The case against social media platforms and their consistent censorship of conservative content is growing rapidly.
In a new op-ed by Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son slammed Facebook, Instagram, and Google for their latest mistakes in removing and downranking posts made by the right. “Our right to freely engage in public discourse through speech is under sustained attack,” he wrote. Trump Jr. then referenced his own most recent censored content, one about the Jussie Smollett hoax which was deleted by Instagram for being “hate speech.”
That Instagram poststated, “Shocked, I really thought MAGA folks (who are all over downtown Chicago) were waiting with a rope/bottle of bleach to ambush a [rich] guy at 2am in minus 4 degrees because those are conditions where all people go out for Subway rather than order Seamless.” It was restored once public outcry denounced the platform. Instagram called the censorship a “mistake.” In a piece for RealClearPolitics, Trump Jr. then called it “manipulation,” saying “If not for conservative media, the social media giant may never be held accountable.”
In his latest op-ed in The Hill, Trump Jr. wrote of his fear for the regular conservative online. He said, “If it can happen to me, the son of the president, with millions of followers on social media, just think about how bad it must be for conservatives with smaller followings and those who don’t have the soapbox or media reach to push back when they’re being targeted?”
He then brought up Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), who called for a viewpoint neutrality requirement to be added to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Hawley stated at CPAC that Google and Facebook “should not be a law unto themselves.” Trump Jr. called for other politicians to support Hawley’s answer to the far-reaching censorship enacted against the right, especially since it is now affecting transportation, online payments and banking.
The free market must be protected at all costs, according to Trump Jr. It is “necessary to ensure that the free marketplace of ideas remains open to all.” In other words, it is time to find a solution to this problem.
