Peter Greenberger, a former Twitter and Google executive, is calling for the social media accounts of President Donald Trump to be shutdown for the remainder of the election. For those of us who have criticized calls for censorship from Democratic leaders for years, the demand is yet another example of the slippery slope of censorship that awaits this country with increasing regulation of speech on social media.
“I agree, it is, and extreme times demand extreme suggestions. I did not come to this opinion lightly. I believe that the tech companies, generally, have a responsibility to be neutral. I think in the case of Twitter specifically, it’s been a great champion of the democratization of information as well as a strong supporter of freedom of expression. However, we are in a unique, and, I believe, a fraught moment in time with a president who is desperate and he’s facing a very difficult situation. I think the time is to mute the president, temporarily, while votes are being cast right now and until the winner is decided.”
It is certainly comforting to know that Greenberger is not gutting free speech “lightly.” However, the most telling statement is his reference to the “democratization of information” which appears to mean the control of the majority over the speech of the minority. It shows how democracy can be easily confused with tyranny. The difference is that this censorship is being meted out by private companies at the behest of democratic leaders.
Like every censor in history, Greenberger wraps himself in the cloak of certainty and righteousness. By declaring the President’s political views to be “misinformation,” he claims license to “turn[] off some of the key engagement features of the platform in order to slow down the cause of misinformation.”
This is all of course to protect the public from information that it should not read, according to Greenberger and the social media companies. The silence or even support of many on the left on such censorship calls is chilling. Free speech is now often portrayed as a danger to democracy as opposed to the very right guaranteed in a democratic system of governance. Greenberger is the cheerful face of censorship, thrilling a CNN audience with the idea of removing an unpopular president from social media platforms. His extremism is not nearly as unnerving as the fact that such proposals are now deemed plausible or possible.
‘Stay tuned with CNN for the Jeffrey Toobin news commentary. Today Jeffrey provides a personal interactive interpretation of Hunter Biden’s video showing Mr. Biden showering with his 12 year old niece and then sharing a crack pipe with her. Viewer discretion is advised.’
All in the family.
We need more social media outlets.
as long as it drives up my nail salon business I’m game
Readers of this site may be interested in this new resource. The free search engine that protects user’s privacy – “DuckDuckGo.com” – now has an online newsletter. The “DuckDuckGo.com” newsletter recently reported that some other larger search engines are essentially acting as “agents-of-the-state” [a government entity] in helping government agencies violate the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In other words a government official that swore an oath of office loyalty oath, to protect American’s constitutional rights, simply bypasses the “supreme law of the land” [Article VI] – without a judicial search warrant – simply by deputizing a private company to hand over the records.
If a private search engine company is an “accessory” to violate the 4th Amendment, that company is a “governing entity” under the federal criminal code (ie: Title 18 US Code 241-245). The problem is the “cop” to enforce these federal statutes participates in violating their own oath of office. Maybe we need a new “Judicial Branch” agency to check & balance the political branches?
“Readers of this site may be interested in this new resource. The free search engine that protects user’s privacy – “DuckDuckGo.com” – now has an online newsletter. The “DuckDuckGo.com” newsletter recently reported that some other larger search engines are essentially acting as “agents-of-the-state” [a government entity] in helping government agencies violate the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
Ashcroft, thank you for this information. I wonder if any of those with deep understanding of this topic can provide their opinion and add further information. I’ve been using Duckduckgo for along time. I didn’t know about the newsletter.
Duckduckgo, proton mail, you have to keep up with countersurveillance or the fraudsters will pick your pocket to say nothing of all the rest of this
Kurtz, your response is confusing. Are you saying to use Duckduckgo and proton mail or are you saying they will pick your pockets?
right ashcroft this is worth considering, existing case law on this issue is weak. Generally law enforcement can use privately supplied evidence no matter how it was obtained
the problem pops up a lot with informants who are busy breaking laws at will to “get the evidence”
“misinformation” = facts that make us uncomfortable.
