[ May 3, 2024 ]
“With regard to alleged anti-competitive behavior, the activists write that ‘the degree of a media company’s market power does not change its protection by the First Amendment.'” What Orwellian garbage. What about the First Amendment rights of the people they are deplatforming, shadowbanning, and silencing in all kinds of ways? What about their systematic denial of First Amendment rights to those who dissent from their far-left agenda?
We were the first to sue the social media giants for our First Amendment rights. In light of that fight, I began to focus AFDI activism to pursue anti-trust laws be used to break up social monopolies and duopolies. The Wall Street Journal now is suggesting the same thing, albeit for the wrong reasons. For the WSJ, it’s all about the Benjamins, but for principled Americans, it’s all about freedom. Please contribute to that fight here. Make no mistake, it is the most pressing issue of day. If we are going to fight against the forces of far-left authoritarianism, and we must, freedom of speech in the social media public square is essential. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a free society. Without it, these leftist tyrants can and are wreaking havoc unopposed, while we are silenced. I have written extensively on this here.
Quick synopsis here: Pamela Geller, American Thinker: Urgent Case for Legislation against Facebook and Google
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Here is what I argued back in 2016:
If the US government could break up Ma Bell, the USG can break up Facebook. Today’s IP address is yesterday’s phone number. It’s how we communicate today — whether by FB comment, messenger, Twitter DM etc.
Facebook adhering to the most extreme and brutal ideology on the face of the earth should trouble all of us, because Mark Zuckerberg has immense power. He controls the flow of information. He controls what you see and don’t see on Facebook. We did not give him the power to abridge our unalienable freedoms.
The US government used anti-trust laws to break up monopolies. They ought to break up Facebook. Section 2 of the Sherman Act highlights particular results deemed anti-competitive by nature and prohibits actions that “shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations.” Couldn’t the same be applied to information? The United States government took down Standard Oil, Alcoa, Northern Securities, the American Tobacco Company and many others without nearly the power that Facebook has.
I do not know how far my lawsuit against the social media giants will get but I do know that something must be done. Whether through legislation or anti-trust lawsuits, the chokehold that the uniformly leftist corporate media managers at social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google have on our means of communication must be broken.
Facebook, Google search, AdSense, Twitter, YouTube have banned, blocked, shadowbanned and scrubbed my site, my work, from their platforms and my millions of followers. And I am hardly alone. It is now standard operating procedure to silence conservatives and counter terror activists.
“Sessions urged not to go after social media companies by technology activists,” by James Rogers, Fox News, September 21, 2018 (thanks to Mark):
A group of technology activists and think tanks is urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to go after social media companies.
Companies such as Facebook and Twitter are firmly in the spotlight at the moment amid allegations of anti-conservative bias.
The Justice Department recently confirmed that Sessions has convened a meeting with a number of state attorneys general to discuss “a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms.”
The meeting will take place this month, according to officials. The announcement came in the wake of a recent Senate Intelligence Committee hearing attended by top executives at Facebook and Twitter.
In a letter sent on Friday, tech policy think tanks TechFreedom, which describes itself as “liberty oriented,” Lincoln Network and Copia Institute called on Sessions to rethink his pursuit of these companies. Other signatories include tech entrepreneurship group Engine Advocacy, Iain Murray, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, American Legislative Exchange Council CEO Lisa Nelson and law professor Eric Goldman.
“It is unclear what lawful action could result from your planned meeting. Indeed, we fear that the effect of your inquiry will be to accomplish through intimidation what the First Amendment bars: interference with editorial judgment,” the letter states.
With regard to alleged anti-competitive behavior, the activists write that “the degree of a media company’s market power does not change its protection by the First Amendment.”
The signatories also urge Sessions to call on the Federal Trade Commission in the event of an investigation. “We do not believe that the Department of Justice, as an arm of an Administration that has so consistently attacked social media companies (as well as traditional media companies), has the independence to act in the neutral, apolitical fashion required by the First Amendment,” they write. “The FTC has already handled multiple investigations into social media companies, and thus already has the relevant expertise in this area.”…
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50 Comments
5 years ago
LOL you mean the “mouse who couldn’t roar”. That gutless worm will do what he does best. Hide under his desk.
5 years ago
Sessions urged not to go after… Hell, Sessions has gone after no one, he has remained inert through his tenure as AG. The man is inept; meanwhile every leftist Progressive political and civil subversive is given free rein to destroy the Republic. The man has the ambition, drive and intelligence of a turnip. I have never understood why Trump has not fired this weenie of weenies; I am not alone.
