Khanna: I’ve ‘Gotten So Much Criticism from the Left’ for Defending Free Speech and Fighting ‘the Biggest Threat to American Democracy’

On Monday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) stated that he’s surprised he has “gotten so much criticism from the left” for his position on Twitter censorship because accounts on the left have run into censorship issues without transparency, the history of the 1st Amendment “has been a history that has protected social activism.” And because losing constitutional principles is “really the biggest threat to American democracy.”

Khanna said, “I think there is a systematic issue, obviously, at Twitter, and the issue is that they have been suspending accounts and content without transparency. Now, let’s be clear. This has happened both to some accounts on the right and accounts to the left. And I think that the important thing is to have full transparency, to understand why they are making some of these decisions, and also to have a recourse for appeal in the future, which is why I’ve spoken out.”

He added, “The reality is, yeah, technically, Twitter isn’t bound by the 1st Amendment. But they have a huge say over public discourse and the point is that they should look to the 1st Amendment principles for deciding how to run their public sphere. Look, techies, they’re great. I love them. I represent Silicon Valley. But they’ve been thinking about the balance of free speech for maybe 10 years, 15 years. There are jurists in this country who have been thinking about these issues for 200 years, and we have the greatest 1st Amendment jurisprudence in the history of humanity. So why wouldn’t you look to those principles as you structure a public square?”

Khanna further stated, “I mean, look, this has been through blood, sweat, and tears the jurisprudence of our country. And by the way, a lot of the strongest 1st Amendment principles — as you know, Hugh — came about during the Civil Rights movement, because it was actually, frankly, racists in the South that were appealing to defamation laws to shut down civil rights activism. Guess when another time the strong 1st Amendment was defended in this country, during the Vietnam protests. Because a lot of people were trying to shut those down by an appeal to defamation. And so, the history, actually, of the 1st Amendment in this country has been a history that has protected social activism. And I’m just shocked that I have gotten so much criticism from the left for standing up for the principles that Justice Brennan articulated so beautifully in New York Times [vs.] Sullivan. And Brennan certainly wasn’t a person of the left. But whether you’re left or right, the one thing that you should be for in this country is the Constitution of the United States of America, because it is still the greatest document in the history of the world on how to structure a liberal democracy. And if we lose that, if we lose the North Star of our founding principles, then we really — that’s really the biggest threat to American democracy.”

Later, Khanna said that “if you’re for free speech and you want to make sure that that speech is truly hearing all points of view, the important thing is to speak out, not just when conservative voices get banned, but also if there are liberal voices that you dislike that get banned, and to be consistent.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett