MRC’s Dan Schneider took his fight against Big Tech to Congress, warning of the “dire threat” the platforms’ discrimination poses to American liberty.
In today’s House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight hearing, MRC Free Speech America Vice President Schneider lambasted Big Tech platforms’ assertion “that they can discriminate for any reason whatsoever.” Schneider called for a bipartisan investigation into Big Tech’s rampant discrimination.
Responding to a question by Congressman Derek Schmidt (R-KS), Schneider stated: “These Big Tech platforms, literally, are arguing that they have a First Amendment right to discriminate against anybody for any reason. That they have a right to discriminate against somebody if they’re black, if they’re Jewish, or for political speech. This is a dire threat that these platforms think that they are above the law, that they can discriminate for any reason, whatsoever.”
Referencing Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who had just quoted the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Schneider cited last year’s Supreme Court cases of Moody v. NetChoice. There, the attorney for Big Tech’s trade association NetChoice asserted that Big Tech platforms, including rideshare services, had constitutional immunity from Florida’s anti-discrimination laws. NetChoice represents multiple rideshare platforms, including Lyft.
Schneider explained: “NetChoice for the U.S. Supreme Court last year, arguing on behalf of these Big Tech companies, literally argued, essentially, a resurrection of an even worse version of the Plessy v. Ferguson standard of separate but equal. … We’re seeing Jews getting kicked out of Uber cabs. And Uber, Lyft — these rideshare companies, they are in fact Big Tech platforms.”
King, a Baptist minister and civil rights icon, achieved national prominence in 1955 by successfully lobbying against discrimination by private busing companies in Montgomery, Alabama. The campaign was launched a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its infamous Plessy v. Ferguson standard, which had permitted governments and corporations traditionally classified as “common carriers” to engage in discrimination.
Referring to this legal precedent, Schenider suggested: “This is one place where Congress can explore, investigate and push back on Big Tech. These are common carriers. They should not be allowed to discriminate. The state of Texas is doing good work here. Maybe [Congressman Schmitt] and Congresswoman Crockett could work together to address this problem.”
The quote that Crockett read was from King’s “How Long? Not Long” speech, which he gave while protesting Montgomery’s discrimination in busing. King said: “We must come to see the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man, but a day of the man as man.”
Tuesday’s House hearing was on “Rising Threat: America’s Battle Against Antisemitic Terror.” King was murdered in an act of terror by a man with virulently racist and antisemitic views.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representative and demand they investigate Big Tech platforms, including Uber and Lyft, for their relentless discrimination. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