5 years ago
Reply to
Ziggy46
OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH, WHAT IS GOING ON BEHIND THE SCENE? I SUGGEST YOU TAKE A LOOK! IN TIME, YOU WILL UNDERSTAND!
5 years ago
After facebook, twitter , even Google, youtube joins lslamofascist gang to support illegals and jihadis
suppress conservative free speech http://tinyurl.com/lgp28rs
saudi/qatar/OIC own part of twitter, Fox Network, fund CNN, MSNBC , buy out politicians , bureaucrats in education dept to push islam in schools/ colleges. Easiest way to brainwash and takeover country and shutdown free speech !
5 years ago
Reply to
Suresh
The only thing wrong with this picture is that it should be of ‘the mouse’ jeff sessions.
5 years ago
5 years ago
Reply to
~~♥Baby Doll♥~~ Vote Trump!
I must ask. Was he a “Plant,” instructed to cozy up to Candidate Trump and whisper in his ear, “I’d make a GREAT Attorney General.” He knew tht Trump likes to reward loyalty. The fact that he immediately played the “Recuse” card after becoming A.G, makes me very suspicious. His “Recusing” himself then gave the slimy Rosenstein (And others) a free hand.
5 years ago
What about Mastercard? What about PayPal? Are they just private companies who can decide who they want to do business with?
Conservatives – including many luminaries defending the ‘rights of private companies’ have not thought this through …
AND OBVIOUSLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE SYSTEM WE ARE ALREADY IN.
IF THE TECH GIANTS GET AWAY WITH CENSORSHIP – BANKS WILL BE NEXT.
Crowd funding sites and patronage sites such as Patreon already censor. And if BANKS are NOT utilities that must provide public accommodation, the entire edifice of 14th amendment public accommodation will be exposed for the fraud that it is.
But if BANKS ARE utilities, then surely any business – especially one PUBLICLY TRADED – is a utility.
AS FOR CHOICE … The Demokkkrats WILL regulate choice as soon as they can. Deciding NOT to use the system ALREADY in place will NOT DETER THEM.
Seriously, who thinks the Demokkkrats will say, ‘Oh, look at the conservatives, they decided to let giant, publicly traded utilities to silence them, which btw just confirms that they know our Big Lies are true, and so we are going to let a Christian baker in Peoria refuse to bake a Homo-nasties cake.” Really??? Nonsense. No. They will say, ‘Conservatives are silenced because (the truth) is hate speech, and we will target anti-Nasties wherever and whenever we find them.’
The way to keep CHOICE – such as the right of a business to choose to make a GOP donation or refuse a personal service to a Nastie customer – at least for right now – IN THE ABSENCE OF A MAGIC WAND –
IS TO ENFORCE THE DAM* LAWS FOR UTILITIES AND PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS THAT ARE ON THE BOOKS!
And DO IT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!
5 years ago
Reply to
Dan Knight
Banks are already denying gun businesses access to the banking industry.
5 years ago
Social media is not news media; it’s just a data centre where individuals can host their individual content instead of paying for their own websites. It’s their servers and ultimately the business can choose what content stays on their servers. Only Google, being a search engine, should be considered as they may block searches to conservative websites.
5 years ago
Reply to
bargogx1
You paid for the cake you dictate the writing. You don’t pay for use of Facebook, Twitter, google etc…they are not news broadcasters. News is content creation. Social media is content distribution.
5 years ago
Sessions will obey. What a disappointment he continues to be…. Let’s hope for the best after the midterms.
Sessions, Rosenstein and Wrey have to go!
5 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Why did POTUS nominate Wray? Methinks he has some covert deep state advisers.
5 years ago
Freedom of speech should be upheld above all.
5 years ago
Reply to
R. Arandas
The ultimate aim of the “Progressives” (Communists) is the gradual destruction of our Constitution, by any means necessary. They spend time railing against the Second Amendment. Their real objective is the First Amendment. We must remember , and defend, the Second Amendment as the First Amendment stands it’s shoulders, I do not like what Facebook, Google, etc. are involved in…….really censorship. I do not have the answer, but I DO know that government involvement is NOT the answer. Once government is involved, the “Censorship,” etc., will only worsen.
5 years ago
Bet they threatened his ears. Promised to flatten them. Make him look like James Brawn.
