Congress Should Hold Hearings on Tech Companies Censoring Conservatives, Says NRB
National Religious Broadcasters urged Congress Thursday to hold hearings on tech companies such as Google and Twitter suppressing conservative viewpoints, and announced the Internet Freedom Watch Initiative to track incidents. NRB is alarmed “at the ever growing examples of censorship of Christian and conservative viewpoints online, largely at the behest of small yet dominant groups of cultural elites,” said CEO Jerry Johnson. NRB sent letters to Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter asking they use the same standards for speech as the First Amendment, drawing the line only at speech that “threatens violence” or “spews obscenity” without “trampling on free speech liberties.”
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Former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, support the effort. Big tech is “behaving like the petty tyrants on college campuses,” Cruz said, suggesting Congress should cease treating companies like Facebook as impartial public forums that aren’t liable for the speech and users they host. The companies are acting as “political players,” Cruz said.
“Twitter as a platform is impartial, and we believe strongly in impartiality,” a representative said. The other companies and the Internet Association didn’t comment.
Johnson cited Twitter for blocking an advertisement from Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., in which she talked about fighting Planned Parenthood and blocking the sale of infant body parts. Twitter eventually reversed the block and allowed the ad, which was announcing Blackburn’s Senate campaign launch, to play. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, defending against net neutrality rule change criticism (see 1712070069), also has lamented this (see 1712060058). “Diverse perspectives are present every day and treated equally so users can see every side, and the Twitter Rules apply to everyone equally,” Twitter's rep emailed. NRB cited Facebook’s news feed curation, the pulling of a Christian app from the iTunes store, and age restrictions on conservative YouTube videos.
“Silicon Valley has the power to put its thumb on the scale,” said Cruz, in a speech on the importance of freedom of expression and freedom of religion. If tech companies are censoring conservative content on their platforms, they aren't neutral public forums, and rules that protect such forums from legal liability should no longer apply, Cruz said.
Speakers distinguished their concerns from those in the FCC’s upcoming action on net neutrality. Cruz condemned the previous administration’s classification of the internet under Communications Act Title II as a “lawless” attempt to regulate the internet, and said tech companies supported it because regulations favor entrenched incumbents. By shining a light on tech actions, NRB will help market forces motivate the companies to cease interfering with access to conservative content, McDowell said.
“I’m wary of the government trying to come in and balance speech on any issue,” McDowell said, cautioning NRB it would be a bad idea to seek government action to correct the matter. “We are not at this time calling for new laws or regulations; indeed we are very cautious about heavy-handed government regulations dangerous to speech and innovation,” said Johnson.
By temporarily blocking Blackburn’s ad, Twitter limited access to exactly the kind of speech that should be “sacrosanct,” an announcement of political candidacy, Reed said. ”She was referring to her attempts to enforce the law.” Free speech is essential to conduct of a healthy democracy, he said.