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Twitter Files: The Campaign to Smear #Walkaway as Russian Assets

The latest Twitter Files expose how a social media movement promoting an exodus from the Democratic party was falsely labeled as Russian propaganda and censored. Actor Brandon Straka founded the “#Walkaway” online movement for Democrats looking to leave their party, but the movement was “set up” to be censored and smeared by biased groups, Big Tech, and the U.S. government, according to Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi. Facebook deleted the 500,000-strong group in January 2021, but the Twitter Files exposed “federal interest” in the group, Taibbi noted. Falsely linked to Russian bot activity, Straka was targeted by the U.S. government and Big Tech. Straka’s first video went viral in May 2018 and, a month later, he had 16,000 Facebook members and scheduled interviews with such big names as Tucker Carlson, Taibbi posted.  New Knowledge, however, a firm staffed byformer National Security Agency officials who scrounged for Russian-linked posts and accounts, labeled Straka’s movement as a group of “domestic extremists” tied to “foreign actors.” The firm cited the infamous Hamilton 68 dashboard which has since been exposed for wrongly labeling ordinary accounts, particularlypro-Trump accounts, as having Russian links.  New Knowledge identified that some of those using #walkaway and participating in the campaign were not real people but rather fake accounts that used Shutterstock images as their profile photos. Straka, shocked, personally denounced the fake accounts as bots; Twitter analysts, however, verified most of those participating in the campaign as real users.  Unfortunately, the media and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) of which Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) was a ranking member, picked up on the bad press of Russian amplification for Walkaway, Taibbi added. The fake users’ posting and using “#Walkaway” appeared to have spiked right after the movement was accused of being amplified by Russian accounts, Taibbi explained. Twitter could have provided evidence to undermine the Russian amplification accusation, but chose not to, Taibbi noted.  Some Twitter employees sought to tell Congress about the Russia hoax, but top executives saw it as a “public relations boon” for government officials and private entities alike, Taibbi continued. The advisory council for the think tank that funded Hamilton 68, Alliance Securing Democracy (ASD), included “former heads or deputy heads of the CIA, NSA, and DHS, John Podesta, and future Biden security chief Jake Sullivan,” per Taibbi.  ASD and Schiff’s Congressional committee were so fixated on Hamilton 68 that even Twitter executive Yoel Roth lost patience. “This feels like we’re continuing to give Hamilton68 too much ground on the issue… almost like we’re acknowledging that there’s something to it,” Roth said according to a screenshot Taibbi shared.  Hamilton 68’s accusation against #Walkaway created a media smear campaign, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) sent Twitter a spreadsheet of 38,000 supposedly fake accounts, Taibbi posted. Walkaway was labeled an attempt by Russian President Putin to influence Americans, not long before the sources for the accusation were mired in scandal. Yet the accusors’ complete lack of credibility never led to retractions or apologies to Straka’s group. “Straka would go on to be arrested for being outside the Capitol on January 6th. To some, this will always mean CNN, Steven Colbert, and others were entitled to lie about him,” Taibbi concluded. “But make no mistake: the Russia and bot accusations were a fraud, and they're owed a correction.” Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

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Worst Censorship of May: Big Tech Targets Candidates and Hamas Critics