5 years ago
The Wolf telling those guarding the chicken coop to not guard the chicken coop.
5 years ago
I did a quick comparison of the results of two search engines on the entry “Pamela Geller”: One on Google, and one on DuckDuckGo.
The first page results on Google showed over 50% of the listed sites proclaiming negative, demeaning, comments about Pamela Geller calling her racist, bigoted, Islamophobe, etc.
The first page results on DuckDuckGo showed NO negative sites for Pamela Geller.
If asked do I believe DuckDuckGo has the hots for Geller, or does Google have a built in bias against Geller, based on what I know as a heavy internet user is this: Unequivocally, Google staff and algorithms have a marked, purposeful bias against the messages of Pamela Geller. It is a markedly left wing, socialist, Islamist, and one-world bias. It is a bias against patriotism, nationalism, and preservation of our culture and Christian heritage.
Restraint of trade actions against the top 10 browsers, social network, and internet payment sites CANNOT COME SOON ENOUGH!
5 years ago
Reply to
gfmucci .
You are on target, gfmucci. DuckDuckGo is the way to go. However, Restraint of trade actions against these miscreants would come from our totally corrupt federal government. That worries me.
5 years ago
Reply to
gfmucci .
thank you so much for that informative contrast! I have been using Bing, but haven’t made the comparison like you did-good thinking!
5 years ago
“Sessions urged not to go after social media companies by technology activists,” Gee, the activists don’t have much to worry about. Sessions doesn’t appear to go after ANYONE, for any reason.
5 years ago
Do not forget that not so long ago the government also broke up the phone monopoly known as “Ma Bell”, so nicknamed after ’30s organized crime matriarch Ma Barker.
Those in politics and the media, including social media, who seek to abrogate the First Amendment rights of others need to be reminded that those constitutional liberites that gurantee freedom of expression are the very same liberties that allow political discourse and a free media to even exist in the first place.
5 years ago
Reply to
Drew the Infidel
How can social media companies possibly abrogate 1A when they aren’t government?
5 years ago
Sensing his weakness with Trump they are going in for the KILL.
5 years ago
Actually I agree with Elizabeth Warren when it comes to the teck giants. They did not build that. All they did was the platform which is absolutly worthless without the means to carry their bandwidth. The FCC has them by the short hairs if they will not give equal access to conservatives.
5 years ago
If you notice that Sessions only go after organizations that are neutral with Demorats. He’s does not that affects them because he’s afraid to.
5 years ago
Haven’t noticed the FTC doing a dam thing about social media denying conservatives access and platforms. Nope, not a thing will ever be done as they are part of the problem, not part of the solution. You are correct, it will be dropped (if it hasn’t already been).
5 years ago
If this is true then why am I in facebook jail for disparaging muslims? Well?
5 years ago
Reply to
Jeanne Ballard
As described in ‘Brave New World’ revisited [cir 1960’s], the USA ‘Must’ be dragged down, as the rest of the world can never catch up. Aldus Huxley [still living during ‘revisited’ publication] remarked that “All is going well”.
5 years ago
…alleged anti-competitive behavior? Wrong!! …Seditious conspiracy is TREASON!
The ‘Deep State’ is made up of the corrupt Demo☭rats, MSM, Facebook, Twitter, Google, NSA/CIA/ FBI/DHS, MS-13, Black Lives Matter, A☪LU, ☪AIR, Muslim Brotherhood, DN☭, SPL☭, ANTIFA, Tranny’s, Gays, Illegal Alien Criminals and Seditious …current and …former City, State and National politicians!
RICO racketeering laws apply! They can ALL be arrested ….NOW!
……Prez. Trump, …It’s time to get serious. They are WILLFULLY engaged in “Seditious Conspiracy” and should be in prison for TREASON!
18 U.S. Code Chapter 115 – TREASON, SEDITION, AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES
law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-115
18 U.S. Code § 2384 – Seditious conspiracy
law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2384
US Code
If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
Wake The F Up Sessions! …and the FCC also!
5 years ago
Intensely scary read (Great for Halloween!): “IBM and the Holocaust.” I avoided it for a long time because the implecations were frightening. It’s important to face your fears and see what was done before people became commodities on social media. It is very sobering stuff. Read with wine!
5 years ago
Google, FB, Tw, YT: all brats of modernity in need of a haircut and a bitch slap. Put ’em in their place, or put ’em down.
Come on Jeff: GIT-R-DONE!
