A Pinterest tech insider received an award for his part in blowing the whistle on Pinterest’s bias and censorship of conservative content.
Whistleblower Eric Cochran received an Impact Award during the 3rd Annual Impact Awards hosted by Liberty Consulting President Ginni Thomas and by United Purpose last Wednesday. He received the prestigious award for what Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe considered a heroic act -- coming forward and blowing the whistle on how Pinterest censors conservative content.
In June, Project Veritas posted a video that featured an anonymous whistleblower (Cochran) who claimed that Pinterest censored LiveAction.org’s content, apparently including it among a registry of pornographic websites blocked by the platform.
Cochran, in accepting his award, explained the rationale for his actions:
I knew the public had to know that social media censorship is not in our imaginations, but real and carried out by radicals such as my former colleagues with an un-American agenda inside Silicon Valley.
In introducing Cochran, O’Keefe detailed the Big Tech insider’s contribution: “[T]his man blew the whistle on the company censoring Christians, bible verses, not allowing you to type in the word bible verse.”
O’Keefe stated that as a result of what Cochran did, insiders from “inside Facebook, two people within Google, an individual inside CNN, and a man or woman inside ‘ABC Good Morning America’ to record Amy Robach and leak that tape” all stepped forward to expose liberal media and Big Tech bias.
Cochran, later in his award acceptance speech, explained how social media has completely changed the political landscape:
For decades the mainstream media have been the gatekeepers of information and political ideas. Then social media offered to tear down the gates and has led to the rise of new journalism such as Project Veritas’ YouTube videos, the America-First Right, and an unprecedented surge for the pro-life movement.
And with this breakdown of the liberal media, the left has sought to crack down on dissent within Big Tech establishment, Cochran explained:
The Big Tech establishment fears this freedom of speech and loss of control, especially with Roe v. Wade on the ropes, and now seeks to quash all dissent and threats to the status quo. In fact, YouTube even seemingly colluded with Pinterest, and in an unprecedented move, removed Project Veritas’ Pinterest exposé.
Cochran explained that his experience at Pinterest gave him the gift of having “skin in the game” and suggested that more exposés are in the works thanks to insiders who are still working within the system.
The 2019 Impact Awards event featured many heavy hitters in the conservative movement. These individuals, according to the criteria laid out on the Impact Award website, qualify as “unsung warriors” who have distinguished themselves by “preserving America’s liberties with their life’s work.”
The exact criteria these “unsung heroes” are as follows:
- Demonstrates outstanding excellence and broad impact.
- Shows tenacity, courage and perseverance even under hostile attacks.
- Works with urgency, courage and wisdom.
- Realizes existential threat to the American experiment.
- Is an asset to the whole liberty movement.
- Works to help beyond their own silo and job.
- Is respected among their peers.
Along with Eric Cochran, other recipients of Impact Awards included: Abby Johnson, Sharyl Attkisson, Justin Danhof, Dr. Jason D. Hill, Congressman Mark R. Meadows, Michelle Malkin, Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer. Dr. Jordan B. Peterson who could not be present was bestowed with the “Outstanding Impact Award.” Dr. Robert P. George was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award, the “Outstanding Impact Award.”