Everyone knows the rules by now. DNC lies, misinformation, and disinformation are always not only fully permitted, but are encouraged and rewarded. But the truth from any source that threatens the Deep State criminals is always punished, censored, and silenced. The media pressitutes’ model is Communist China. And their holy savior is China Joe, China’s Manchurian Candidate.
Seems as if Greenberger and Tapper have just made the case for removing Section 230.
If words have consequences, so do actions, and if Twitter and other social media ‘platforms’ pick and choose whom to censor, then they are publishers, and, like publishers, subject to being sued for libel, discrimination, and other actions that in various ways harm individuals and groups.
Free speech is important………….you lets you find out who the idiots are.
It’s been suggested that Trump order federal agencies to make their announcements on Gab and Parler. Let’s do this.
heck yes spread that federal info around to more neutral public forums
DSS, what is the difference between Gab and Parler? I barely if ever use Twitter and Facebook.
I think the suggestion that federal agencies make their announcements on other platforms is sound.
Why doesn’t Trump stop using Twitter?
HITLER PLAYBOOK 2.0
The lefts using The Hitler playbook to fundamentally change the United States from a Constitutional Republic into a totalitarian state.
Corporations, local unelected officials, institutions, entertainment, sports, education, the re-branded into the propaganda ministry Fourth Estate, social media and all elements of everyday life are taking upon themselves the mantle of arbiters and enforcers of the illegal, illicit anti-Constitutional facist judicial system the left is methodically replacing the U.S. Justice System with, by suplanting Constitutional and Civil Rights and replacing them with and enforcing draconian, totalitarian, unconstitutional social fiat laws as the new Rule of Law and the new basis for American Justice.
It’s all preparation and foundation for the ultimate leftist wet dream, Absolute Orwellian Control operated via the illicit machinations of handpicked judges and legislative foot soldiers with zero input from and zero consent of the People placed under that control.
Data is being mined 24/7 to find violations to charge with under the new justice system which is already openly replacing The Constitutional Justice System and The Rule of Law at warp speed while politicos sit around zoned out on their own self absorbed self righteousness scratching each others assses and throwing cover from their safe spaces in their Ivory Towers.
Lack of action by government whose major function is the preservation, protection and defense of Constitutional Freedoms has placed the entire country in lockdown. Lack of guts and faithful adherence to their Oaths of Office have allowed it to be subjected to draconian illicit, illegal, unconstitutional rules and laws that supplant the Constitution and strip Citizens of their Constitutional and Civil Rights and as designed, has provided the segue that’s transitioning The United States from a Constitutional Republic governed by the core Constitutional Foundation of the United States into a 2 tier political slavery system. A political system that is now openly administered and carried via rules and regs implemented by social media and the unfettered ever changing tailor made for control and purging fiat rules of social media policed and enforced by mark zuckerberg jack dorsey, sundar pichai, blm and antifa and the rest of the unhinged leftists whose stated purpose is genocide and whose stated mission can only end the deaths of millions of Americans.
Everyone is subject to suspicion, and defacto guilty of crimes against fiat laws based on whatever action is needed to further solidify the democrat left’s absolute power over and absolute control of The People of the U. S.
If left unchecked the fiat laws will make every person subject to arrest if they do not meet the nebilous criteria of a person “that should be allowed” to live in society.
ALL totally illegal and all happening because Hitler’s bold in your face I dare you to stop me use of Brownshirting, Stormtrooping, Kristallnachting, Blitzkrieging attacks and seizure of power by propaganda, force and terror is still just as effective against weak willed political eunuchs today as it was in the 1930’s
The United States in now one step away of being a de facto government.
.
de facto government
Definition
A government wherein all the attributes of sovereignty have, by usurpation, been transferred from those who had been legally invested with them to others, who, sustained by a power above the forms of law, claim to act and do really act in their stead.
.
Worse yet is The People of America have been so skillfully lied to and socially engineered by the ones they trusted the most with their lives, that they are enthusiastically participating in the building of the 21st century reeducation and death camps for themselves.
Remember, Hitler did not build the death camps for the Jews. He built them for his political adversaries and those who disagreed with him.
