A blockbuster new report from the Media Research Council is sending shockwaves throughout the conservative media sphere, because it outlines, definitively, how the left-leaning tech industry is actively suppressing conservative speech.

 

Among the many findings, Media Research Center analysts describe:

  • How these major tech companies work with groups that hate the right — such as the Southern Poverty Law Center;
  • How 12 of the 25 U.S.-based members of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council are liberal…and just one is conservative;
  • How Google’s search engine was found to be biased in favor of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election;
  • How YouTube now limits gun videos and promotes radical content from its special Creators for Change;
  • And how “shadow-banning” affects all of us. A Twitter engineer bragged how about this nefarious practice could suppress and silence conservative voices like yours.

From CNS News:

In the detailed, 50-page report, CENSORED! How Online Media Companies Are Suppressing Conservative Speech, authors Ashley Rae Goldenberg and Dan Gainor examine how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google suppress conservative content online, provide numerous examples of the suppression (and censorship), and then provide recommendations for the tech companies…

In its recommendations for these tech firms, the report calls on the companies to be truly diverse in their hiring and bring in conservatives and also “eliminate policies and biases that discriminate against conservatives.” The companies also need to provide transparency when it comes to restrictions on content — let people see what was removed and why. The companies should stop partnering with anti-conservative groups, such as the SPLC and ADL because they are not neutral. In addition, the tech giants need to steer clear of left-leaning “fact checkers” such as Snopes.com and PolitiFact.com.

At the same time, the tech firms need to publish clear guidelines in support of free speech online. “Algorithms, content guidelines and ad policies must be designed that don’t target political speech,” reads the report. “Firms must stop pretending disagreement is equivalent to hate speech. Fairness and transparency are equally essential.”

MRC President, Brent Bozell argues:

“Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the social media giants must allow political expression from both conservative and liberal voices. Just last week, Mark Zuckerberg told Congress that he is working to ensure Facebook is ‘a platform for all ideas.’ This report is evidence that what little effort they have made is not nearly enough. Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube must make real, concrete changes to guarantee conservative voices receive a fair shake. We cannot allow our thoughts and ideas to be barred from the global public conversation.”

Bozell recently appeared on Fox News with Laura Ingraham to talk about the report and to discuss how dangerous the tech assault on free speech really is.

We live in a wonderful, yet terrifying, new age, where almost anything is technologically possible. The future is at our fingertips – but our next steps will determine in which direction that future travel

If we allow the tech giants to continue their fascist program of censorship, we will be slouching towards that terrifying dystopian future that combines elements of Orwell’s 1984 with elements of the movie Mutant Chronicles, where powerful corporations ran the planet. This is a future where no one is free to believe, or speak as they feel, and where all of our public discourse is monitored by people who believe themselves to be our betters.

Or, we can fight back now, and stop these tech giants from shutting us down. We can remind our fellow citizens that free speech is sacred and that everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, no matter how unpopular that opinion might be. We must also remind them that while they need not listen to our opinions, we have every right, as free human beings, to speak our opinion freely so long as we are not physically harming those around us.

The tech giants have moved past private business ownership, they’ve monopolized the internet, meaning they no longer have the right to shut down speech they don’t like for the sake of their platform. If there were viable alternatives for our speech, we would go there, but these tech giants have destroyed their competition and made themselves the only game in town… which means they MUST let us speak.

Please, don’t let them shut us down. Our future and our children’s future hangs in the balance.

Cross-posted with Eagle Rising