As some Americans celebrated the end of the school year in May, many social media users unfortunately graduated from Big Tech’s school of censorship. Google, Meta, X and TikTok all continued to engage in censorship this month, with election interference as one notable area of anti-free speech activity. Big Tech also went after users bashing terrorist group Hamas or the left’s “transgender” ideology. From famous names like former President Donald Trump down to ordinary users, Big Tech platforms went all in on censorship this past month. Below are some of the worst examples of censorship documented in MRC’s unique CensorTrack database for the month of May. 1) Google and Meta target President Joe Biden’s main election opponents. Big Tech targeted both GOP candidate Trump and Independent candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr. for censorship this month with Google censoring a Trump ad and Instagram censoring those who try to share a link to a “Who is Bobby Kennedy” documentary.  Andrew Arenge, who runs the University of Pennsylvania Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies, posted on X that Google repeatedly censored a Trump ad scheduled to run May 1-3. The ad showed a fictional phone call between a Biden campaign aid and a voter highlighting Biden policies that hurt Americans, including inflation and illegal immigration. “Things were better before Biden, I’m voting for Trump!” the ad’s voter ends. Arenge provided screenshots from the Google Ad libraryshowing that Google removed the Trump ad for an alleged unspecified “policy violation.” After the campaign appealed Google’s decision and several popular X users condemned the election interference, Google reversed its censorship. The company later told MRC Free Speech America, “This enforcement decision was made in error.” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted the “Who is Bobby Kennedy” documentary on Facebook after it had previously been released on YouTube and WhoIsBobbyKennedy.com. The documentarytravels through Kennedy's career and family legacy. The presidential candidate uploaded the video directly to Facebook but users who tried to share the video link to WhoIsBobbyKennedy.com on Facebook or on their Instagram stories were not able to. Instagram claimed the link "may be malicious" according to screenshots of error censorship notices included in a video that Kennedy posted on TikTok. Another notice stated, “We restrict certain activity to protect our community.” Users who tried to edit posts were notified that “Posts that look like spam according to our Community Guidelines are blocked on Facebook and can't be edited.”  Facebook users who tried to share the WhoIsBobbyKennedy.com link also had their links flagged for spam and as a result could not post the video. “Your post couldn't be shared, because this link goes against our Community Standards,” screenshots of the error message said.  Meta has since corrected the issues on both of its platforms. 2) X and CCP-tied TikTok censor users decrying Hamas and its supporters. X and TikTok also censored multiple individuals apparently for condemning Islamic terrorist group Hamas, which is engaged in an ongoing conflict with Israel. X user Proper Mike posted a screenshot showing how TikTok removed a comment he had made on a video. “Are you holding hamas to any account?” he wrote under the video. The user appealed the censorship and TikTok replied, “It was determined that your content violates our community standards and cannot be restored.” The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) owns a board seat and maintains a financial stake in TikTok’s parent company ByteDance. Parents Defending Education President Nicki Neily was flagged by X and given limited visibility over alleged “Violent Speech.” She posted an image showing the five Americans being held hostage by Hamas who were featured on the cover of Washington Examiner's May 14 print edition. She captioned the censored post, “Bring them home and destroy Hamas.” X also limited a post from an account with the user name “What?” for a similar reason. “Israel needs to wipe out Hamas. The United States needs to let them do it. End of story,” the user’s post read. X Community Notes fact-checked Donald Trump Jr. when he mocked anti-Israel students who graffitied “FREE PALASTINE” on a flight of stairs. Trump seemed to identify the protestors as being Columbia University students, but they were reportedly from Ottawa, Canada. 3) Google-owned YouTube is still cracking down on Covid-19 information. YouTube removed an episode of The Life Stylist Podcast where host Luke Storey interviewed Dr. Peter McCullough, a world-renowned cardiologist and prominent critic of the COVID-19 vaccines. The episode, “Detoxing Vaccines, Spike Protein Shedding & Ending Medical Tyranny,” featured a discussion of how the COVID-19 pandemic response was mishandled. YouTube removed the video, asserting that “This video has been removed for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines." The platform did not clarify its exact reasoning. 4) Big Tech runs cover for transgender ideology. Several tech platforms targeted users for critiquing transgenderism. TikTok censoredan account called GrassrootsArmy, the same name as user Garrett Soldano's podcast, when it posted a video captioned with the text, “Teacher settles $360,000 lawsuit with school, who fired her for REFUSING to lie to parents when their child wants to be treated as a different gender at school. Jessica Tapia we salute you! #GrassrootsArmy.” TikTok claimed the video violated its “Hate Speech and Hateful Behaviors” policy, according to purported screenshot shared by Soldano on X.  X perpetrated similar censorship yet again against the account with the username “What?”In an X post the user wrote, “I don't self identify as anything. According to facts and biology, I'm a woman. Cis is a stupid, nonsensical slur against people who are heterosexual.” X limited the visibility of her post for alleged “Hateful Conduct.” Not to be outdone, Facebook reportedly removed a post from the user Dan Alex. “'Trans' isn't a thing,” he said. “It's people with mental illness that needs to be addressed. We need to stop treating mental illness like it's a good thing.”  5) YouTube censors speech on globalist plan.Dutch conservative commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek shared a purported screenshot of a YouTube censorship notice on X. YouTube issued a warning and removed her CPAC Hungary 2024 speech, “The Great Replacement is not a theory - it's reality.” The platform claimed the video violated the its “hate speech policy,” according to Vlaardingerbroek’s screenshot. MRC Free Speech America’s CensorTrack database noted the following day that YouTube had restored Vlaardingerbroek’s video, but added a warning label. The label cautions users about “The Great Replacement.”  Linking to a Wikipedia entry, the label claimed that “The Great Replacement, also known as replacement theory or great replacement theory, is a white nationalist far-right conspiracy theory espoused by French author Renaud Camus.” 6) Chinese-owned TikTok targets Republican candidate. TikTok censored an account called @thepoliticallens that posts video clips from political candidates detailing their stances on key issues, according to screenshots online. TikTok deleted a video taking a look at Indiana State congressional candidate Brian Savilla.  “Brian Savilla, a Republican candidate for Indiana House of Representatives District 69, discusses his efforts to raise awareness about election integrity issues,” the caption on the video read. “He highlights Democratic initiatives aimed at undermining election safeguards, such as same-day voter registration, mail-in ballots, and opposition to voter ID laws. Despite knowing his campaign would likely be unsuccessful, Savilla aimed to inform voters about these concerns, emphasizing the importance of maintaining election safeguards to prevent fraud.” The channel’s operator shared screenshots apparently showing that TikTok removed the video, as it was “Not Public or Deleted.”

