President Donald Trump ferociously denounced social media companies like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube on Saturday for censoring and discriminating against Republicans and conservatives.
“Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen.”
Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others…….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
Trump did not specific steps his administration might take to protect the internet as a forum for all points of view.
“Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen,” he wrote. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out! Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police.”
….Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
He warned that censorship in America was wrong.
“Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police,” he wrote.
He added: “If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all.”
…..Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police. If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
WND reports:
In recent weeks, Alex Jones has been banned from YouTube, Spotify, Facebook, Apple and Twitter.
After Facebook rejected a highly inspirational ad for a Republican congressional candidate that included images depicting her parents’ persecution under the Khmer Rouge communist regime in Cambodia, Twitter has followed up with its own ban. A backlash prompted by media coverage led to Facebook changing its mind last week and approving the ad by Elizabeth Heng, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Jim Costa for the 16th District seat in California’s Central Valley. But Twitter determined the ad is “ineligible to participate in the Twitter Ads program” because the content violates its ban on “that which is offensive, vulgar, or obscene.”
Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey denied claims his company is discriminating against users with conservative views in an interview with CNN’s Brian Stelter.
“Are we doing something according to political ideology or viewpoints?” he asked rhetorically. “We are not … We do not look at content with regards to political viewpoint or ideology. We look at behavior … I think we need to constantly show that we are not adding our own bias, which I fully admit is left, is more left-leaning.”
“It has become something of an epidemic,” said Joseph Farah, founder of WND.com, the first independent online news-gathering platform created some 21 years ago. “While I have been warning about the increased and overt censorship by this ‘Speech Code Cartel’ for a long time, it’s becoming more obvious and part of an undeniable pattern that is chilling freedom of speech, freedom of the press and religious freedom.”
“We are rapidly plunging into an internet Dark Age that no longer reflects our culture’s political and spiritual values, but rather, shapes them as much as any other institution in history,” Farah says.