Editorial by AdenJack and Dr E
Yesterday in a Senate Committee hearing, the CEO’s of three Big Tech companies testified on the blatant censorship their platforms have enacted against conservative personalities, viewpoints and anything that could hurt Joe Biden’s presidential bid. The objective was to get them to open their platforms to free and honest speech and to explain why they haven’t already.
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Sundar Pichai of Google all attended the hearing via video conference.
Congressional Democrats spent their allotted time attacking President Trump and furthering their multiple narratives. Not once did they utter a scintilla of truth. The worst of them all was Senator Tammy Duckwoth of Illinois who didn’t ask a single question, but instead used her allotted time to spew hatred of our President and Republicans who support him, alleging that anything a Republican says is foreign election interference that should be quickly removed to “save lives and our democracy.”
The following is the full text of Democrat Senator Duckworth’s ‘line of questioning’, that we have ‘fact checked.’
I’ve devoted my life to public service to upholding a sacred oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, and I have to be honest it makes my blood boil and it also breaks my heart a little as I watch my Republican colleagues just days before an election sink down to the level of Donald Trump.
By placing the selfish interests of Donald Trump ahead of the health of our democracy, Senate Republicans, whether they realize it or not, are weakening our national security and providing aid to our adversaries.”
Granted Ms. Duckworth served in the military, and we thank her for her service, but after this statement she leaves the rails.
False: The executives were there to discuss their obvious censoring of conservatives, not to be lectured about the evils of the President. Calling President Trump selfish? Trying to make the claim that all Republicans are providing aid and comfort to our enemies and putting our national security at risk? Isn’t it actually just the reverse, as the democrats have done nothing but hinder and attacke the President as he has tried to make America great again. As with all things the Demorats say, it is exactly the opposite of what’s true.
Duckworth continues:
As my late friend Congressman Cummings often reminded us, you know, we’re better than this.
True: Senator Duckworth, we agree you should all know you’re better than this.
Look, our democracy is under attack right now. Every American, every member of Congress, should be committed to defending the integrity of our elections from hostile foreign interference.
True: we are under attack, as are our elections. But the attacks aren’t coming from our foreign adversaries. Instead they’re coming from the radical leftist Democrats.
Despite all the recent talk of great power, competition, our adversaries know they cannot defeat us on the conventional battlefield yet meanwhile the members of the United States military and our dedicated civil servants are working around the clock in the cyber domain to counter hostile actors such as Iran, China and Russia. And they do this while the Commander-in-Chief cowers in fear of Russia and stubbornly refuses to take any action to criticize or warn Russia against endangering our troops. I have confidence in the United States armed forces, intelligence community and civil servants”.
False: Duckworth continues to push the narrative that our President is weak on foreign powers. Perhaps she’s been asleep for the past four years and hasn’t taken note of the tough stance Trump has taken with Russia, Iran, and China. Our enemies have been trying to affect our elections for many years. Even the Obama White House knew it was happening, but he never did anything to stop it.
Truth: President Trump is not afraid of anyone, least of all President Vladimir Putin. Further, I promise you that when Putin and Trump speak, the message is loud and clear to Putin: ‘Don’t mess with the USA.’
Back to Duckworth’s PSA:
Their effective performance explains why our foreign adversaries have sought alternative avenues to attacking our nation. Afraid to face us in conventional military or diplomatic ways, they look for unconventional means to weaken our democracy and they realize that social media could be the exhaust port of our democracy. Social media is so pervasive in the daily lives of Americans and traditional media outlets that it can be weaponized to manipulate the public discourse and destabilize our institutions.
True: Here Duckworth is correct. The media and social media companies can be weaponized and they’ve chosen to fight for the Democrats.
You know, after Russia was incredibly successful in disrupting our democracy four years ago, all of our adversaries learned a chilling lesson: social media companies can not be trusted to put patriotism above profit.
Mixed: There is no proof that Russia managed to disrupt our democracy. But, there is proof that Hillary Clinton and the DNC used Russian propaganda in an attempt to disrupt our democracy. Amazing to watch as the Dems once again trot out Russia, Russia, Russia, as this was completely debunked by Mueller and his team.
But, it is true that social media companies can’t be trusted to be patriots.
