Grassley: Big Tech is Censoring Conservatives By Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Editors Note: The views and opinions expressed in this editorial are not necessarily the views or opinions of Oskaloosa News.

by Sen. Chuck Grassley

I was surprised to learn that Facebook recently flagged a news article I posted on one of my Facebook pages as “false information.” The article I posted was about new Durham investigation allegations against the Hillary Clinton campaign and its associates. The article clearly cited a federal court filing and a former congressional investigator with a deep understanding of Democrats’ work to concoct the bogus Russia collusion narrative that divided our nation for years.

This wouldn’t be an issue today if more journalists did their job of being the police of our society and reported on all investigations – not just ones that appeal to a certain political party.

What kind of message does this censorship send to a reporter who does take on the new allegations against the Clinton campaign and its associates and it’s labeled disinformation? I don’t think that will encourage more journalists to cover this issue.

It’s truly mind-blowing that these companies continue to interfere in free expression. Big Tech is silencing everyone they disagree with and clearly they see no check to their power.

The article I cited in my post was on FoxNews.com, a mainstream news organization. Why does Facebook and one of its third-party fact-checker partners get to make the decision that this news article is considered false information? That decision should be made by the American people who should be able to view that content and decide for themselves.

It shouldn’t be decided by our Big Tech overlords who seem to only find fault with content that is conservative or goes against the liberal narrative.

These are the same outlets that allowed information relating to the Steele dossier to run wild and free yet censored Hunter Biden news articles during the 2020 election. Now they’re doing the bidding for the Clinton camp. Why are they so afraid of reporting that exposes the Russia collusion hoax?

Silencing or chilling free speech and the back-and-forth discussion of ideas is wrong.

Increasingly we see the tag “misinformation” or “disinformation” given to content that the liberal mainstream media simply disagrees with or goes against their chosen narrative. Finding and seeking the truth should not be about silencing voices but allowing robust discourse.

It’s time that we examine the Section 230 immunity that has enabled these companies to avoid any liability. We must stop these companies from arbitrarily deciding what speech is acceptable for the country.

It has become increasingly clear that these dominant platforms controlling discussion and dialogue are more beholden to cancel culture and not to the fundamental free speech principles that this country was founded upon.

These Big Tech companies have few competitors and are immune from liability. These companies are unaccountable to their customers, the courts and the government. If not for their monopoly power and Section 230 immunity, these companies might not be involved in the actions and censorship we see today.

As a United States senator and someone who has been vocally outspoken about my concerns with censorship on online platforms, I’ll continue to do everything in my power to prevent the censorship of speech and ideas on behalf of Iowans and all Americans.

Simply put we deserve better than woke monopolists and their liberal lap dogs deciding what we can discuss.

Posted by on Feb 28 2022. Filed under Editorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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