We have been discussing the calls for top Democrats for increased private censorship on social media and the Internet. President-elect Joe Biden has himself called for such censorship, including blocking President Donald Trump’s criticism of mail-in voting. Now, shortly after the election, one of Biden’s top aides is ramping up calls for a crackdown on Facebook for allowing Facebook users to read views that he considers misleading — users who signed up to hear from these individuals. Bill Russo, a deputy communications director on Biden’s campaign press team, tweeted late Monday that Facebook “is shredding the fabric of our democracy” by allowing such views to be shared freely.
Russo tweeted that “If you thought disinformation on Facebook was a problem during our election, just wait until you see how it is shredding the fabric of our democracy in the days after.” Russo objected to the fact that, unlike Twitter, Facebook did not move against statements that he and the campaign viewed as “misleading.” He concluded. “We pleaded with Facebook for over a year to be serious about these problems. They have not. Our democracy is on the line. We need answers.”
For those of us in the free speech community, these threats are chilling. We saw incredible abuses before the election in Twitter barring access to a true story in the New York Post about Hunter Biden and his alleged global influence peddling scheme. Notably, no one in the Biden camp (including Biden himself) thought that it was a threat to our democracy to have Twitter block the story (while later admitting that it was a mistake).
I have previously objected to such regulation of speech. What is most disturbing is how liberals have embraced censorship and even declared that “China was right” on Internet controls. Many Democrats have fallen back on the false narrative that the First Amendment does not regulate private companies so this is not an attack on free speech. Free speech is a human right that is not solely based or exclusively defined by the First Amendment. Censorship by Internet companies is a “Little Brother” threat long discussed by free speech advocates. Some may willingly embrace corporate speech controls but it is still a denial of free speech.
This is why I recently described myself as an Internet Originalist:
The alternative is “internet originalism” — no censorship. If social media companies returned to their original roles, there would be no slippery slope of political bias or opportunism; they would assume the same status as telephone companies. We do not need companies to protect us from harmful or “misleading” thoughts. The solution to bad speech is more speech, not approved speech.
If Pelosi demanded that Verizon or Sprint interrupt calls to stop people saying false or misleading things, the public would be outraged. Twitter serves the same communicative function between consenting parties; it simply allows thousands of people to participate in such digital exchanges. Those people do not sign up to exchange thoughts only to have Dorsey or some other internet overlord monitor their conversations and “protect” them from errant or harmful thoughts.
Russo’s comments mirror the comments of other Democrats who are seeking greater censorship. Indeed, in the recent Senate hearing on Twitter’s suppression of the Biden story, Democratic senators ignored the admissions of Big Tech CEOs that they were wrong to bar the story and, instead, insisted that the CEOs pledge to substantially increase such censorship. Senator Jacky Rosen warned the CEOS that “you are not doing enough” to prevent “disinformation, conspiracy theories and hate speech on your platforms.”
Again, as someone raised in a deeply liberal and Democratic family in Chicago, I do not know when the Democratic party became the party for censorship. However, limiting free speech is now a rallying cry for Democratic members and activists alike. At risk is the single greatest invention for free speech since the printing press. Russo’s comments reaffirms that the Biden Administration will continue this assault against Internet free speech. What is most unnerving is that Russo is denouncing such free speech as “shredding the fabric of our democracy.” There was a time when free speech was the very right that we fought to protect in our democratic system. It was one of the defining principles of our Constitution system. It is now being treated as a threat to that system.
Rut Roh! Biden is in trouble.
Bring out your dead!!!!
===
Joe Biden’s Lead in Arizona Drops Below 15K; 63K Ballots Remain
President Trump is continuing to make gains in Arizona, reducing Joe Biden’s (D) lead by the thousands over the course of the last week.
Another Maricopa County drop on Monday evening showed Trump reducing Biden’s overall lead from 16,952 on Sunday afternoon to 14,746. According to the Arizona Republic, Trump fell short in the Monday evening drop of ballots in terms of overall pace, taking 49.2 percent of the 6,495 votes. Trump needs to take 60 percent of the remaining ballots in the state in order to take the lead.
