Brooks: It’s a ‘Problem for Democracy’ to Have D.C., Tech ‘Elites’ Censoring Speech

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that while sometimes content has to be removed from social media, he doesn’t trust big tech or government working with big tech behind closed doors to be in charge of this and “it is a problem for democracy to have elites in Washington and elites in Silicon Valley making decisions about what’s out there.”

Brooks stated, “I do think we need — obviously, they need to pull stuff down. There are 40,000 people at Google and Meta pulling stuff down. They’ve pulled over a billion things down. I don’t really trust big tech to be in charge of this, and I don’t, frankly, trust government in cahoots with big tech in private to be in charge of this.”

He continued, “There is a law in the Senate — or a bill in the Senate that would make the process more transparent, so outside sources can see if they’re being honest and fair in what they pull down. And that seems, to me, the best way forward. But it is a problem for democracy to have elites in Washington and elites in Silicon Valley making decisions about what’s out there. And so, that’s just something we just have to wrestle with.”

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