Conservative media have condemned Silicon Valley’s masters of the universe, calling for resistance and regulation in the face of their vast unaccountable power, political bias, and lack of transparency.
This comes as Breitbart News prepares for its first live town hall event, also on the growing power of the tech giants. The event begins at 8 p.m Eastern Time (ET) , and can be watched live at the embedded link below, or on Breitbart’s Facebook page.
Representatives from multiple major conservative media operations issued strong condemnations of Silicon Valley’s masters of the universe, along with their recommendations for reining in their unchecked power. Their comments, published in full, follow.
Dennis Prager
Founder, Prager University, and Host, The Dennis Prager Show
“As is well known, Prager University (PragerU) has sued Google/YouTube for placing about 40 of our five-minute online courses on its “Restricted” list. That means any home with filters to block pornography and violence cannot view those courses, nor can libraries or schools. Furthermore, those courses are demonetized.
Needless to say, none of our courses has pornographic or violent content. YouTube blocks our courses because they have conservative content. If a course defends America or Israel, it is especially likely to be restricted.
The battle is simple: If allowed to, Google and the other tech giants will make the internet like our universities – closed to non-left thought.”
Dan Gainor
Vice President of Business and Culture, Media Research Center
“The Media Research Center has been covering this problem with increasing concern. Online censorship is the latest battleground of media bias. Conservatives have always run into problems with media monopolies, but these tech and social media companies are more powerful than their old counterparts ever were. They have the ability to completely silence anyone they disagree with and the right can’t afford to let that happen.”
Scott Greer
Deputy Editor, The Daily Caller
“Big Tech has shown time and time again that it prefers progressive viewpoints and will silence conservative opinions. We now depend on the services provided by these companies more than ever — from news consumption to business transactions. This great power gives them the ability to stamp out right-wing speech from the public square, and conservatives fear they will be squeezed out of these platforms solely based on their politics. Conservatives should continue to call these acts into question and demand lawmakers keep an eye on Big Tech’s power.”
George C. Upper III
Executive Editor, The Western Journal
“The problem with conservative so-called ‘new media’ is that we’re not ‘media’ at all. Anyone who has taken Communication 101 knows that communication has four parts — messenger, message, medium and audience. The medium is the distribution network, and that’s not us. We’re the messenger and the message.
Unfortunately, the actual media, the distribution network upon which we rely, are folks like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Apple — companies that are actively hostile to our message.
The fact that conservative publishers (aside from a few broadcasters and print publications) are largely dependent on media who actively hate us is more than a problem — it’s a direct and looming threat to our businesses and, honestly, to America.”
Lucian Wintrich
D.C. Bureau Chief, The Gateway Pundit
“They are using their control of communication and information to shape and then push a very far-left narrative. We have people sitting around on beanbag chairs drinking wheatgrass shots who, with dictatorial-like ability, shut out news or commentary that doesn’t align with their liberal arts school ideologies. Now, after a while of this, there was some public outcry – as there rightfully should be. In response, these nerds enlisted admitted far-left organizations such as Snopes and SPLC to help monitor content “impartially.” This should scare everyone.
We’ve seen across-the-board drops in video views, dramatic decreases in social media traffic, they are effectively blunting our voice. They’ll mark an article criticizing Obama’s presidential portrait as “racist” and issue a suspension; they’ll claim a video discussing free market capitalism is “classist” and demonitize it. Orwell’s Thinkpol would have learned a lot by studying these recent moves by big tech.”
Joe Seales
CEO, Right Side Broadcasting Network
“Over the last 16 months, RSBN has been harassed and censored in countless ways by big tech. They’ve interrupted and removed our broadcasts, stopped notifying our followers of new videos and keep us out of search results. Because of these tactics, our revenue has dropped 95% from where it was at the end of 2016. It is clear their ultimate goal is to destroy and demoralize any media outlet that believes President Trump should get a fair shake.”
Mike Cernovich
Journalist, Author, and Filmmaker
“Facebook controls a larger market share than the telephone companies ever did. Teddy Roosevelt had the courage to break up the big trusts and monopolies, why doesn’t Trump?”
Paul Joseph Watson
Editor-at-Large, InfoWars
“Facebook, Twitter and Google have established a virtual monopoly on social media. In terms of online expression, these outlets are the de facto Internet. Restricting people’s access to these platforms based on their political beliefs is a human rights issue. Just as the phone company should not be able to disconnect you because of the content of your conversations, people should not be banned for their ideology, except in extreme circumstances when laws are being broken.
We need to rally lawmakers to make holding big tech accountable one of their top priorities. We need to demand Google, Facebook and Twitter adhere to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which dictates they remain non-partisan, or face losing their legal immunity for user content. We need transparency, we need an amnesty on all those who have been unfairly banned by big tech. This is one of the defining issues of our generation and we cannot afford to lose this battle.”