The Media Research Center-led Free Speech Alliance sent a critical message to the U.S. Senate on Friday: we need a free speech majority on the Federal Trade Commission.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the signatories urged that Mark Meador be quickly confirmed as the newest commissioner of the FTC. The Free Speech Alliance outlined a list of past behavior by Big Tech companies, sounding the alarm about ongoing censorship, particularly by the monopolistic Google. They warned that if the Senate does not hold votes on Meador, these threats may remain unaddressed.
“We write to emphasize the urgency of confirming Mark Meador to be a Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. He is the right person to protect and enforce the nation’s antitrust laws fairly and vigorously,” the Free Speech Alliance wrote. President Donald Trump nominated Meador on Dec. 10, 2024.
The free speech advocates urged quick action to create an FTC majority that defends free speech and enforces antitrust law:
“President Donald J. Trump was elected in a landslide with a clear mandate to protect free speech and institute meaningful reforms. Any delay in confirming his nomination wastes this golden opportunity to make America great again. It is imperative, therefore, that the Commerce Committee acts swiftly to report out his nomination and that the full Senate votes expeditiously to confirm him.”
Cruz is chairman of the Senate Committee on Science, Transportation, and Commerce, which held a revealing confirmation hearing for Meador. Meador’s opposition to, and even acknowledgment of, widespread Big Tech censorship rankled committee member Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA).
But Meador has done more than standing his ground against the pro-censorship far left. As the letter noted, Meador fought anticompetitive practices during his past work for the FTC and in the Department of Justice’s antitrust division while also assisting Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) in creating legislation against such abuses.
The Free Speech Alliance included a list of complaints against Apple and Google for censoring free speech while holding near-monopolies in the app store market. The alliance also took Google’s parent company Alphabet to task for abusing its near-monopoly in the video platform market (YouTube) and in digital ads. In August 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled that Google has a monopoly in “general search services” and “general search text ads.”
Read the full letter here.
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.
