream introduced Bozell by highlighting a key finding from the report:
Let me read some of what you have. The MRC censorship track report says this. “Across seven big tech platforms, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Spotify, MRC Free Speech America logged” 140 million “times that users on social media had information kept from them in the first quarter.
Asked if those examples were “specifically to the detriment of conservatives,” Bozell replied that while we know Big Tech has been vicious toward conservatives and Christians, their censorship has been “enormous because it is affecting the public square in ways that it's never happened in American history.”
Bozell added that while one would often look at censorship “from the standpoint of the producers,” this study was different in examining the affect of censorship “from the standpoint of the consumer.”
“For the first three months of this year, we looked at 172 cases, just 172 cases of confirmed verified censorship. We then looked at how many times that information was withheld from the American people. Through those 172 acts, 140 million times information didn’t reach the American people because of 172 acts of censorship,” he explained.
Bream then played devil’s advocate in the interest of fairness, citing one claim that the top ten Facebook posts from Wednesday included eight from conservative pages versus two from liberals.
Bozell promptly eviscerated the notion that Facebook is the best of the worst, arguing “the worst case came from Facebook” with “over 80 of these instances” of censorship. He explained it wasn’t surprising because “Facebook has been, at the beginning, bad and it’s going from bad to worse with its censorship.”
Citing 4,000 cases of censorship tracked by FSA’s CensorTrack (and then inviting critics to examine the data themselves), Bozell asked a simple question: “Shannon, when was the last time you heard a liberal complain about being censored? It just doesn’t happen.”
Bozell reminded FNC viewers that “conservatives across the spectrum are now being censored” before acknowledging the reality that this number of over 140 million affected by secondhand censorship was “minuscule and just scratche[d] the surface” because “we only looked at three months.”
Bozell concluded an even larger study would have resulted in showing “billions of pieces of information” were censored, which has “never happened in human history”:
We didn’t look at people who’ve already been censored. We didn’t look at Donald Trump. We didn’t look at Babylon Bee. We didn’t look at Joe Rogan’s 70 mill — 70 videos. We didn’t look at those numbers. Had we looked at cases of censorship before that three-month period, it would have been billions of pieces of information that have never reached the American people because of the censorship? It’s never happened in human history.
To see the relevant FNC transcript from July 21, click “expand.”
FNC’s Fox News @ Night
July 21, 2022
12:33 a.m. Eastern [TEASE]SHANNON BREAM: Alright, coming up, just how much has Big Tech censored social media? We’ve got the details from a brand-new study by the Media Research Center. What they found, we’ll show you next.
(....)
12:40 a.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: New Tonight; Common Censor; MRC Study Shows Big Tech’s Impact on Social Media Users]
BREAM: Well, the Media Research Center says it’s been tracking big tech censorship of conservatives on social media and the issue of secondhand censorship impacting millions of social media users. So let’s talk about the findings with MRC founder and president, Brent Bozell. Welcome back. Good to have you.
BRENT BOZELL: Hi, Shannon.
BREAM: Okay.
BOZELL: How are — how are you? Thank you for having me.
BREAM: Let me read some of what you have. The MRC censorship track report says this. Across seven big tech platforms, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Spotify, MRC Free Speech America logged 140 million times that users on social media had information kept from them in the first quarter. So, tell us a little bit more about how you tracked this. And was that specifically to the detriment of conservatives?
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: New Tonight; “Secondhand Censorship”; Examining How Information Gets Filtered on Social Media]
BOZELL: Yeah. Well, Okay, let’s start here. The censorship of — social media is the communications vehicle of the future, whether we like it or not. The censorship of conservatives and Christians and most especially conservative Christians by Big Tech is — is a huge problem. It is enormous because it is affecting the public square in ways that it's never happened in American history. So how important is this? Those of us who have been looking at censorship had been looking at it from the standpoint of the producers. We logged, we verified about 4,000 cases that are confirmed examples of censorship but we haven’t looked at it from the standpoint of the consumer. What’s the effect of that censorship? For the first three months of this year, we looked at 172 cases, just 172 cases of confirmed verified censorship. We then looked at how many times that information was withheld from the American people. Through those 172 acts, 140 million times information didn’t reach the American people because of 172 acts of censorship.
BREAM: Ok. So —
BOZELL: — so, it’s now — go ahead.
BREAM: Okay. Oh, I was going to say this. You know, the left says, this is a boogeyman, it’s not a real thing, it’s not really happening. You know, there is a group on Twitter — it’s called Facebook’s top 10 and they — they assimilate all of the top 10 every single day. So here’s what they had for today, the top performing linked posts on U.S. Facebook pages, Red Wave, Ben Shapiro, Blue Lives Matter, People, Breitbart, Breitbart, Ben Shapiro, Ben Shapiro, TheBlaze, and then the Rachel Maddow Show. So, it looks like at least on Facebook, conservatives could argue they’re doing very well.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Free Speech; Big Tech Under Fire for Alleged Conservative Censoring]
BOZELL: In fact, the worst case came from Facebook. Facebook had over 80 of these instances. Facebook has been, at the beginning, bad and it’s going from bad to worse with its censorship. Again, the examples that I said, I said there are 4,000 that we have on CensorTrack. I defy anybody to question them. We have it all there, and it’s all confirmed. Shannon, when was the last time you heard a liberal complain about being censored? It just doesn’t happen. But conservatives across the spectrum are now being censored. Here’s an important thing. That number is minuscule and just scratches the surface. Look, we only looked at three months. We only looked at this — that — the cases in those three months. We didn’t look at people who’ve already been censored. We didn’t look at Donald Trump. We didn’t look at Babylon Bee. We didn’t look at Joe Rogan’s 70 mill — 70 videos. We didn’t look at those numbers. Had we looked at cases of censorship before that three- month period, it would have been billions of pieces of information that have never reached the American people because of the censorship?
BREAM: All right, it is —
BOZELL: It’s never happened in human history.
BREAM: — it is called CensorTrack on MRC. If you want to check out the data for yourself, it is there. Brent, thanks for joining us. Good to see you.
BOZELL: Thank you, Shannon.
