Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) said Friday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom” that Twitter’s past censorship of conservative views is problematic.
Khanna said, “It is problematic. Look technically, they are private actors, but they are a modern public square and should not be engaged in censorship. It is one thing for them to say don’t put up sensational pictures of Hunter Biden. I understand that but to censor The New York Post. They haven’t written a positive about me in my six years in Congress, but I never dream of saying shut them down or don’t allow them to publish articles. That’s the essence of democracy, and we need to stand up for the First Amendment.”
Anchor Dana Perino said, “Before they would say that anybody who thought conservatives were being shadow banned on Twitter was being paranoid. Now they’re saying, of course, they de-amplified the hard right, and that was the right thing to do. I don’t know if that is the best place to land if you are concerned about democracy and freedom of speech. Do you think Elon Musk is doing a good thing by releasing this information?”
Khanna said, “I do. I do think we have to have transparency. There are two conflicting values. On the one hand, we shouldn’t be censoring people based on viewpoint. What concerns me with the second release of the Twitter files is it seems some people are being censored or de-amplified because of their beliefs. Another thing is to have respect, and I don’t think you want these sites to have anti-semitism or racism. My understanding is it is going beyond that. Not just that, they are taking down speech that is hate, and Elon Musk said he wants the take that down. It is that they are censoring based on viewpoint, and that is simply not what we do in this country.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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