MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider called out Big Tech for censorship, discrimination and election interference during a hearing at the Texas Capitol.
During a May 29 hearing of the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs, committee members heard from several witnesses, including Schneider, about Big Tech censorship and election interference. During the hearing, Schneider touched on Facebook’s outright discrimination against certain users, undeniable election interference efforts and upcoming free speech cases that are currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.
During his opening remarks, Schneider presented work done by MRC Free Speech America and blistered Big Tech companies such as Facebook for their bias and discrimination.
MRC's @Schneider_DC testifies before the Texas Senate about our unique database https://t.co/PnA94qKHV4 which tracks Big Tech censorship of free speech. pic.twitter.com/u4APrirGLD
— Free Speech America (@FreeSpeechAmer) May 29, 2024
Schneider warned that the future of free speech in many ways lies in the hands of three cases soon to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. “[W]e are at risk of losing the First Amendment entirely,” he said. “The Google/Facebook attorney has argued that our individual rights to free speech are nothing compared to the government’s right to free speech to coordinate with Big Tech to silence individuals, which of course turns the First Amendment upside down.”
Schneider also shredded Big Tech for its bias and outright discrimination. “It’s important for you all to know that Google and Facebook, and these other Big Tech firms, they’ve resurrected the Plessy v. Ferguson standard,” Schneider said. “They believe that not only can they discriminate against people based on political viewpoint, they can, and in fact do, discriminate against people based on race and religion,” he added referring to a case in which Facebook argued that it could discriminate against a Sikh religious group.
When Texas State Senator Tan Parker asked Schneider about how social media algorithms drive bias, Schneider pointed out that algorithms are written by people who often have biases. “What we know is that those algorithms are drafted in a way specifically to achieve outcomes. These outcomes, oftentimes, are articulated by the corporate leadership.”
He gave the example of a meeting at Google following the 2016 election. “[Y]ou had the most senior Google employees, specifically at an all-hands-on meeting, vowing that this would never be allowed to happen again their resources were put into altering future election outcomes and it's gone on to this day.”
Schneider added that the Big Tech companies, “Collude with advertisers and media ratings firms like NewsGuard and Ad Fontes and then other organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ADL, that used to care about the rights of individuals, but now they’re just politicized, radical left-wing organizations that exist to silence everyday Americans.”
The MRC Free Speech America Vice President also offered a solution. “This collusion, I believe, is in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and then similar laws at the state level that prohibit illegal restraint on trade. So, I think that that could be a very good avenue for this committee and for the attorney general to explore.”
Following the hearing, Senate Committee on State Affairs Chair Bryan Hughes announced that the committee had unanimously voted to authorize subpoenas against Big Tech companies. In a post on X, Hughes wrote, “There is strong evidence that big tech imposes their own biases to manipulate and stifle dissenting voices, undermining election integrity. Texas will not stand for that.”
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.