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‘Chaos,’ ‘Mayhem & Discord’ Oh My! Soros Funded Group Begs Big Tech to Censor After Trump Verdict

An organization repeatedly funded by leftist billionaire George Soros is pressuring Big Tech to target free speech after the guilty verdict against Donald Trump. Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the coalition the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released a statement after Trump was controversially convicted on all counts by a Manhattan court Thursday. In the statement, she urged both social media and government officials to target so-called “disinformation.” Notably, the coalition of some 240 national organizations has received millions of dollars from Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF). The coalition not only aims to crush free speech but has received extensive funding from Soros to help accomplish this goal. The OSF website lists no fewer than 10 grants to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights between 2016 and 2022. The grants range between $10,000 and $2,135,000 for a total of $6.92 million.  In her statement, Wiley claimed that the verdict would “generate massive amounts of online content, and a big chunk of it will be lies, disinformation, or conspiracy theories from white supremacists, political operatives, chaos agents, and maybe even adversarial foreign governments.” She did not cite any evidence to support this claim. The Leadership Conference CEO then issued her call for “content moderation,” the leftist catchphrase for censorship of free speech. “In this overheated environment, it’s vital for social media companies to enforce their content moderation policies and prevent lies from spreading unchallenged,” Wiley pontificated. “This environment is ripe for the worst actors online to sow mayhem and discord, and social media companies simply cannot allow that to happen.” Wiley cited the events of Jan. 6, 2021, as a supposed proof that online content from Trump supporters could turn violent as she argued for censorship. She ended by making the worrisome argument that both Big Tech and government officials have an obligation to protect users from content she considers false.  “Social media companies and elected officials have deep responsibilities to protect our society,” Wiley babbled. “We urge them not to permit falsehoods to flourish online or spill over into violence on our streets. The stakes could not be higher, and the consequences of inaction could not be more severe.” Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

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WATCH: Dr. Robert Epstein UNMASKS Severity of Google’s Election Interference

Google researcher Dr. Robert Epstein gave the Texas State Senate a crash course in the nefarious election interference that Big Tech has been using to manipulate U.S. politics for years. Epstein told the Texas State Senate Committee on State Affairs Wednesday he identified “ten new forms of influence that the internet has made possible and that are controlled exclusively by Big Tech companies.” He labeled them “among the most powerful forms of influence ever discovered” and more “dangerous” as they are nearly “invisible to users.” According to Epstein, “Our great nation unknowingly turned over its elections to Big Tech companies in 2012” and the “2020 presidential election was only one of hundreds of elections that Google has flipped.” This year, Epstein predicted, Google could shift between 6.4 and 25 million votes, and YouTube recommendations alone could alter users’ opinions by 40 percent or more. The demographic most vulnerable to this kind of manipulation are moderate Republicans, according to Epstein. Epstein then offered solutions on “how to make Google and other companies accountable to the public.” Specifically, he suggested declaring “[Google’s] index, a database they use to generate their search results, to be a public commons.” He added, “Second method is you set up a large-scale system that will preserve and analyze the actual data that these companies are sending to real users. In other words, to track them—to do to Google what they do to us and our children 24 hours a day.” Epstein’s system stores data from some 14,000 non-biased voters, tracking and capturing ephemeral experiences like search results. These experiences sway minds but quickly vanish without leaving hard evidence — until now. “For example, Google is now sending ‘Register to Vote’ reminders to Democrats at two and a half times the rate in which they’re sending them to Republicans,” Epstein stated. “Right now, Google’s YouTube is recommending shockingly violent and sexual videos to children and teens.” He urged the Texas Senate to take action to help ensure a system could be built to produce “court admissible data” in all 50 states. “Monitoring works because it makes them accountable,” he argued. Indeed, Epstein insisted, “But monitoring can stop them. In November 2020, after Sen. Cruz sent a threatening letter to the CEO of Google about my research findings, Google that very day stopped its election interference in the Georgia runoff elections.” He said further that after his America’s Digital Shield “went public with our new nationwide monitoring system in November 2023” he marked Google’s search results “steadily and gradually becoming less politically biased.” The threat of Big Tech election interference remains very real, however, and Epstein was adamant that more action needed to be taken by lawmakers. Google’s subsidiaries are also greatly complicit in its scheme, Epstein analyzed. Epstein later listed ways YouTube influences users in response to a question. The “Up Next” and other recommendations are tailored by YouTube for users. In 2018, Google employees had asked The Wall Street Journal about how to use such ephemeral experiences to “change people’s thinking” on then-President Donald Trump’s travel ban policies, Epstein said. If such methods are weaponized by Big Tech multiple times over, the more they influence people. “People trust algorithms” and “computers because they think they’re inherently objective, so the bias” can affect even those who notice it. Google will even personalize content for individuals, causing “greater” impact. “You have to have the data,” he re-emphasized later, for any real legal challenges to Big Tech’s power to be successful. Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