And Joseph “Jack Dorsey” Goebbels’ media machinations and the unconstitutional, politically correct Nuremberg “Mark Zuckerberg” Laws and agenda driven social implementation of a “Googlesque” political, racial and class system based form of justice that rewarded State Friends and punished State Enemies were the tools that put them there.
Dawn, take your medications. The government is not involved in Twitter or FB. That’s what Turley’s trying to make happen and he hasn’t succeeded yet. Good that you’re on your guard though.
Quit insulting people you scoundrel. Learn the facts before you cast your uniformed insults
https://qz.com/1145669/googles-true-origin-partly-lies-in-cia-and-nsa-research-grants-for-mass-surveillance/
Google has deep funding from the US. “intelligence community” geeks. read about it. qz is just your kind of website too
Facebook got seed money from In-Q-Tel. CIA venture capital outfit. this is no secret. you just didn’t get the memo.
There are deep deep ongoing collaborative efforts too. This was part of Snowden’s revelations
When you tell joe friday to quit insulting people, but you don’t tell Allan, Mark, DSS, and others to quit insulting people, you come across as a hypocrite.
It seems you can’t stand on your own two legs. I think that comment is already proven by your generic icon. You have a lot of personal problems that you unload on this blog.
Scoundrel! This will not stand sir! I demand satisfaction!
Whatever government work Google is doing and don;t think publishing the Presidnet’s lies without edit is in the contract.
Dawn, ignore Joe Friday. He seldom says anything meaningful and doesn’t understand how the left functions. He has left many prior aliases in the dust destroyed due to incessant ignorance.
Tapper is nothing more and nothing less than a propagandist.
In light of the fact that Tapper & CNN foisted a now disproven Russian “conspiracy” theory for over 2 years, the irony of Tapper referring to anything and everything that Trump has ever tweeted as “unhinged lies and nonsense, and conspiracy theories”, clearly displays why the idea of censoring Trump is so appealing to him.
It will be fascinating to watch how they deal with former Hunter Biden business partner Bevan Cooney flipping on the Biden’s.
A) Initially they will ignore it, and give it no coverage.
B) Once it becomes impossible to ignore, they will claim it is “unhinged lies and nonsense and conspiracy theories”.
The Ministry of Truth
“The Ministry of Truth is a propaganda machine. The irony is that all it does is lie. How genius is that as a political tactic? Name your bureau of propaganda and outright deceit the Ministry of Truth.”
1984 is here, and they aren’t even trying to hide it anymore.
But that is good. It’s always better to have the enemy out in the open.
Exactly right, Rhodes, and the opposing voters can’t say they didn’t know unless of course they’re the mindless sheep of the corporate media.
Oh, you was like serious about that nonsense mespo? When did Twitter and FB get control of our public airwaves, printing presses, like the entire internet, and courthouse squares?
When the rest of the Left did in the 60s. T and FB being just their latest attempts.
Silicon Valley including Google and Apple have used technology developed with US seed money to make public media obsolete in favor of their own subsidized rackets
From DARPA funding of tech research, to In-Q-Tel venture capital supplied by CIA, to NSA collaborative efforts, to the actual infrastructure of the internet built out in its infancy with US taxpayer dollars, SILICON VALLEY OWES US.
I FAVOR AN EXCISE TAX ON THEM.. Yang had an idea like that. Use this to fund some UBI.
And force them to quit censoring the digital public squares that they built on the taxpayer’s dime
Rhodes, on that now “disproven Russian “conspiracy” theory”, maybe you should read the report from the GOP led Senate Intel Comm that was released this August. Here:
“The Committee found that the Russian government engaged in an aggressive, multifaceted effort to influence, or attempt to influence, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election….
The Committee found that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian
effort to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party and leak
information damaging to Hillary Clinton and her campaign for president. Moscow’s intent was
to harm the Clinton Campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the
Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the
U.S. democratic process.
