Liberals
control every newspaper in America, as far as I know, except the Manchester
Union Leader. They control CBS, ABC, NBC and every cable network except Fox
News. They control what is left of the news magazines, and pretty much every
other magazine, too. Only talk radio and the pesky internet lie outside their
grasp, so that is where they seek to impose censorship.
But they have a problem: the First Amendment. The
government can’t suppress conservative speech on the ground that it is “hate
speech,” i.e., something that liberals don’t like. That was recently reaffirmed
by a 9-0 decision of the Supreme Court.
So
liberals have outsourced censorship of the internet to the tech titans of
Silicon Valley.
Unfortunately, most political conversation
these days occurs not on the “free” internet, where independent sites like
Power Line reside, but rather on social media–Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so
on. Other players include Google (in its search capacity), Apple, Pinterest,
Spotify, etc. Happily–if you are a leftist–all of these tech companies are run
by liberals. And because they are private companies, they are not constrained by
the First Amendment. They can restrict or ban conservative communications on the
ground that they are “hate speech,” or on no grounds whatsoever, with impunity.
And that is exactly what they are doing. This is a
big topic. I brought it up this morning while hosting the Laura Ingraham
radio show, and it blew up, ultimately consuming half of the three-hour show.
Many aspects of the left’s outsourcing of censorship to liberal-run
corporations need to be explored, but for now, this is an astonishing example: “Silicon Valley Strikes
Back: Facebook Censors PragerU After Google Lawsuit.”
Dennis Prager is probably the foremost public
intellectual of our time. His Prager University has been wildly successful. It
brings a much-needed conservative antidote to the liberal nonsense to which so
many Americans, especially young people, are subjected. That has made Prager a
key target of the Left.
It started when YouTube downgraded PragerU’s
videos. Weird: PragerU’s videos are enormously popular, and YouTube makes money
when people watch videos. Moreover, PragerU’s videos are among the most
high-quality, intellectually sound productions on YouTube. Nevertheless,
YouTube (which is owned by Google) has tried to suppress traffic to PragerU’s
products. PragerU has sued Google as a result. So this is the latest:
Facebook has shadow banned PragerU
into complete silence to its more than 3 million followers, internal analytics
revealed.
“Our last 9 posts have been
completely censored reaching 0 of our 3 million followers,” PragerU media
personality Will Witt posted on Facebook Friday. “At least two of our videos
were deleted last night for ‘hate speech’ including a post of our most recent
video with The Conservative Millennial, Make Men Masculine Again.”
“Internal Facebook analytics
reveal that as of Thursday, Aug. 16, at 10:00 PM PDT, posts by PragerU on the
social media platform have been completely invisible to its more than 3 million
followers,” PragerU reported in a news release Friday. “Currently, visitors to
PragerU’s Facebook page are unable to see any of its most recent posts.”
“This is a first for us,” PragerU
Chief Marketing Officer Craig Strazzeri said in a statement. “While we’ve
experienced blatant discrimination from Google/YouTube, which is why we’ve
filed legal action against them, this represents a whole new level of
censorship by Facebook. at this point, Facebook has provided little clarity
saying it will get back to us in another two to three business days, which in
the world of social media might as well be an eternity.”
Tech
titans stick together. Two weeks ago, Apple, Facebook, YouTube and Spotify
simultaneously “de-platformed” Alex Jones and Infowars. Twitter held out
briefly, and then, in response to demands from liberals, also banned Jones and
Infowars. I have never paid attention to Infowars and have no idea whether its
content has merit. But simultaneous bans and suspensions across platforms can
hardly be coincidental. The phrase “combination or
conspiracy in restraint of trade” comes to mind.
In any event, any claim by the Left that
companies aligned with it are merely cleansing themselves of disreputable
content would be absurd. First, PragerU is among the most reputable content on
the internet. Second, they have taken no action against left-wing extremists
like the fascist Antifa, which disseminates its hate speech freely on every
social media platform I am aware of.
The Left’s attempt to outsource censorship to its Silicon Valley allies
is one of the most important issues of our time. The proper solution may lie in
creating competitive platforms, or in legislative, regulatory or judicial
action. Perhaps platforms fitting a particular legal definition should be
regulated as public utilities. After all, Federal Express doesn’t refuse to
deliver packages to the National Review office on the ground that they may
contain conservative communications, and telephone companies haven’t tried to
cut off connections when two conservatives are talking. Why should Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube be permitted to engage in political discrimination?
That is a big topic for another day.