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TWITTER FILES:The Disgusting CIA Effort to Control Social Media

The latest installment of The Twitter Files details how the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) targeted Americans’ free speech, in violation of its restriction against domestic operations. The CIA is prohibited from spying on or otherwise secretively targeting Americans domestically, but that did not stop the agency from trying to co-opt Twitter and other Big Tech platforms, pressuring them into specific censorship activities, independent journalist Michael Shellenberger reported.  In a thread on X (formerly Twitter), Shellenberger explained that individuals connected to the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), including the CIA, tried to “take over Twitter’s content management system” and “to de-platform, de-monetize, and excommunicate from the Internet entirely” anyone whom the IC claimed to be a threat. One senior intelligence analyst told The Twitter Files journalists how this could happen: “There are deep cover people who are known to be CIA and who go to DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] and then wherever.” There are front groups and intermediaries that hide the true IC activity beneath.  Former intelligence employees and contractors were part of the effort, Shellenberger said, citing “thousands of pages” of evidence. Originally, operatives had argued that “disinformation,” a term leftists have willingly applied to anything with which they disagree, was a security threat.  The Mary Poppins of censorship, Nina Jankowicz, who was briefly the head of the now-defunct federal Disinformation Governance Board, was among the operatives. IC-tied anti-“disinformation” organization Alethea Group and its CEO Lisa Kaplan were involved, too. Twitter hired hacker Peiter “Mudge” Zatko but it was discovered that Zatko was secretly coordinating with government agencies, Shellenberger continued. Zatko was a contractor with IC and government agencies, working with the National Security Agency (NSA) as early as 1999 and being funded by the IC “for over a quarter-century.” Zatko had been a long-time government/IC employee or contractor.  Meanwhile, FBI agent Elvis Chan, who has been featured prominently in past Twitter Files reports, was trying to obtain increased NSA use of Twitter data until then-Twitter Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth, objected. But in Jan. 2021, Twitter authorized Zatko to hire Alethea Group, Shellenberger posted. Alethea had multiple individuals with federal ties. Former Twitter Deputy Counsel Jim Baker, who was implicated in “help[ing] start” the Russiagate hoax, claimed that the release of Alethea’s materials “creates risks.” Shellenberger clarified that the materials revealed “Twitter’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop, the 2020 elections, and the 2021 Capitol riots.” Kaplan, for instance, blamed the events of Jan. 6 on social media, and Alethea pushed Twitter for more COVID-19 censorship. Zatko and Aspen Institute’s Vivian Schiller, “who led the ‘pre-bunking’ of the Hunter Biden laptop story,” were among those pushing for more Big Tech-government censorship work. Zatko and Schiller had recommendations for the Biden administration, Shellenberger posted, that included “more vigorous content moderation” and “a regulatory body.” Twitter did fire Zatko, but it took on and formed a partnership with Alethea, including Jankowicz. Ironically, Jankowicz told The Twitter Filesjournalists she was against censorship, even though she actively supports censorship actions like content removal to this day. Neither was Twitter the only target of the manipulation of the intelligence community and its proxies. Amazon, PayPal and GoDaddy were also supposed to censor individuals financially via a Twitter partnership. Shellenberger unpacked the grand scheme: “Alethea is proposing that Twitter lead an effort to organize all other social media companies, e-commerce companies, and Internet Service Providers, to de-platform, de-monetize, and de-person disfavored individuals.” “Whether or not the CIA or another IC agency controlled the Alethea Group, it behaved as either a front group or an intermediary of the IC,” Shellenberger concluded. He added, “That so many [CIA and federal contractors] apparently did so in order to bring America’s most influential social media company under the authority of the IC is a dark moment in American history.” Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

