Colorado Senator Calls for Big Tech to Destroy Free Speech
Jose Nino
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In a letter published October 17, 2023, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet has urged social media platforms such as X, Meta, TikTok, and Alphabet to “extinguish the proliferation of inaccurate and misleading content” connected to the Israel vs. Hamas conflict that kicked off on October 7, 2023 when the latter launched a vicious attack on the Jewish state.
Bennet is taking a page out of the European Union’s playbook by using his clout as an elected official to place pressure on tech giants to take draconian censorship measures against so-called “misinformation” on social media.
Although Bennet has recognized that social media giants have censored certain content in the last few years, he stressed the inadequacy of current policies to confront the “mountain of false content.”
The Colorado Senator specifically wants to know the exact number of misleading articles removed in connection to the conflict and the number of content moderators they have employed by October 31.
Bennet noted that “In accordance with numerous reports, fraudulent content has proliferated on social media platforms since the inception of the conflict, amassing views in the millions.”
The Colorado Senator did not like the tech companies’ reluctance to engage in censorship, prompting “an avalanche of violence, suspicion, and mistrust across the globe.” On top of that, Bennet warned of a looming informational crisis where debates over fundamental facts will be dialed up, and unreliable sources will apparently rule the day. Bennet specifically praised the EU’s hawkish actions against Big Tech in order to destroy free speech. “In just the last week, your companies have received enforcement letters from the European Union, demanding details on measures you have taken to purge illicit content and misinformation,” Bennet noted. The Colorado Senator conceded that several platforms have begun to take gradual steps in censoring content. However, he emphasized that the current policies and measures are grossly inadequate to confront the wide array of deceptive content.
Bennet is one of the leading advocates for online censorship as evidenced by his calls for enforcing “behavioral codes.”
The Digital Platform Commission Act of 2023, was introduced by Bennet and his colleague Vermont Senator Peter Welch. This law put forward the creation of a Federal Digital Platform Commission to give the state the power to micromanage AI and digital content on social media platforms.
The commission would be tasked with enforcing “behavioral codes,” surveil critical digital platforms, and feature a Code Council with “disinformation” experts.
The cultural Left has reached the conclusion that it can’t win any meaningful political debate on the merits of its arguments. As a result, it has embarked on a blatantly anti-free speech agenda. To carry out such an agenda in a country like the US, which strongly protects free speech, the social media companies have effectively become private enforcement arms of the managerial regime.
Truth be told, protecting free speech will be a task that requires strong pushback in private and public spaces. If we fail to keep the anti-free speech tyrants in check, our rights will cease to exist.
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