The paper believes 63,000 ballots remain, over half of which are provisional, though Data Orbital estimates the remaining number to be around 61.6K:
Outstanding Ballot Update –
Maricopa: ~29.5k (8,209 are provisional)
Pima: ~18.7k (18k are provisional)
Remaining: 13.3k (10.6k are provisional)
Total: 61.6k (36.8k are provisional)#AZ #Election2020 #ElectionResults2020
— Data Orbital (@Data_Orbital) November 10, 2020
Our elections have no integrity. When ever Democrats touch anything, they become soiled. Just ask Hunter Biden!
Bbbbbwahahahahahaahahahaha
—-
Ted Cruz on Presidential Election Fallout: ‘The Fundamental Question Is, Are We Going to Follow the Law?’
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and part of the 2000 Bush campaign’s legal team in Bush v. Gore, dismissed calls from the media and others for President Donald Trump and his allies to concede the election outcome to former Vice President Joe Biden.
During an appearance on FNC’s “Hannity,” Cruz said the process should play out as the system allows for it.
“Well, look, the fundamental question is, are we going to follow the law?” he said. “You noticed the news media on Election Day when you and I probably went to bed on Election Day seeing the same results, we saw that President Trump had won Florida, we won Ohio, we were leading in North Carolina, in Michigan and Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, it looked like a very good night. And all the news media was saying at the time, well, hold on, hold on, we don’t know who won, we don’t know who won. And then as the numbers shifted to Joe Biden, suddenly, the instant they shifted to Joe Biden, the entire news media said, ‘OK, now, it’s over, everybody shut up and go home.’”
“Well, that’s not the way the system works,” Cruz continued. “The way it works is you follow the law. There are multiple lawsuits pending in multiple states. Those lawsuits have to be resolved, and there are serious allegations of violations of law. The right standard is that every single legal vote that was cast should be counted, but any votes that were illegally cast shouldn’t be counted. And there’s a way we resolve this. You know, one of the frustrating things as a citizen, you see all these tweets going back and forth, you see allegations of this happened, that happened, it’s hard to know. It’s hard for anyone to know, all right, is this true, what’s true?”
“The only way to know is we had a legal process, we have state courts, we have federal courts that can hear legal claims,” he added. “And right now, it is incumbent on the Trump campaign’s lawyers to go in and prove their case in court, to lay out evidence, to lay out evidence of illegally cast votes, to lay out evidence of what was done right and what was done wrong and when the process is over, we’re going to know the result. But we need to let the process play out, and much of the mainstream media doesn’t want to let us do that.”
Sec. Pompeo just said, “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” (video here: https://twitter.com/alexsalvinews/status/1326227532358692865 )
Trump did not win the EC. None of his legal challenges have panned out so far, and there’s no reason to think that will change. It’s outrageous for Pompeo to say this, just disgusting.
Just another loser Committ, and acting like a loser.
Wave bye, bye!
Unfortunately still in office for another 2+ months.
This is a better video, as it includes the question that Pompeo was answering: https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1326232956445335552
I saw someone say that Pompeo was joking. If so, then it was a foolish thing to joke about and also poorly executed, as it wasn’t clearly a joke.
The question of how this impacts national security is a serious one. Until Biden is confirmed by the GSA as the President-elect, he will not be receiving copies of the President’s Daily Briefings. A helpful discussion:
https://www.justsecurity.org/73317/the-gsas-delay-in-recognizing-the-biden-transition-team-and-the-national-security-implications/
Meanwhile, Pence is apparently taking a vacation in FL. He’s still head of the US COVID-19 task force, and we’re facing an increasing number of cases.
The 1:58pm comment was from me, CommitToHonestDiscussion.
Good article, Anonymous.
From the concluding paragraph:
“…the GSA Administrator can make her ascertainment without taking any public position on such questions. She can simply determine that Biden is the apparent winner, and that based on the important national-security interests at stake, Biden should be treated as president-elect for purposes of the Presidential Transition Act.”
Perhaps, instead of apparent winner, it is slightly more accurate to say that Biden is the projected winner.
President-elect Biden, in his response to questions following his ACA remarks, has just made it clear he doesn’t need the PDBs for now. Biden’s measured tone and calm pace-setting speak volumes.
Umm.. Biden hasn’t won the EC either. Name one state that has certified this election. Just one.
Oh, look.