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EU Commissioner Makes Online Censorship Key Campaign Pledge

The president of the European Commission is openly advertising her commitment to censoring speech as part of her re-election campaign, touting a “European Democracy Shield.” The European Union (EU) has an anti-free speech record, and that’s a reality of which European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen seems to be very proud. In a new ad, von der Leyen brags about her dedication to censoring alleged “disinformation,” supposedly to safeguard “democracy.” Would-be censors often label any opinion with which they disagree as “disinformation.” Von der Leyen appears to be no different. She has vowed to work to “remove content” and “pre-bunk” online speech. Von der Leyen posted an anti-free speech adon X (formerly Twitter) May 20. “Europe must be able to defend itself - against all kinds of attacks. I will propose a European Democracy Shield,” the incumbent president and candidate posted. “To detect disinformation and malign interference To remove content, including AI deepfakes[.] To make our societies more resilient.” Von der Leyen’s censorship commitment was repeated in the ad as well. “The threat of disinformation and foreign interference is more serious than ever,” the ad begins. Von der Leyen was then shown saying, “The aim of all this is to divide our societies from within.” The ad continued, “The enemies of our democracies are manipulating information to sow division. So we must step up our action with a European Democracy Shield.” In the ad, Von der Leyen detailed what this new “Democracy Shield” will entail: “An ambitious European project that focuses on the biggest threats from foreign interference and manipulation.” But this apparently involves Big Tech-government coordination to target online speech. As explained in the ad, “This new structure will track down information manipulation and coordinate with national agencies. The shield will detect foreign interference, remove content, with a stronger approach to AI deepfakes, and finally pre-bunk and build resilience.” But we have seen such partnerships’ dystopian effects before. The content removal and “pre-bunking” are particularly concerning for free speech in light of previous EU policies such as the Digital Services Act (DSA), which undermines freedom of speech. Here in America, government agencies and private researchers coordinated with Big Tech to censor content before, during and after elections in the Election Integrity Partnership. Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using MRC Free Speech America’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

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Oversight Board Member Admits Meta Doesn’t Prioritize First Amendment

A Meta Oversight Board member recently confirmed the obvious: Meta might be an American company, but it certainly doesn't prioritize the First Amendment in its policy decisions.  Kenji Yoshino, a New York University Constitutional law professor and member of the Meta Oversight Board, asserted that the U.S. Constitution is not the baseline for the tech company’s free speech policies. “Our baseline here is not the US Constitution and free speech, but rather international human rights norms,” he said at a National Constitution Center town hall event.    Yoshino noted that America is an “outlier” when compared with other countries because it has such strong legal protections against censorship. He explained that as Meta became a global company “it could not simply default back to U.S. jurisprudence.” The Meta Oversight Board member claimed that Meta looks at “striking a balance” between international values like “safety” and “dignity” and the U.S. Constitution. However, he admitted, “oftentimes that calculus comes out differently than it would if the baseline were First Amendment norms.”  Yoshino contrasted the two different attitudes toward freedom of speech, explaining that in the U.S. “the [protecting] the speech we hate doctrine, is part of an expansionist and rigid vision that is intensely speech protective.” In Europe, however, the attitude is “much more tilted toward equality and dignity than it might be toward speech.”  But the European standard is far from perfect. For example, multiple European countries, including Scotland, France and England, criminalize alleged “hate speech.”  Applying European standards to Americans can lead to anti-First Amendment censorship. This is especially problematic as U.S. government agencies have reportedly resumed coordination with tech companies, indicating actions directly violative of the First Amendment. Conservatives are under attack. Contact Facebook headquarters at (650) 308-7300 and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “misinformation” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

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‘Shocked’: TV Host Blasts TikTok, Instagram for Blocking Pro-Israel Content