Facebook and Twitter utterly failed to hinder Russia’s sweeping and systemic interference in our 2016 election which used the platforms to infiltrate our communities, spread disinformation and turn Americans against one other.
Mixed: Social media has failed alright and they continue their failure daily. They hinder the American people from hearing the truth, they censor the President and members of his administration, and actively promote leftist voices.
Ask any patriotic American about the climate of the country today and they’ll tell you much of it is due to Obama’s divisive identity politics along with the media’s help in the hopes of starting a race war. Since Trump’s announcement of his candidacy, the left has mounted a campaign to malign him, making the average leftist hate a man who loves the country. The climate today isn’t because of Trump, it’s because of opposition to his presidency.
Of course the situation has grown far worse today as evidenced by today’s partisan sham hearing.
True: It’s a sham hearing to Democrats because they don’t want their control over Big Tech to be diminishe. Otherwise, it’s totally a legitimate hearing, as the Republicans are attempting to hold honest and fair elections… something the Dems know nothing about.
While corporations may plead ignorance prior to the 2016 election, President Trump and his Republican enablers in the Senate have no such excuse.
Senate Republicans cut a deal to become the party of Trump and now they find themselves playing a very dangerous game. By encouraging Russia’s illegal hacking, by serving as the promoters of disinformation cooked up by foreign intelligence services and by falsely claiming censorship, when responsible actors attempt to prevent hostile foreign adversaries interfering in our elections, Senate Republicans insult the efforts of true patriots working to counter malign interference and weaken our security.
False: The dangerous game is being played by the Democrats. They are insisting, even after all the facts and incontrovertible proof pours out, that the Biden Crime Family saga is fake, cooked up by foreign intelligence services, which sounds awfully familiar, like a certain dossier cooked up by foreign intelligence services for the Democrats in 2016.
This committee is playing politics at a time when responsible public officials should be doing everything to preserve confidence in our system of elections and system of government”. “The reckless actions of Donald Trump and Senate Republicans do not let technology companies off the hook.
False: The Democrats are the ones playing politics and trying to steal the election by introducing many last minute voting procedural changes in swing states that are designed help them when, in reality, Trump wins by a landslide.
None of the companies testifying before our committee today are helpless in the face of threats to our democracy, small ‘d’ democracy”. “Federal law provides your respective companies with authority to counter foreign disinformation and counterintelligence propaganda and I want to be absolutely clear gentleman that I fully expect each of you to do so. Each of you will be attacked by the President, Senate Republicans and right wing media for countering hostile foreign interference in our elections, but you have a duty to do the right thing”. “Because facts still exist; facts still matter; facts save lives and there’s no both sides when one side has chosen to reject truth and embrace poisonous false information.
Mixed: There is so much to unpack in this statement. Who determines what foreign disinformation and counterintelligence propaganda actually is? Is this not making the big tech companies content creators which puts them in opposition to Section 230?
In saying that the President and the Republicans are going to be attacking them regarding facts, again, who says what are facts and what are lies? The Democrats have been the ones to reject truth, facts, science and evidence over the last four years.
So in closing I would like each witness to provide a personal commitment that your respective companies will proactively counter domestic disinformation that spreads dangerous lies such as ‘masks don’t work’, while aggressively identifying and removing disinformation that is part of foreign adversaries efforts to interfere in our election or undermine our democracy.
Do I have that commitment from each of you gentleman?
And there you have it…the marching orders for Big Tech, given by Tammy Duckworth. Remove the information we don’t agree with…pledge your allegiance to us! And the CEO’s of Big Tech all responded in the affirmative.
“Aggressively identifying and removing” information would require an honest evaluation of the information. But, that’s not what big tech does. They twist their terms of service to fit the information they choose to ban.
Thank you… your industries success or failure in achieving this goal will have far reaching life or death consequences for the American people and the future of our democracy.
As BLM and Antifa are doing everything they can to destroy our Republic, Duckworth has the nerve to spout the life and death consequences for the American people. These groups work for the left, are funded by the left, are encouraged by the left, and we are gaslighted about them by the left.
Yes, the Democrat party is the political party attempting to take down our country and our way of life… it’s not the Republicans… and that is a fact.
