Amy Mek
On September 24, 2019, President Trump used part of his speech at the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly to warn of Big Tech’s expanding power and influence. The U.S. President argued that social media censorship is incompatible with a free society. He also denounced the growing and dangerous trend of “silencing, coercing, canceling, or blacklisting” citizens.
Watch the following except of President Trump’s speech:
Fast forward sixteen months, Twitter permanently suspends President Donald Trump’s account and censors the official @POTUS U.S. Government account.
The Following Action Must Be Taken
Over the past several years, Twitter, Facebook and Google, have made it a regular practice to delete selective content and entire accounts without warning or rationale, leaving users without recourse. During the 2020 U.S. presidential election the tech giants led an unprecedented censorship campaign against the President of the United States and his supporters.
Over the past week, these platforms have taken their actions to yet another level with the permanent ban of the account of the President Trump. As reported previously at RAIR Foundation USA, While every media business is certainly free to choose the content it publishes and the editorial position it advances on issues including politics, typical media businesses can be held liable for libel and slander for publishing erroneous and damaging content.
These social media behemoths, however, have successfully categorized themselves as “platforms” and not media companies that create or publish content. As “platforms,” these tech giants have successfully positioned themselves as equivalent to passive bulletin boards facilitating discussions, and not the actual creator or curator of that content. Much like a wireless carrier who is not liable for what is spoken on their phone lines, social media platforms are supposed to be the means for neutrally distributing content produced by others. As a result, the social media companies are not responsible for what is said or published on their “platforms.”
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act essentially provides an exemption to these “platforms” from the liability that all other media companies, including your local newspapers and tv stations, New York Times, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and individual bloggers, must defend themselves from every day.
Examples like the deplatforming of President Donald Trump and countless other conservatives makes it crystal clear that these social media giants have crossed the line from passive distributors of content like a wireless cell phone carrier facilitating phone calls and entrenched themselves deeply as editorial content businesses advancing political agendas.
The ability of these social media companies to become editorial content businesses is completely within their rights and totally within their discretion. BUT, if they make the decision to become editorial content businesses, as they clearly have, then the laws of the United States should treat these companies should lose their liability shield and be exposed to potential liability like all other editorial content businesses such as Associated Press, Time Magazine, Bloomberg New or the Wall Street Journal.
Ironically, back in 2015, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey tweeted “Twitter stands for the freedom of expression. We stand for speaking truth to power. And we stand for empowering dialogue.”
The deplatforming of President Trump by Twitter and the countless examples of these “platforms” removing content or restricting access to their distribution channels makes it crystal clear that these social media giants have obliterated the line from passive distributors and entrenched themselves deeply as editorial content businesses advancing political agendas.
Social media companies must be treated in like manner to how all other media companies are treated with accountability through potential liability. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act must be repealed – our freedoms under the constitution are dependent upon this.
Transcript from the UN Speech:
Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected, both abroad and from within. We must always be skeptical of those who want conformity and control. Even in free nations, we see alarming signs and new challenges to liberty.
A small number of social media platforms are acquiring immense power over what we can see and over what we are allowed to say. A permanent political class is openly disdainful, dismissive, and defiant of the will of the people. A faceless bureaucracy operates in secret and weakens democratic rule. Media and academic institutions push flat-out assaults on our histories, traditions, and values.
In the United States, my administration has made clear to social media companies that we will uphold the right of free speech. A free society cannot allow social media giants to silence the voices of the people, and a free people must never, ever be enlisted in the cause of silencing, coercing, canceling, or blacklisting their own neighbors.
Vlad Tepes
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