A NewsNation host slammed communist Chinese government-tied TikTok and Meta-owned Instagram for censoring content on one of the most hotly debated topics online. On May 3, NewsNation founder and host Dan Abrams declared himself “shocked” by censorship of his pro-Israel content on two popular social media platforms. These are just the latest cases of bias and censorship related to the Hamas-Israel conflict. Dan Abrams discussed the censorship of his content with his father Floyd Abrams during the Dan Abrams Live show. The NewsNation host played a clip of him challenging a pro-Palestinian professor on why anti-Israel protesters “call for a Hamas ceasefire proposal, if ceasefire was their true goal.” According to the host, this content was censored on Instagram for allegedly promoting a dangerous organization.  Dan Abrams also touched on TikTok’s ties to the communist Chinese government and compared the differing standards he said the app used in censoring content challenging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu versus the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.  “I mean, look, on TikTok, I guess I wasn’t as surprised, that they are, it’s owned by China, right? ... The content that they censored from me was when I was questioning the numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry, and I had an expert on who was saying that the numbers can’t make sense,” the NewsNation host said. “They wouldn’t let me share that. But then, when I asked tough questions of Netanyahu’s spokesperson, oh, that was fine to distribute.” Dan Abrams’s father appeared to agree. “It is really unforgivable for an entity that relies on free speech, that purports to defend free speech, to engage in that sort of content-centric, ‘you have to be on our side’ censorship,” the lawyer slammed TikTok.  TikTok is owned by Chinese ByteDance. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) owns a board seat and maintains a financial stake in TikTok’s parent company ByteDance. Previously, actor Nate Buzolic also accusedInstagram and TikTok of censoring his pro-Israel, anti-Hamas content. TikTok even openly bragged about removing over 500,000 pieces of content relative to the ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict. Conservatives are under attack. Contact TikTok via email at communitymanager@tiktok.com and demand Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

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Meta AI Bends Over Backwards to Defend Censorship

Meta’s new artificial intelligence chatbot claims there’s a “valid” argument to be made for censoring legal free speech. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, proudly announced a new AI assistant on April 18, simply called Meta AI, but the AI chatbot appears to have been programmed with a disturbing bias against free speech. When MRC researchers asked Meta AI if speech, especially so-called “hate speech,” should be censored, the chatbot provided arguments both for and against censorship, but without mentioning that the established U.S. principles of freedom of speech stem from the Constitution. The AI asserted, “That's a complex and sensitive topic! Social media censorship is a debated issue, with valid arguments both for and against.”  “It should come as little surprise that leftist-trained AI have adopted the same tired, vague, fear-based approach to censorship,” said Director of MRC Free Speech America Michael Morris. “Time and again, the left has shown that it is all too willing to bend U.S. standards on speech, often citing potential harms and mis- or disinformation as justifications for silencing their opposition. But the clear and obvious answer to bad speech has always been and will forever continue to be more speech, not less.” Meta AI listed what it titled “Arguments for censorship,” including, “Hate speech and harmful content: Social media platforms have a responsibility to protect users from hate speech, violence, and harmful content that can cause real-world harm.” The chatbot then referred to “Disinformation and misinformation,”  terms frequently applied by leftists to silence opinions they dislike or disagree with. Meta’s AI continued, “Censorship can help prevent the spread of false information that can influence public opinion, elections, and critical decision-making.” The AI chatbot didn’t only list arguments for censorship, noting also that censorship curtails “Freedom of speech and expression” and that “[c]ensorship can be biased.” Meta AI totally omitted any reference to the constitutional right to free speech in America. In fact, even its admission about freedom of expression contained a caveat: “Social media platforms should allow users to express themselves freely, without fear of censorship, as long as they're not promoting harm or violence.”  But the American company is not following the American standard for legal free speech and is instead using these vaguely defined objections to justify censorship. The chatbot even doubled down on the importance of limiting “hate speech,” a subjective term that can be very easily misapplied. “Hate speech is a complex issue, and opinions on censorship vary,” Meta AI alleged. The chatbot then proceeded to list out reasons to censor so-called hate speech specifically:  1. Protection from harm: Hate speech can contribute to a hostile environment, incite violence, and perpetuate discrimination against marginalized groups. Censorship can help prevent real-world harm. 2. Promoting inclusivity: By censoring hate speech, social media platforms can create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for diverse users. The AI did, however, acknowledge “Free speech concerns” and “Difficulty in defining hate speech.” Meta platforms have displayed bias and censored so-called hate speech before. For instance, both in November and May 2023, Facebook removed a meme labeling some 30 LGBTQ “genders” as “Mental Disorders.” Facebook accused the users of “Hate speech.” Also in May 2023, Facebook reportedly prevented The Tennessee Conservative from sharing an article about funding additional voting machines in Williamson County claiming it went “against our Community Standards on hate speech.” Conservatives are under attack. Contact Facebook headquarters at (650) 308-7300 and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “misinformation” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

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YouTube Jumps into EU Election Interference

