Texas Pushing to be Free of Big Tech Censorship

Image courtesy of LifeSite News.

 

For the past several months this writer has written in The Standard newspaper about the growing problem of censorship by Big Tech (BT) social media companies who have been shutting down the free speech of Christians and conservatives across the land. The problem has been escalating, especially since the electoral college votes were cast January 6th and Vice President Pence, either through ignorance or lack of courage, missed the opportunity to exercise his prerogative as President of the Senate to reject contested and questionable state elections and their electors.

The issue has frustrated many as their voices have been removed and their speech hindered and silenced on what here-to-fore have been considered public platforms for community speech. Only in recent days have these west coast Big Tech companies started to mention “community standards” in their censorship blanketing of ideas and opinions different from their own. The “community standards” phrase is a legal term that lays out what is acceptable and allowed, or not, in any venue. Thus, the Tech companies have been trying to cover their tracks.

 

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” ― Benjamin Franklin, in the Silence Dogood letters, The Busy-Body

 

During the time of commemorating the ‘Victory or Death‘ and the men of the Alamo, Texas Senator Bryan Hughes filed Senate Bill 12 to protect the free speech of all Texans. Senate Bill 12 will add teeth to defend free speech by allowing citizens to file lawsuits against Big Tech companies if the citizen  thinks their speech has been wrongfully blocked for expressing their opinions. The gist of the matter is that every body has an opinion, but in public square platforms that opinion cannot be squelched just because it’s not popular or liked or even agreed upon by anybody.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) said in a press conference this past Friday that he will “sign a bill into law that would prohibit social media companies from censoring Texans’ viewpoints online”. He further stated that censorship is “not going to be tolerated in Texas.”

Abbott said that “America was built on freedom of speech and healthy public debate”. He continued that “Big Tech efforts to silence conservative viewpoints is un-American, un-Texan and unacceptable, and pretty soon it’s going to be against the law in the State of Texas.”

“We see that the First Amendment is under assault by these social media companies, and that is not going to be tolerated in Texas,” said Governor Abbott at a press conference on Friday alongside State Senator Bryan Hughes (R). Abbott lauded Hughes for stepping up to fight for the “First Amendment right so that conservative speech will not be canceled in Texas.”

The Texas Governor said “There is a dangerous movement spreading across the country trying to try to silence conservative ideas, religious beliefs, we saw that first arise on college campuses.” He added that “last session the Texas State legislature passed into law the Campus Free Speech law insuring that conservative speech on campus would not be silenced.”

Sen. Hughes said we want “to hash things out to hear other views that we may not like…” He added  “Because we want to get to the truth. We want to get to the right place. We’re not afraid of a debate.”

“If you have a viewpoint different from theirs, they want to shut you up,” Hughes added. “That’s not the American way. And that is not the Texas way. They enforce that silence for people that don’t agree with their agenda on religion or on politics or on freedom.”

In a Tweet March 5th with video of a press conference The Recount said, “Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) goes on a big rant about big tech and says censorship of conservative views will be “against the law” in Texas soon.”

 

 

In another interview on TV station KVUE, “Gov. Greg Abbott joined Sen. Bryan Hughes to talk about a bill aimed at regulating social media companies and ensuring they don’t “censor Texans on the viewpoints they express.”

Video courtesy of ABC Austin affiliate KVUE.

Governor Abbott said that the two primary platforms he was addressing are Facebook and Twitter. He indicate that the social media platforms are the modern-day public square where people go to discuss issues, political ideas, and other thoughts of the day. He added that the BT companies are controlling the flow of information and whether or not that information can be heard.

Abbott commented, that BT is “choosing which viewpoints are going to be allowed to be presented. Texas is taking a stand against big tech companies’ censorship. We are not going to allow it in the Lone Star state.”

In a Tweet Abbott stated last Thursday “I am joining @SenBryanHughes to announce a bill prohibiting social media companies from censoring viewpoints. Too many social media sites silence conservative speech and ideas and trample free speech. It’s un-American, Un-Texan, & soon to be illegal.”

In announcing his support of Senator Hughes’ Bill he said in a Tweet on March 4th “conservative speech will not be canceled in Texas.”

 

In a March 5th interview with Tyler, Texas CBS19, Texas State Senator Bryan Hughes said he filed a bill to protect the free speech of Texans against Big Tech social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Other states are looking at the bill he has crafted and are following his lead. Video courtesy CBS19.

 

In another Tweet on February 7th, Gov. Abbott said, “We are working with Sen. Hughes on legislation to prevent social media providers like Facebook & Twitter from cancelling conservative speech.”

 

Businessman, journalist and former 2016 candidate for US President, Dennis Michael Lynch had a half hour podcast on the growing problem with censorship on March 5th. He focused on the “new form of censorship” being placed on conservatives from social media platforms. He noted that Trump has been censored by BT media and recently had his CPAC speech censored by YouTube removing the  broadcast. He said “they’re taking censorship to a new level.”

Lynch commented, “we’re not going away. We love our family, we love America and our rights are not going to be trampled on just because you don’t like a President.” Lynch also said, “They are going to try and turn us against each other. That’s the next level of censorship. They can’t delete Trump.”

Benjamin Franklin said long ago in the Silence Dogood letters that “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” Apparently, Big Tech in in the process of overthrowing the Liberty of our nation, and Texas is gearing up for the battle.

 

 

Michael Reed is Editor and Publisher of The Standard newspaper and TheStandardSC YouTube channel where many video reports may be found. Please “like”, comment, pass this article along to a friend, and donate to support The Standard on this page.

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