America Faces No Greater Threat Than Joe Biden and the Democrat Party. Their Assault to Our Borders Is As Great As Their Assault to Free Speech and Free Elections
Saturday, June 20, 2020
REP. JIM BANKS - MARK ZUCKERBERG'S THREAT TO FREE SPEECH
Rep. Jim Banks: Election Is at Stake if We Don’t Rein in Big Tech Censorship
Political censorship from the world’s largest technology companies places elections at risk through manipulation of information, warned Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), offering his comments on Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host John Hayward.
Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other technology companies regularly deploy censorship of political speech and expression under the guise of restricting “hate speech” or “misinformation.”
Political censorship and manipulation of information flows by large technology companies will escalate as 2020’s presidential election draws nearer, predicted Banks.
Banks recalled Reddit’s censorship of The Donald in 2019, a community of 750,000 supporters of President Donald Trump. The community, one of the most active sources of online grassroots support for the president, was placed in “quarantine” mode by Reddit’s administrators, which requires visitors to the page to further confirm their intent to browse content.
Google’s recent threat to demonetize the Federalist and ZeroHedge is a recent example of Silicon Valley’s attempt to assist left-wing and partisan Democrat ambitions, observed Banks.
Banks said Facebook censored a meme he shared of Bill Clinton.
“I’ll just give you a personal example,” Banks shared. “A couple of weeks ago, I posted a picture — now infamous — of Bill Clinton holding the Bible in front of the church. … This was on my personal Facebook page. I said, remember the outrage when Bill Clinton posed with this photo-op with the Bible in front of the same church that President Trump took so much heat for a few weeks ago when he walked over in the midst of the riots? And Facebook actually — I’ve never seen this happen before. I’ve seen it only happen to people like President Trump — but Facebook blurred out my photo [and called it a ‘false meme.’ This is the new normal when it comes to these big tech platforms going after conservatives.”
Facebook partnered with PolitiFact to “fact-check” the meme Banks referenced, a left-wing news media outlet describing itself as providing “factual information” and “independent fact-checking.”
Technology companies’ political censorship is an undermining of First Amendment rights to free speech and expression, Banks stated. He said the Justice Department’s (DOJ) proposals to reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) hold promise in addressing “big tech’s editing and censoring content [that] come from conservatives.”
Banks said, “Recent academic studies show that Facebook alone, using their algorithms, could steer nearly a half a million votes in the upcoming election. This is what is at stake if we don’t do something about it, to rein in and hold these big tech platforms accountable for their actions, for their censorship, for their attacks on the First Amendment rights of all Americans.”
Banks added, “That’s why I’m committed to doing something about it, [and] why I’m going to dig deeper into Section 230 recommendations for reform from the Department of Justice [and] working with my colleagues to do that. That’s the conservative approach. We can’t allow for these large companies to overtake our way of life and hurt us.”
Large technology companies have becomes “monopolies,” determined Banks, amassing power comparable to government.
“Getting government out of the way [is] fine if we’re talking about a true marketplace, a free market, and a competitive environment,” Banks stated. “What we’re talking about with Google and Facebook are what have essentially become almost government entities that supersede the free market.”
Banks concluded, “Not just regulations for regulations sake, but with Section 232, this is about holding these companies liable for infringing upon the First Amendment rights of the American people. These are American companies that were built from American ingenuity and innovation, and they should uphold the same values that we expect.”
Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter. Facebook Bans Trump Campaign Ad that Denounces Antifa Violence
Facebook removed an ad from the Trump campaign earlier today attacking Antifa, citing its policy on “organized hate.”
The ad, now removed by Facebook, denounced Antifa, the decentralized movement of far-left agitators known for acts of domestic terrorism and political violence.
During the George Floyd riots, Attorney General William Barr described the actions of Antifa as domestic terrorism, and President Trump has also confirmed that he intends to label Antifa a domestic terrorist organization.
The now-deleted Trump ad featured an inverted red-and-black triangle to symbolize the Antifa movement, which uses the red-and-black color scheme in their badges, flags, and propaganda as a form of ideological identification. Red-and-black are the historical colors of the anarcho-communist movement, and red triangles are an Antifa symbol according to products available for purchase.
In the now-deleted ad, the official Team Trump Facebook account said:
Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem. They are DESTROYING our cities and rioting – it’s absolute madness.
It’s important that EVERY American comes together at a time like this to send a united message that we will not stand for their radical actions any longer. We’re calling on YOU to make a public statement and add your name to stand with President Trump against ANTIFA.
Please add your name IMMEDIATELY to stand with your President and his decision to declare ANTIFA a Terrorist Organization.
But Facebook, and far-left organizations that regularly run cover for Antifa, said the red-and-black triangle was a “hate” symbol because it is similar to a symbol used by Nazi Germany in concentration camps.
Facebook apparently bought this argument, even though the Trump team’s post was clearly about Antifa.
“We removed these posts and ads for violating our policy against organized hate,” a company spokesman toldNew York Daily News. “Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group’s symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.”
In a post on Twitter, the Trump team posted an image showing the inverted red-and-black triangle being used by Antifa, in response to a Media Matters post accusing the campaign of using Nazi imagery.
“This is an emoji. It’s also a symbol widely used by Antifa. It was used in an ad about Antifa,” said the Trump team. “It is not in the ADL’s Hate Symbols Database.”
In a comment to the New York Daily News, the Trump team again pointed out the symbol’s links to Antifa.
“The red triangle is an Antifa symbol,” said Trump campaign spokesman Ken Farnaso who linked to the symbol being used in Antifa-branded products.
This is not the first time Facebook has deliberately censored political ads from the Trump team. Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, Facebook censored a Trump ad about the dangers of mass immigration.
In a comment to Breitbart News, Trump Campaign Director of Communications Tim Murtaugh said: “The inverted red triangle is a symbol used by Antifa, so it was included in an ad about Antifa. We would note that Facebook still has an inverted red triangle emoji in use, which looks exactly the same, so it’s curious that they would target only this ad. The image is also not included in the Anti-Defamation League’s database of symbols of hate. But it is ironic that it took a Trump ad to force the media to implicitly concede that Antifa is a hate group.”
Update — Added comment from Trump Campaign Director of Communications Tim Murtaugh
Are you an insider at Google, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, or any other tech company who wants to confidentially reveal wrongdoing or political bias at your company? Reach out to Allum Bokhari at his secure email address allumbokhari@protonmail.com.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.
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