Google-owned YouTube is jumping on the bandwagon of election censorship. In a May 9 blog post, YouTube detailed its plans to target and censor certain election-related content ahead of the European Union (EU) elections this June. This includes removing content and terminating channels that YouTube considers to be spreading “disinformation” online. “Our global team of reviewers combine with machine learning technology to apply these policies at scale, 24/7,” the platform boasted. YouTube’s blog came soon after the Meta Oversight Board urged all tech companies to engage in election censorship. YouTube listed various efforts to provide pop-ups and links to EU election information but also included a lengthy description of censorship policies. “We have strict policies against hate speech, harassment, incitement to violence, and certain types of elections misinformation,” YouTube bragged. “For example, we remove content that misleads voters on how to vote or encourages interference in the democratic process.”  [Emphasis added]. The platform, indeed, admitted in the new blog that its election interference interest extended beyond its own platform. “Our Intelligence Desk has also been working for months to get ahead of emerging issues and trends that could affect the EU elections, both on and off YouTube,” the platform announced proudly. It also claimed that it is investing in artificial intelligence (AI) to crush free speech even more quickly and efficiently. YouTube boasted that in the fourth quarter of 2023 most allegedly violative content was censored before viewers were ever able to see the content. “[F]or every 10,000 views on YouTube, between 11 and 12 were of content that violated our Community Guidelines,” the platform explained.  YouTube’s announcement follows a call from the Meta Oversight Board for “basic global platform standards for elections everywhere” and “sufficient resources [dedicated] to moderating content before, during and after elections.” MRC Free Speech America rankedYouTube among the Big Tech censors with the worst instances of crushing free speech in April censoring a video of Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This latest censorship is simply a continuation of YouTube’s long history of censorship. For instance, the platform removed a Republican National Committee podcast in 2022 featuring Donald Trump calling the 2020 election “rigged.” Could YouTube display the same bias for the 2024 EU elections? Conservatives are under attack. Contact YouTube here and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

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Russia Blocks Video Platform for Refusing Censorship

Russia reportedly blocked a video platform for taking a strong stand on free speech. Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski announced on May 7 that the Russian government had blocked his video-hosting platform after refusing to comply with censorship demands. The report comes as Big Tech companies and governments around the world step up their efforts to suppress free speech, even here in America. In a post to X (formerly Twitter), Pavlovski explained, “Russia has officially blocked Rumble because we refused to comply with their censorship demands. Ironically, YouTube is still operating in Russia, and everyone needs to ask what Russian demands Google and YouTube are complying with?” MRC Free Speech America just highlightedGoogle-owned YouTube as among the worst Big Tech censors of April for targeting Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Pavlovski testified before Congress this week, listing multiple countries where his platform faces legal challenges and government pressure to censor certain content. These countries include Brazil, France, New Zealand and Australia, according to Fox News coverage of Pavlovski’s prepared testimony for the House Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations. “Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are the cornerstones of a democratic society,” the CEO said, adding that he finds it “extremely troubling” that “these fundamental rights are being threatened” by the American government too. The pro-free speech tech company also emphasized free speech when it released Rumble Cloud in March. At the time, Pavlovski explained that the cancellation of alternative social media Parler by Amazon Web Services drove Rumble’s decision to start Rumble Cloud. The goal is to shield businesses from Big Tech censorship. Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency and an equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

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Lawsuit Where? Feds Reboot Big Tech Censorship Collusion, Report Says

Two major government agencies have reportedly rebooted their collusion with social media companies despite looming Supreme Court scrutiny for potential First Amendment violations. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) broke the news during a press briefing at the tech-tied RSA Conference, according to tech outlet Nextgov/FCW. At the event, the senator reportedly conceded that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are back to their old work of coordinating censorship of free speech ahead of the 2024 presidential election. An FBI representative admitted the resumed Big Tech communications to The Federalist’s Shawn Fleetwood. CISA would not confirm the report, however.  “The FBI remains committed to combating foreign malign influence operations, including in connection with our elections,” the bureau’s representative claimed, as reported by The Federalist. “That effort includes sharing specific foreign threat information with state and local election officials and private sector companies when appropriate and rigorously consistent with the law.” Further expanding on its response, the representative added, “In coordination with the Department of Justice, the FBI recently implemented procedures to facilitate sharing information about foreign malign influence with social media companies in a way that reinforces that private companies are free to decide on their own whether and how to take action on that information.” The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments for Murthy v. Missouri, a major free speech case that exposed an alleged massive network of government and Big Tech censorship collusion. Legal challenges reportedly limited government activity, but that is no longer the case, according to Warner and Nextgov/FCW. “There seemed to be a lot of sympathy that the government ought to have at least voluntary communications with [the companies],” Warner said, according to the tech outlet. The Democrat senator then urged the Biden administration to “call out” other nations for potential election meddling, asserting Russian interference in the 2016 election as a precedent. Yet Warner did not apparently address the issue of social media interfering in U.S. elections through censorship under U.S. government pressure. Warner announced an upcoming Senate hearing on election security, according to Nextgov/FCW. “If the bad guy started to launch AI-driven tools that would threaten election officials in key communities, that clearly falls into the foreign interference category,” Warner scare-mongered. The FBI and CISA are among the agencies accused of violating First Amendment rights. Notably, the FBI is tied to election interference, since Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that his company censored the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election after FBI pressure. According to a poll conducted by the Media Research Center in November 2020, 17 percent of individuals who voted for then-presidential candidate Joe Biden admitted that they would not have done so if they had been aware of the scandals involving both Biden and his son, Hunter. These scandals were censored by Big Tech and the legacy media. Murthy v. Missouri is a historic case challenging alleged government collusion with major tech companies to censor Americans’ free speech. The complaint filed for the suit cited MRC Free Speech America’s unique and exclusive CensorTrack.org research. Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

