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The White House today, via their Communications Director Kate Beddingfield, admitted that they are targeting conservative news outlets on social media outlets like Facebook:
WH Comms Director Kate Bedingfield says social media companies âshould be held accountableâ for misinformation shared on their platforms.
She also notes: âThere are conservative news outlets who are creating irresponsible content âŠâ pic.twitter.com/J0XrNMTLwY
— The Recount (@therecount) July 20, 2021
Beddingfield began by saying that social media companies âshould be held accountableâ for misinformation shared on their platforms, which comes just days after Biden said Facebook is âkilling peopleâ before walking it back later.
But she then targeted conservative news outlets, saying âthere are conservative news outlets who are creating irresponsible content, thatâs sharing misinformation about the virusâŠâ
So let me spell it out for you. The White House is putting pressure on private social media companies to block conservative news outlets they claim are spreading âmisinformationâ, or else the social media companies themselves will be âheld accountableâ. How ominous.
As Ted Cruz explained today on Fox News, the Biden administration loves power and are using their power to try and silence their critics via these social media companies, all in the name of misinformation, which Cruz adds almost always benefits the left:
Silicon Valley oligarchs determining who gets to speak, who doesn't, and what you get to say is the single biggest threat to free speech and democracy in America.
We need break up these #BigTech companies. pic.twitter.com/PYpZ9EJWig
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 20, 2021
Cruz also notes that this does violate the first amendment and strengthens Trumpâs case against these Big Tech companies, saying that the Supreme Court has long recognized that the government cannot use a private entity to carry out itâs policies.
Watch Cruzâs video for more on this, but hereâs a little reaction to Beddingfieldâs comments:
"Irresponsible content" — this is just pure Orwell. They want to silence you if you disagree with them at all. It's that simple. https://t.co/npAH0925D7
— John Cooper (@thejcoop) July 20, 2021
Presidential administration attacks media for it's own failures and again, it's not a five alarm fire. Weird. https://t.co/UXMg1VlelJ
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 20, 2021
They're openly coming after conservative thought on social media now. Anything the libs don't like will soon be tabled as "false" and the media will go along with them https://t.co/iWaFalOKkk
— Ben Wright (@Ben___Wright) July 20, 2021
They want to control all speech. They arenât even hiding it anymore. https://t.co/H74s6sSOol
— Nick Searcy, INSURRECTIONAL FILM & TELEVISION STAR (@yesnicksearcy) July 20, 2021
Let me remind you that this is similar to what Erdogan did in Turkey to silence his critics. He claimed there was too much âdoublespeakâ out there and used this âmisinformationâ tactic to take over entire news media outlets and turn them into propaganda outlets. He also arrested and imprisoned journalists.
While his approach was certainly very heavy-handed, the same end results can easily happen here. Weâve already seen it with Parler, who fortunately had deep enough pockets to survive being âcanceledâ. But many conservative news sites do not have the resources to survive being canceled like this, where not only the social media companies turn on you, but the hosting and services platforms do as well. And thatâs what the authoritarian Biden administration is trying to do itâs worst critics, by putting pressure on companies to cancel them.