Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
—Benjamin Franklin—
Key point: If America doesn’t rein in Big Tech, it will cease to be America.
On Thursday evening, November 26, President Donald Trump tweeted the following: “For purposes of National Security, Section 230 must be immediately terminated!!!”
For purposes of National Security, Section 230 must be immediately terminated!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2020
What does the president mean? What is Section 230, and why is he contending it “must be immediately” eliminated? We’ll answer that question in a few moments, but let’s highlight some background information first.
President Trump is talking about the media and their censorship practices. While Section 230 relates to Internet social media platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and You Tube, the problem of media censorship also includes other media companies like MSNBC and CNN. Although the result of the presidential election still is being fought out in court, media outlets have proclaimed Joe Biden the winner. Yet a recent study confirms that were it not for the censorship of the legacy media and Big Tech, Trump would have clearly defeated Biden.
There’s more. Even before one begins to cite specific examples of voter fraud in the 2020 election (and there are many), a Biden win defies historical trends and stands contrary to a host of other elements surrounding the contest. Here, here, and here are three articles that bear this out.
The Censorship Intensifies
The censorship of conservative views by Big Tech and the legacy media has intensified as Joe Biden’s “victory” is being contested in court. Sidney Powell, you may know, is a well-known attorney fighting hard for election integrity. Powell herself is a woman of integrity. On Lou Dobbs’s program on November 13, Sidney appeared and spoke of massive orchestrated voter fraud that stole the election from Donald Trump. She declared she was going to “release the kraken.” On November 25, the eve of Thanksgiving, she did just that in the form of two lawsuits relating to fraud in Georgia and Michigan. Sidney made these lawsuits available on her website, defendingtherepublic.org.
Now Twitter is censoring her. While the social media giant reversed its initial “Ban on Sidney Powell’s Lawsuits,” it has slapped a “Warning Label [on them] Instead.” The warning label is even worse than the ban:
This and other examples of censorship are dangerous to both individual freedom in America and to national security, just as President Trump stated in his tweet. Don’t Americans have a right to know about evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election? Keep in mind that Sidney Powell’s lawsuits are public record. Every American should have access to them. Big Tech has no business deciding for Americans what to believe about the election.
Americans have a right to know about evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Section 230
Here again is President Trump’s tweet: “For purposes of National Security, Section 230 must be immediately terminated!!!”
For purposes of National Security, Section 230 must be immediately terminated!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2020
Section 230 of the Federal Communications Decency Act “was designed to prevent internet companies from being treated as publishers and was done in part to allow the internet to flourish.” In an article appearing at The Gateway Pundit, Cristina Laila explains the provisions of this portion of the law:
Online intermediaries such as Twitter or Facebook must act as a neutral platform in order to be protected against laws that would make them legally responsible for what their users post.
In other words, to protect them from lawsuits, social media platforms, which the law assumes are acting faithfully as public forums as opposed to publishers (a distinction we will clarify momentarily), must allow users to express themselves freely and not seek to change or to filter out their content. Laila goes on to contend, rightly, that
It is clear that Twitter and Facebook are now publishers since they are making editorial decisions on what content is allowed to be shared by users.
PragerU v. You Tube
Prager University, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit information company, seeks to promote American ideas and ideals on a wide variety of topics. It has been the target of social media censorship for some time, specifically censorship from You Tube. PragerU sued You Tube and lost, in large part because the First Amendment guarantee of free speech limits government, not private companies. Yet do all Americans truly have free speech rights if some views are censored on social media while opposing views are not? You Tube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media entities have become the 21st-century “street corner” on which Americans must stand and express their views to get their messages out.
Anticipating his client’s day in court, PragerU’s attorney Eric George explained the background for PragerU v. YouTube and the implications involved. This PragerU video was released on August 19, 2019. A transcript is available here.
It is critical we understand the issues involved here. Although Big Tech is indeed made up of private companies, these companies are not acting in ways consistent with American ideals. They actually are violating the law, including Section 230 and the spirit of the First Amendment. That has to change. As PragerU attorney Eric George said, this
is about the most fundamental freedom Americans have: freedom of speech, as enunciated in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. All our freedoms—the very concept of freedom—springs from this right. Lose it, and we’re no longer free—not as indies’ viduals, and not as a nation.
What Kind of Country Are We?
Here is another tweet from President Trump that emphasizes what is really at stake. Here is the hearing to which Trump refers in his tweet.
Wow! Twitter bans highly respected Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano after he did a great job of leading a hearing on the 2020 Election fraud. They and the Fake News, working together, want to SILENCE THE TRUTH. Can’t let that happen. This is what Communist countries do!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2020
Will we be a country that upholds or hinders free speech? Will we be America, or allow Big Tech to “SILENCE THE TRUTH,” to participate in activity for which Communist countries are known? This is the crux of the matter. While Big Tech is made up of private companies, government has a duty to protect the free speech right of all its citizens.
Let’s consider once again the statement President Trump made on Twitter about Section 230, the tweet we considered at the top of this article. The president is right. Let’s terminate Section 230, hold Big Tech accountable to do their jobs as public forums, and reclaim free speech in America!
Copyright © 2020 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Dig deeper:
This video also is available here. A transcript is available here.
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