Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) didn’t spend years fighting Big Tech censorship to let Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) outright deny that censorship faced by conservatives on social media platforms exists.
The Murphy v. Missouri veteran laid into Big Tech for its censorship in response to a stunning denial from the “totally ignorant” Sen. Markey during a Feb. 25 hearing for Federal Trade Commission (FTC) nominee Mark Meador. If confirmed to the position, Meador would provide Republican FTC members a majority on the critical commission. Unfortunately for Markey, Schmitt's turn to speak came immediately after the Massachusetts senator’s easily refuted denial that Big Tech censorship against conservatives exists.
“Well that’s interesting because, as Attorney General of Missouri, I filed the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit that uncovered the vast censorship enterprise. So, the idea that there wasn’t censorship is nonsense, total nonsense,” Schmitt said. “We saw the weaponization of the whole of government against political opponents because they dared to dispute the efficacy of masks, or had concerns about the vaccine.”
Schmitt went on to call this censorship “the worst abuse of the First Amendment we have ever seen in the United States of America,” before urging Meador to root out censorship after he joins the FTC. Schmitt rejected Markey’s statement denying censorship as “totally ignorant of the facts.”
Prior to this, Markey denied what he called the “baseless claim that Big Tech has unfairly censored conservatives.” The Democrat senator also called investigations into censorship “conspiratorial fishing expeditions” and even pressured Meador to preemptively agree to accept whatever conclusion “career staff” come to on censorship, before predicting that these bureaucrats would doubtless find that “no censorship” had taken place.
Markey’s comments at the hearing follow his previous dismissal of free speech concerns as “baseless conspiracy theories” and repeated attempts to portray the fight for free speech as the real censorship.
Markey also vented about free speech concerns expressed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Markey attacked Meador for agreeing with the 2024 MRC Free Speech Award Winner (Schmitt also won this award) about the threat of Big Tech censorship.
Sen. Cruz spoke with Meador about Big Tech and asked Meador if he agreed that “Big Tech censorship poses the single greatest threat to free speech and free and fair elections in this country.” Meador promised to look into these censorship concerns and to consult elected officials like Cruz if the issue was too challenging for the FTC to handle.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