Needs To Be Committed and Choke Friedhay are back out of fear of the truth of Biden’s loss becoming known.
The Deep Deep State is deploying troops pervasively – the rapid reaction force.
You go, girls.
Best of luck.
No one has won the electoral college yet. Not a single state has ratified their vote counts.
I’m sure you said the same thing in 2016, prior to the states all certifying their vote counts.
“Trump did not win the EC.”
Neither has Biden.
The media does not decide anything.
BTW, where did the Russians all go, Commit?
Sidney Powell
@SidneyPowell1
· 16h
There are EXTRAORDINARY voting irregularities. At a minimum, #Pennsylvannia
#Michigan
#GEORGIA
#Wisconsin must be called for #Trump
https://justthenews.com/pol…
There’s widespread fraud
The votes cannot be certified.
#Trump won in a landslide
If she has evidence, she should hand it over to the authorities. Proclaiming it without evidence is worthless.
Turley Still Fuming Over Demise Of Hunter Biden Story
One imagines Professor Turley, and every Trump ally, are thinking, “If only Social Media hadn’t muzzled the Hunter Biden story”.
Had Silicon Valley allowed that disinformation blitz to overwhelm Social Media, mainstream sources would have been forced to address the ‘scandal’. Then ‘X’ number of Democrats might not have voted. Thereby allowing Trump to squeak out a second, Electoral Collge-only victory.
But Silicon Valley said, “No, we’re not going to let Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon manipulate our platforms”. Their refusal allowed mainstream media to largely ignore what had been an October surprise long in the making. Consequently Democrats turned out in numbers large enough to flip Arizona and Georgia.
So of course Professor Turley is still fuming over the lost possibilities. ‘He’ might have gotten a SCOTUS appointment. Instead Turley is reduced to writing another column placing himself in the ‘free speech community’, which is actually a subdivision of the rightwing bubble.
I’ve cancelled Facebook and Twitter accounts. I’ll limit Youtube to some music or movie clips. The time to think about a 30-50 year Marxist society and most of us will finish our existence long before. I think living in any major city will become impossible, and I look at London and Melbourne and Paris as the new normal for all of us. The vaccine is a joke as they will invent a new virus or flu at will. It’s very difficult to accept a country that fought two world wars for freedom has elected to let a few tech billionaires leads us on the this path, big tech needs to be broken up. We can thank Honest Abe, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and LBJ for the beautiful breakdown of Jeffersonian teachings. Fauci and Gates get academy awards for their roles. I imagine Georgia will somehow get rigged or you may see a Republican Senator mysteriously die in a Democrat Governor state. Independent middle of the road guys like myself are amazed with the turn of the last few years, that’s what Socialism going broke does to desperate politicians.
The billionaire owners of mass and social media want to censor us all.
We CAN censor them. With extreme prejudice. And we should
–Saloth Sar
former Turley blog commentator Nick Spinelli, suspended yesterday from twitter for his naughty joke
creepy that you are monitoring someone on twitter, reporting it to us and posting it anonymously
creepy!
Er, isn’t Twitter a public platform?
Pelosi is living in a dream world and Biden is even worse. One thing is clear they are both unaware of life under a Constitution instead of ruling a democracy with no thought of a Constitution.
Bidens ill considered as usual remarks spoke of Our Democracy a clear signal of moving to the far left. Had he been true to his never honest words he would have said ‘our Constitutional Republic.
That’s his problem.
Pelosi faces a more immediate threat. The result of the elections and how many more to close the gap in the House of Reps.As we know many of the ballots are illegal and those are being fine tooth tested which is taking the time. Chances are very good that gap … will still be a gap but so close the anti pelosi independent demos plus the constitutionalist Repubs will be the new major party and no voting Pelosi is lost the Speaker office and her curtains.
Next question is the question of the illegal ballots going into court with the best fact checkers in the country Justfacts.com providing the evidence ….. and that is for the next post and covers the fate of Biden, Trump and an unknown party. If you know your Constitution you will be up to speed already. But Biden is not safe either way.
Tme for numbnutz usual blather and five will get you five hundred he’ll be completely out in LEFT field.
