Social Media

Combating Big Tech’s Totalitarianism: A Road Map

2/17/22
from Heritage Action,
2/15/22:
Kara Frederick, a Research Fellow in Technology Policy at The Heritage Foundation joined us to discuss the influence of "Big Tech.” Big Tech is weaponizing unprecedented power and influence to silence Americans, undermine freedom, and fundamentally reshape our society. Kara Frederick has a new paper out with a roadmap for how conservatives can fight back. Beating Big Tech Conservatives have long known from individual experience that Big Tech was censoring and manipulating information. Now, there are numbers and data points to clearly show it.
  • A Columbia University researcher discovered in 2019 that Twitter suspended users in the “conservative” category at a ratio of 21-to-1 compared to “liberals.”
  • In October 2021, the Media Research Center determined that Twitter and Facebook censored Republican Members of Congress at a rate of 53-to-1 compared to Democrats in Congress.
  • In October 2021, leaked documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal revealed that Facebook created and used two internal tools that suppressed right-wing content after the 2016 election. Facebook’s own internal research concluded that if the tools were removed, Breitbart would experience 20 percent more traffic, The Washington Times 18 percent more, Western Journal 16 percent more, and Epoch Times 11 percent more. One of these tools was still in use by Facebook as of October 2021.
These companies are actively reshaping the public discourse. Governments are not the only actors capable of encroaching on Americans’ individual liberties. We should protect Americans’ natural rights against abuses flowing from the consolidation of power—whether by the government, private corporations, or a combination of the two. Here are some of the options Congress has:
  • Enforce existing antitrust law.
  • Hold Big Tech CEOs accountable.
  • Reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
  • Allow American citizens to hold tech companies accountable.
  • Provide truth in data.
  • Pass data privacy legislation.
  • Prohibit joint ventures with the Chinese Communist Party.
Here are some of the options states have:
  • Refuse to subsidize Big Tech.
  • Use state law to hold Big Tech accountable.
The stakes are rising by the day. Without action, Big Tech will continue to erode individual liberties, and segment the American citizenry. More From FoxNews:


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