While the GRU and WikiLeaks were releasing hacked documents, the Trump
Campaign sought to maximize the impact of those leaks to aid Trump’s electoral
prospects. Staff on the Trump Campaign sought advance notice about WikiLeaks releases,
created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following
thdr release, and encouraged further leaks. The Trump Campaign publicly undermined the
attribution of the hack-and-leak campaign to Russia and was indifferent to whether it and
WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort. …”
Other collusion involving Manafort, all the top members of the Trump election campaign, and the President are covered.
Enjoy!
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf
And, yet, the Hunter Biden emails (and creepy images) continue to remain authentic.
We don’t know whether it’s all authentic or is a mix of authentic and fake.
Kieth Olberman the total nutjob was on tv calling for Trump’s execution. These Democrats are insane! They’re out for blood. Vote like your life depends on it– it probably does!~
Friends we are in some dangerous waters, I sure hope we get this one right.
Hard to believe the best argument a person can give you is by muting you.
Indeed Viet, that’s why people like Limbaugh and Levin always have guests with opposing views to present both sides on our limited public airwaves.
JF- I don’t recall either Limbaugh or Levin saying Joe Hiden should be silenced can you direct me to the broadcast dates?
Viet, they effectively silence all points of view except rabid right wing nonsense from our PUBLIC AIRWAVES. The stations they are on are no longer under a “fairness doctrine” because you right wingers eliminated it on our PUBLIC AIRWAVES. Now you’re crying because other private businesses on a not limited internet want to decide what is on their sites?
JF- So you can’t and wish to deflect by calling me a “right winger”. Well I guess it’s better than having you say I’m Russian offering disinformation. When you’re able to give me the dates they suggest muting Joe Hiden I’d be happy to listen to the broadcasts.
Viet, cut the BS. No one suggested that Trumpo should be muted. They suggested he not be allowed to spread lies on particular internet sites which are privately owned, but not on public airwaves. You let me know when Limbaugh, Levin, the Weiner Nation guy, Hannity and the rest of those sick f…s have Joe on their show on PUBLIC AIRWAVES where you need a license to run a station. Until then, Joe is on mute on those PUBLIC AIRWAVES.
He’s a Maoist and a enemy of the Republic. In a sane society, he’d be prosecuted, tried and, given his flagrant admissions, hanged by the neck though I’d prefer a head on a pike. We tolerate these threats to our freedom too “lightly.” It’s time to remember that free men are history’s true revolutionaries.
Now there’s the voice of free speech! Thanks for the self mocking bit mespo. Needed a laugh this early.
Gainesville.
Leave it to you to not understand anything about the concept. Free speech doesn’t mean tolerating those who would deny it to others. Just as not every bank withdrawal is a robbery, not every utterance is protected free speech. When you impose a blackout on critical news to your fellow citizens you’ve moved from free speech into wrongdoing. Its every bit as dangerous as yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater.
Yes and criminal conspiracy to violate the civil rights of regular Americans needs to be charged against about ten thousand BLM and ANTIFA rioters too
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/241
If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or
If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—
They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
THIS LAW IS A BRUTAL HAMMER WAITING IN THE TOOLBOX TO CRUSH THE INSURGENCY
IT WORKED BEFORE AND IT CAN WORK NOW
Orwell wrote “1984” as a warning, not as a blueprint. Twitter, Facebook and even LinkedIn, as well as the MSM see themselves as arbiters of truth, based on their employee’s leanings. They have become the Ministry of Truth. Goebbels would be so proud.
william, the government is not censoring anyone and you and Turley should cut the drama queen act.
“the government is not censoring anyone”
Hey ChiCom Joe.
Where in the article did JT write that “the government” is censoring anyone?
“Peter Greenberger, a former Twitter and Google executive, is calling for the social media accounts of President Donald Trump to be shutdown for the remainder of the election.”
I realize that English is your second language, but you need to work on your reading comprehension.
Rhodes, if the government is not censoring anyone why are you snowflakes all freaked out about 1984 and Nazis? Why is Turley pretending this is a constitutional crisis? Mespo wants to hang people.
Hey Russia Rhodes, you need to stop trolling.
