Big Tech’s greatest hits have been some of their worst moments in censorship. House Republicans appeared eager to make sure Americans never forget.
In a hearing titled “Reviving Competition, Part 2: Saving the Free and Diverse Press,” House Republicans took a walk down memory lane. They discussed Big Tech’s censorship of the Hunter Biden scandal, the ban of former President Donald Trump, and the purge of Parler’s platform.
The broader impact of Big Tech censorship was not lost on members in the hearing. “We are now seeing Big Tech making content-related decisions for people around the world, including here in the United States. What content is available to a free citizenry is driven and shaped by the political agendas of these tech corporations, not consumer preferences,” said Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law ranking member Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO).
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) reminded the committee of when “Big Media teamed up with Big Tech to make sure the American people didn’t hear about the Hunter Biden story in the weeks leading up to a presidential election. So we’ve already seen them team up against ‘we the people.’”
Jordan also pointed to a specific statement from journalist Glenn Greenwald’s written testimony:
[A] mere two months after it ascended to the top of the charts, Parler barely exists. That is because several members of Congress with the largest and most influential social media platforms demanded that Apple and Google remove Parler from their stores and ban any further downloading of the app, and further demanded that Amazon, the dominant provider of web hosting services, cease hosting the site.
Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) ripped Big Tech for its hypocrisy on what is and is not allowed on their platforms. “After years of allowing false information about President Trump and the false Russia collusion information that we saw perpetrating across the American sphere, social media platforms then decided to ban legitimate content about Hunter Biden,” he said. “This is disturbing because it’s a reflection of the role these companies wish to play in dominating civic life and public discourse.”
Even a witness in the hearing blasted Big Tech for having banned Trump. “In January of this year, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Spotify, Snapchat, Instagram, Shopify, Reddit, Twitch, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest all either banned or restricted the democratically-elected president of the United States from speaking to the country on their platforms,” said Clay Travis, the founder of OutKick, a sports media and opinion site.
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 at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