I dumped the Democrats in 2016 because of Hillary. Trump got my first R vote and he got my second one as well. I do not know a single person who voted Trump in 2016 who changed their mind in 2020. I do know several people who didn’t vote for him in 2016 that voted for him in 2020. I know of ONE person who voted Biden. All of my friends across America have had the same experience. Any suggestion that there isn’t massive voter fraud is ludicrous at best. Trump won by such a large landslide, that they had to go to extreme measures to rig the outcome and that is where they will get caught. Trump received 7 million more votes in 2020 (not counting the ones illegally tossed) than he did in 2016. There was ZERO enthusiasm for Burisma Biden. I would like to know how many people actually voted Trump, because it would surprise most people..
If you don’t know more people who voted for Biden, it’s not evidence of fraud, it’s only evidence that you hang out with conservatives.
If you have evidence of voter fraud, turn it over the authorities. If you don’t, then don’t be led by your imagination.
I have zero respect for anyone who posts on the Internet anonymously. If a person isn’t willing to identify themselves, their thoughts are worthless and should be discounted.
Sam, it’s unfortunate that you judge the worth of thoughts on the basis of a name rather than on the content of the thoughts.
“judge the worth of thoughts”
You have no thoughts.
All you are is a common ChiCom troll who cuts and pastes other peoples thoughts.
You’re a boring Russian troll, Rhodes.
Since your head will be one of the first to go on the echo chamber chopping block, Professor Turley, you might be more circumspect when tossing around phrases like “President-elect.” Biden is, at best, the presumptive President-elect. When you consider that Democrats spent 2 years and 40 million trying to find the kind of evidence of election tampering that the GOP already has with the Dominion software magically flipping thousands of votes from Trump to Biden, it might put things in perspective. We are just at the beginning of this fight. It’s not about Trump vs. Biden. It’s about freedom vs. totalitarianism. This is not a drill.
Civil Liberties used to be a strong suit for democrats. They gave it up when the renewed the Bush era Patriot Act as is when they controlled all 3 branches of government. Not only is it not their strong suit anymore they are an outright enemy of those freedoms.
I had to close to choke to death laughing when Obama sneaked that one through buried in the last funding bill of 2015. They didn’t read the fine print in the improvements such as. Citizens are not exempt. Congress is not exempt. The wording chanIged by doing away with any acts of our support of acts of terrorism by using ‘suspicion of’ instead of ‘probable cause’ No wonder the Democrats liked it AND ture to their aniti civil rights past acts of or supporting acts of terrorism nullified all civil rights .. why?
Because it was written originally to mean foreigners non citizens but ended up under Obama to include all citizens and the Congress. Now this was supposed to have a sunset clause. Certainly the present administration has never used it. BUT anyone ever seen what happened to the classified portions? AND it was DOHS that OBams stated would become he new ‘greater, larger, more powerful’ than the US Military.
That’s Democrat thinking and it’s as socialist as you can get and socialism still is the first name of the Bolsheviks who were killed off by the Communists and the National Socialists aka the Fascist Party of Italy and the NAZI party of Germany.
Far as I know the Patriot Act and it’s terrorism provisions is still locked away in some security container.. waiting. Biden will have access to that if he is seated. But that is part III.
An uninformed public is easier to control
I’ll give the practical argument. Why believe the govt./corporations won’t censor you? Why do you believe silicon valley “likes” progressives?
Now the facts: freedom of speech is a human right which we all have at birth. Democrats and everyone else should be excoriating Biden and others call for censorship. They are telling you that they are totalitarians. You need to listen to that.
First they came…is exactly what happens when people ignore or cheer on totalitarianism. Defend human rights!
“I truly sympathize with those dealing with losing — it’s not easy — but at a certain point one has to think not only about what’s best for the nation (peaceful transfer of power) but how any future employers might see your character defined during adversity”.
– Jake Tapper – CNN Propagandist and Stasi impersonator
“Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future? I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future.”
– Congresswoman Alexandria Cortez (aka/ Erich Mielke)
Is she a real Congressional or just another Ocasio Castro plus three known as the Squats who all refused to take the mandatory required by the Constitution Oath of Office? How did that happen. Comrade Pelosi slipped them in using her Speaker powers. Thus making a total of five who committed felonies.
We should not “cuss” when posting comments on the internet sites. Piglatin is ok. Facebook is itShaybook. It stinks. Or “uttBay book”.