Of course it will be the “saddest” of days when 100% of our political/judicial theater operates solely under the
“assumption of correctness”!! Can you imagine being called in as a witness to a horrible crime and asked
what you had seen/heard/smelled/tasted/felt by your own 2 hands under oath to reveal all true facts.
And then by some “whims” from a magistrate being labeled as an “unreliable witness” and your personal accounts of what transpired deemed inadmissible proof, little more than hearsay and conjecture .
Well folks…..we have arrived at the river…they took down the bridge a while back….now we know why.
Yeah Randroid, except Twitter and FB don’t own the courts. You’re thinking of the GOP.
By the way, everyday and all day, including now – people are attacking Biden, democrats, Jake Tapper (you name your bogeymen) on Twitter and FB. Some police state.
Unlike the public airwaves, which are limited and require a government license to operate on – and which the GOP successfully removed the “Fairness Doctrine under Reagan which has resulted in 24/7 coast tp coast right wing radio and conservative programming TV monopolies like Sinclair Broadcasting with it’s 200 mostly small market stations – Twitter and FB are privately owned internet businesses that can do what they like as far as they’re “programming”. If Turley doesn’t like it, he should stop using them instead of trying to get the government involved to enforce a speech code to his liking. The 230 protection does not mean businesses which internet platforms are open sewers out of the control of their owners – nor is this blog which Turley owns.
If you are acting as an editor, you should lose your govt. protection.
“However, the most telling statement is his reference to the “democratization of information” which appears to mean the control of the majority over the speech of the minority. It shows how democracy can be easily confused with tyranny.”
“The War on Populism: The Final Act”
https://consentfactory.org/2020/09/20/the-war-on-populism-the-final-act/
“Suddenly, a rather undeadly virus (as far as deadly pestilences go) became the excuse for GloboCap to lock down most of humanity for months, destroy the economy, unleash the goon squads, terrorize everyone with hysterical propaganda, and otherwise remake society into a global totalitarian police state.”
“The New (Pathologized) Totalitarianism”
https://consentfactory.org/2020/06/29/the-new-pathologized-totalitarianism/
220,000 dead from a virus is called a “pandemic”. What do they call the 650,000 (CDC) who die from heart disease in the US every year?
Normal.
They call it non-transmissible disease, and they understand the difference.
The final act will be blood and fire. Maybe it’s coming for us, or maybe it will come for them. This does not end in ice.
Some real history. American officials have attempted to censor the following books and were only stopped by an Independent Judiciary:
Gone with the Wind
Catch-22
The Catcher in the Rye
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Joy of Sex
Lord of the Flies
Of Mice and Men
Sophie’s Choice
To Kill a Mockingbird
Ulysses
The Grapes of Wrath
[source: ACLU]
See a complaint from a quondam employee of Norman Lear’s outfit, “People for the American Way”, published in Harper’s around about 2000. Their ‘Most Challenged Book’ ‘typically has fewer than 10 ‘challenges’; a ‘challenge’ is typically one parent’s gripe, about which nothing is done’.
Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer have been totally scrubbed from every school syllabus and the ACLU did not lift a pinky
The ACLU did some good things in the past but now it is an arm of the left-wing. It will protect left-wing speech, but not speech the left-wing doesn’t want to hear. It is now an oppressor.
As usual, Allan spouts off without providing any evidence.
As usual Anonymous spouts off without any knowledge.
Their is plenty of evidence in the public domain. Listen to some of their biggest previous supporters and see what they say. The ACLU is now taking cases only to benefit the left.
Both Alan Dershowitz and Nat Hentoff began taking a critical stance toward the ACLU 30 years ago.
Nat Hentoff dropped out of the ACLU about that time.
See Wm. Donohue’s scholarly work on the history of the ACLU. It’s never been what it claimed to be.
No doubt the German Jews could have persuaded the German Christians not to be taken in by Hitler’s anti-Semitic rhetoric if only had they countered his hate speech with more good speech.
Wel never know since Hitler was an amazingly efficient modern day Democrat.
Was free speech a right in Germany at the time?
What’s this got to do with Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar?