Big tech companies have been using censorship as a weapon against those with dissenting views or those that challenge powerful politicians. The recent censorship of Robert Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy announcement speech is just one example of this. During his speech, which focused on issues such as the unaffordability of groceries and inflation, Kennedy announced five minutes in that YouTube had de-platformed him.
Kennedy believes that he is being the victim of a ‘new form of censorship’ since his decision to run against Joe Biden for the 2024 presidential candidacy. He is being labeled as an ‘anti-vaxxer’ and accused of racism and antisemitism in attempts to silence him rather than addressing the issues he raises. Additionally, Instagram has been accused of suppressing his content and deeming it misleading.
Critics of this manipulation have been vocal, such as President of the Media Research Center Brent Bozell, who tweeted against the Big Tech interference in the election. Bozell also pointed to a post-election poll in the swing states that indicated that President Donald Trump would have won the 2020 election if Twitter and Facebook hadn’t censored reports of the financial scandal surrounding Hunter Biden. The poll showed that 45.1% of Biden voters were unaware of the story and if they had been made aware, 9.4% of them wouldn’t have voted for him, flipping all six swing states.
This is not just an issue with the potential of changing the outcome of an election, it is an issue of silencing freedom of expression. If tech companies are allowed to censor views they don’t deem to be ‘acceptable’, then it limits what conversations can be had and provides a monopoly over beliefs.
Censorship is becoming an ever-growing threat to the freedom to express views and have dialogue in a democracy. Big tech companies are not governments and should not be allowed to impede on our rights as citizens. When the restrictions of freedom of speech become greater than the freedoms themselves, it is time to take a stand. Companies need to be held accountable when using their platforms to restrict dialogue or oppose fact-based information. It is time to put an end to the weaponization of government censorship.
RFK Jr taking a stand with the GOP against big tech censorship is a significant step in the right direction. I have mixed feelings here because so many conservatives were banished from social media while lawmakers did nothing.
Democrats denied it was even happening only for us to later discover that they were behind the censorship— where I can appreciate RFK joining the fight, I’m irritated that Democrats didn’t care until it was one of their own.