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MRC UnCensored: Erik Prince Unveils Solution to Unplug Big Tech’s ‘Pervasive Surveillance’

As Big Tech companies continue to expand their control over Americans’ cellphone data, one businessman has stepped up, providing an alternative and delivering a powerful message: enough! This was the sentiment of Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, former NAVY Seal and owner of the Unplugged tech startup, during an exclusive interview on MRC UnCensored with host and MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider. In the interview, Prince touted his one-of-a-kind Unplugged Smartphone, which he said is designed to combat Big Tech’s censorship and what he described as the “pervasive surveillance of Big Brother." Referring to the “enormous power” of Big Tech companies, Prince mentioned that Americans have become the “product” of Big Tech, as these companies control “everything you do digitally, every call you make, everywhere you go, what you browse, what you buy [and] who you interact with.” He recounted witnessing the rampant censorship conducted by Big Tech during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, when censors “were canceling certain voices that they didn't like that were opposed to their big government narrative.” But Prince had enough, he told Schneider, recalling the launch of UP Phone, which, unlike any other device, does not rely on Google software. Similar: MRC President Bozell to Patrick Bet-David: Google Is Picking Winners and Losers Taking matters into his own hands, Prince explained, “I basically had an angry phone call with a couple of friends of mine saying, ‘What the hell are we going to do? We're not going to change Big Tech by b****ing about it. We're only going to change it by competing.’” Prince suggested that the smartphone, launched in 2022, is even more relevant nowadays after Congress re-authorized controversial portions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) Section 702. “With Congress just a couple weeks ago passing not just a FISA extension, but a massive FISA enlargement, because what the federal government has been doing is have a very cozy relationship with Big Tech, all too cozy,” he said. The infamous spying tool allows the federal government to collect a massive trove of emails from U.S. persons to foreign countries of interest without a warrant.  “It basically allows the federal government, any agency can go to Big Tech and demand they turn over that data,” he continued. “Any messages, photos, anything they have without a warrant and without probable cause.” Expanding on his remarks, Prince added, “Just one federal investigator … with a bone to pick wants to go on a fishing expedition to dig into your life. They have carte blanche to do it. This is the only thing that protects that kind of digital sovereignty.” 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 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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MRC’s Bozell Warns of Soros-Funded ‘Fascistic’ Plot Amid 2024 Election

Leftist billionaire George Soros is “behind an all-out effort to shut down” free speech in the United States, MRC President Brent Bozell declared on Thursday. Bozell’s scorching remarks came in response to an MRC report that exposed Soros as one of the financiers of an anti-free speech cartel beseeching Big Tech platforms to censor Americans ahead of the 2024 presidential election. “I think Americans really need to be worried about this man,” Bozell said during an interview on Fox Business’s Varney & Co. “I think he's the greatest threat to democracy — not just in this country, but worldwide — and the things he's doing are frightening.” Read the Bombshell! George Soros Fueled $80M Into Groups Calling for Big Tech Censorship in Lead-Up to 2024 Elections At the center of Bozell’s warning is a media group’s letter pressuring social media platforms to censor content under the auspice of “implement[ing] election-integrity policies to protect democracy worldwide.” The letter, which Bozell lambasted for its “really fascistic attitude toward democracy,” was signed by over 200 groups and was led by the Soros-funded media group Free Press (not to be confused with journalist Bari Weiss’s The Free Press). In it, these groups pressed for “swift action” to allegedly protect democracy by keeping a “safe and healthy” environment for users. That is, by suppressing content that goes against their ideologies. But here’s the kicker: MRC research found that a large portion of these anti-free speech cartel non-profits have been bankrolled by none other than Soros.  “Of those 200 organizations, 45 of them were funded by George Soros … to the tune of $80 million — 45 that we know of. It’s probably more than that,” Bozell declared.  Reiterating the MRC’s findings, Bozell warned that these left-wing organizations “went to everybody in Big Tech whether it was Meta, TikTok, Google, YouTube” to call for the censorship of “conservatives, censor faith-based groups, censor Donald Trump yet again, shut down any, any debate over climate change.” More on Soros: Is He Buying Universities’ Silence on Anti-Semitic Agitators? 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 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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MRC Backs Religious Lawsuit Against NPR-Favoring Government Rate Scheme

The Media Research Center is calling on the federal government to stop discriminating against religious broadcasting companies and right-leaning talk radio. On Monday, MRC filed an amicus brief this week in support of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)’s petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case pertaining to religious broadcasting companies challenging the Biden-led Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which is a federal entity responsible for regulating royalties and copyright licenses. In the brief, MRC argued that the CRB violated the First Amendment religious liberty and free speech rights by not providing the same deal to religious broadcasters it entered into with leftist National Public Radio (NPR). The legal battle began in 2021 after the CRB inexplicably refused to extend a favorable NPR deal, including low fees, to the National Religious Broadcasters Noncommercial Music License Committee (NRB), a non-profit representing various religious communicators and broadcasting companies. The ADF wrote in February that the CRB established a statutory license for companies, including NPR and NRB, to pay royalties to the copyright holders of songs played on their stations. Instead of offering the same rates granted to NPR, the CRB demanded that religious broadcasting companies pay 18 times the royalty fees of NPR if they have over 200 listeners. This was in contrast to the CRB's deal with NPR, a secular, taxpayer-funded company at the center of controversy for bias. Related: Here Are the Best & Worst Moments From the House NPR Hearing with MRC’s Graham “Here, the Board created a content-based, tiered rate structure that required religious broadcasters to pay far more than NPR stations to communicate with an audience above a mere 218 people,” the MRC brief read, alluding to the notable discrepancies in the deals offered to NPR and the NRB. Further addressing the court, the MRC wrote that this discriminatory practice “forces religious broadcasters to pay royalty rates 18 times higher than those to which NPR will be subject.” The religious broadcasting companies took the CRB to court in 2021. Regrettably, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of the federal government. “This unlawful discrimination forces some noncommercial religious stations to stay small and restrict their listener reach so they can afford to stream online,” the ADF added. “The Copyright Royalty Board is violating federal law and the U.S. Constitution, and so we are urging the Supreme Court to take this important case and rule on the side of religious liberty and free speech.” 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 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.