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Worst Censorship of April: Are Meta Platforms Stepping Up Censorship?

Spring was in the air and snow melting in April, but Big Tech platforms — especially Meta’s — continued to freeze free speech. Utilizing its unique CensorTrack.org database, which has logged 6,745 cases as of publication, MRC Free Speech America tracked censorship across multiple platforms in April. Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram seemed particularly determined to suppress free speech, targeting content that included an anti-communist meme and criticism of President Joe Biden’s border crisis. Google-owned YouTube, meanwhile, continued its election interference by censoring a high-profile Independent presidential candidate.  And while Meta’s censorship only made up 9 out of a total of 28 cases in April, the Zuckerberg-led platforms’ speech suppression packed more of a punch.  Below are the worst cases of censorship from April. Humorless Meta targets memes. Both Facebook and Instagram censored satirical memes this past month. Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), a “pro-liberty organization on America's college campuses,” posted a meme on Facebook of horses standing under an immense table and chairs in a field with the caption, “This farm owner was denied a council permit to build a horse shelter. Fortunately, you don't need a permit to build a table and chairs.” YAL commented, “What a nice table.” Facebook slapped a fact-check label on the post calling it “partly false” and linked to articles from Check Your Fact and Lead Stories. Reportedly, the German farmer wasn’t denied a permit but did build the table shelter to avoid regulations.  Instagram, meanwhile, put a sensitive content filter on an Atlas Society post of a meme showing Care Bears with the caption, “What communists think they do.” The next image was of a firing squad with text saying, “What they actually do.” Instagram asserted the meme “may contain graphic or violent content," and required users to click through in order to view the meme. Facebook has found that users fail to click through similar interstitials 95 percent of the time. Instagram attempts to restrict followers of an account critical of LGBTQ ideology. On April 17, 2023, users started sharingscreenshots of an Instagram notice that popped up when users tried to follow Libs of TikTok. “Are you sure you want to follow libsoftiktokofficial? This account has repeatedly posted false information that was reviewed by independent fact-checkers or went against our Community Guidelines,” the notice read. The notice disappeared by April 18, and no clarification was offered on the platform’s reasoning. Google-owned YouTube censors one of President Joe Biden’s opponents. YouTube imposed a fact-checking label on a video of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appearance on Chris Cuomo's NewsNation show. Kennedy aimed to “clarify [his] position on January 6” during the appearance. YouTube slapped a context label on the video with a link to the Wikipedia page for the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The label asserted, “On Jan. 6, 2021, the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of then-U.S. president Donald Trump, two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.” Facebook disabled the account of a show host for criticizing radical Islamic terrorists. Daniel Greenfield, a journalism fellow for FrontPage Magazine’s David Horowitz Freedom Center, declared on April 15 that Facebook had disabled FrontPage Editor Jamie Glazov’s account as of April 4 for discussing Islamic terrorism. Facebook reportedly objected to a “Glazov Gang” interview headlined  “Oct. 7 Coming to the USA?” The platform alleged that the interview, which discussed terrorists crossing into America through the open southern border, violated its “community standards” and threatened “the security of people on Facebook,” according to Greenfield. Glazov’s account appears to have been restored by Facebook. Instagram censors critique of IRS for no clear reason. The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) posted an image of a Hanna Cox tweet on its Instagram page, stating, “There are 724 billionaires in the US and 87,000 new IRS agents. They're not going after the rich, cupcakes. They're coming for you.” Instagram then imposed a “Missing Context” label on FEE’s post, asserting, “The same information was reviewed by independent fact-checkers in another post.” Clicking on the warning, though, only brought up the message, “This information is not available.”