The Verdict with Ted Cruz co-host Ben Ferguson exposed Big Tech’s plans for those who run afoul of the left’s narrative. And it goes beyond mere censorship.
Ferguson went on MRC’s UnCensored with MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider to discuss how Big Tech platforms such as Meta and YouTube have censored his content. Schneider reacted to Facebook’s absurd decision to lock Ferguson out of his account, implying this tactic aims to “dry up” revenue sources. “They want to kill us,” reiterated Schneider, concerning Big Tech choking off the revenue of conservatives. Speaking from personal experience, Ferguson concurred, “They want you to go broke; they want you to be in financial ruin.”
Ferguson explained that censorship tactics have surpassed mere censorship. “It’s not just silencing you,” he continued, “Their objective is to make sure that you can’t pay your bills and your life, your political life and your journalistic life ends in ruins, where you are bankrupt. It’s not just about silencing you. They want to destroy everything you have and take it all away from you.”
In response, Schneider highlighted the role of organizations such as NewsGuard and Ad Fontes in bankrupting conservatives. “We’ve done work that shows how some of these ratings firms like NewsGuard and sort of the newer player in this space, Ad Fontes, how they are so biased, how they exist to pummel conservatives and then advertisers. The big ad firms, they look at those ratings and they say, ‘Well, let’s not have Coca-Cola or other big firms advertise with Ben Ferguson,’ and these firms are helping to drive away your revenue sources and have you ended.”
Schneider went on to point out that Ad Fontes was already targeting Ferguson’s podcast in this way, as they gave an extremely low rating to The Verdict with Ted Cruz. Similarly, Schneider noted that Ad Fontes had cracked down even harder on The Ben Ferguson Podcast.
Schneider tore into the gatekeepers at Ad Fontes and NewsGuard. “These advertisers have pulled money away from conservative media, not because conservative media in and of itself is the enemy; it’s because they do not want the American public to get this news. They do not want the American public to be informed.” Schneider added, “They want the American public to only get their news from ABC, NBC, CBS, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, maybe a handful of other organizations. That’s where they want the American public to get their news. They can tolerate your existence, so long as you are not educating Americans on what is really going on.”
Earlier in the video, Ferguson discussed how Facebook had shut down his page after flagging a number of extremely old posts as “partially false.” He said that Facebook had shut off his reach and threatened his account with over a million followers with deletion despite all the money he had paid to Facebook to promote his account.
Ferguson and Schneider also discussed an egregious case of censorship Ferguson faced on YouTube after exposing “crisis actors working on behalf of terrorists.” In this case, fake videos depicting alleged victims in the Gaza Strip. The Nov. 13 edition of The Verdict is still censored to this day with a “viewer discretion” warning that must be clicked to watch the video. Schneider suggested that this warning, paired with an age verification requirement, likely diminished viewership by “90-95%.”
Schneider also noted the absolute absurdity of YouTube censoring Ferguson but not the actual “crisis actor,” adding, “Not only is this crisis actor alive and well, but so is his YouTube page.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency and an equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.’
