In the last few years, social media censorship of conservative organizations and opinions as reached an all-time high. Following the congressional hearing of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, even more attention was drawn to the widespread problem. Therefore, conservative leaders have now banded together to call on tech and social media giants for equal treatment.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube, and others have continuously banned videos featuring guns and rejected conservative-based advertisements like pro-life stances. Furthermore, they have skewed search results and adjusted trending online topics in favor of liberal viewpoints, which harm conservative values.
Right-leaning leaders have found their speech infringed by firms restricting and deleting videos, even academically verified content. They allege that media outlets have given preferential treatment to people and organizations that lean left on the political scale.
According to a report from the Daily Wire, Media Research Center (MRC) President Brent Bozell and a group of 62 other conservative leaders have urged the companies to provide true transparency, clarity on their definitions of “hate speech,” discontinue partnering with politically-biased groups, and to fully embrace the First Amendment.
Their statement outlines:
“Here are four key areas that social media companies must address to begin to rectify their credibility problem:
1) Provide Transparency: We need detailed information so everyone can see if liberal groups and users are being treated the same as those on the right. Social media companies operate in a black-box environment, only releasing anecdotes about reports on content and users when they think it necessary. This needs to change. The companies need to design open systems so that they can be held accountable, while giving weight to privacy concerns.
2) Provide Clarity on ‘Hate Speech’: ‘Hate speech’ is a common concern among social media companies, but no two firms define it the same way. Their definitions are vague and open to interpretation, and their interpretation often looks like an opportunity to silence thought. Today, hate speech means anything liberals don’t like. Silencing those you disagree with is dangerous. If companies can’t tell users clearly what it is, then they shouldn’t try to regulate it.
3) Provide Equal Footing for Conservatives: Top social media firms, such as Google and YouTube, have chosen to work with dishonest groups that are actively opposed to the conservative movement, including the Southern Poverty Law Center. Those companies need to make equal room for conservative groups as advisers to offset this bias. That same attitude should be applied to employment diversity efforts. Tech companies need to embrace viewpoint diversity.
4) Mirror the First Amendment: Tech giants should afford their users nothing less than the free speech and free exercise of religion embodied in the First Amendment as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court. That standard, the result of centuries of American jurisprudence, would enable the rightful blocking of content that threatens violence or spews obscenity, without trampling on free speech liberties that have long made the United States a beacon for freedom.”
Social media companies must address these complaints if they wish to have any credibility with the conservative movement and its tens of millions of supporters. It is our hope they will do so in a positive way. If the social media firms engage the conservative movement with the spirit of cooperation, we will do our best to assist them.”
The letter was signed by those as follows:
L. Brent Bozell III
Founder and President, Media Research Center
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Allen B. West
Director, MRC Censorship Project, Media Research Center
Congressman Lamar Smith (TX-21)
Chairman, Media Fairness Caucus
Lila Rose
President, Live Action
Dr. Jerry A. Johnson
President & CEO, National Religious Broadcasters & Internet Freedom Watch
Brigitte Gabriel
Founder and Chairman, ACT for America
Tony Perkins
President, Family Research Council
David Bozell
President, For America Inc.
The Honorable Edwin Meese III
Attorney General during the Ronald Reagan Adminstration
Dave N. Bossie
President, Citizens United
Ken Cuccinelli
President, Senate Conservatives Fund
Morton Blackwell
Chairman, Weyrich Lunch
Jenny Beth Martin
Co-Founder, Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund
Ron Robinson
President, Young America’s Foundation
Tim Wildmon
President, American Family Association
James O’Keefe
CEO, Project Veritas
Richard Viguerie
Founder, American Targeted Advertising
Becky Norton Dunlop
Senior White House Adviser during the Ronald Reagan Administration
Kelly Shakelford
President and CEO, First Liberty Institute
Cleta Mitchell
Political Law Attorney, Foley & Lardner LLP,
Penny Young Nance
CEO and President, Concerned Women for America
Kristan Hawkins
President, Students for Life of America
Mathew Staver, Esq.
Founder and Chairman, Liberty Counsel
Phil Kerpen
President, American Commitment
Charles Copeland
President, Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Frank Gaffney
Founder, President, and CEO, Center for Security Policy
Brian Brown
President, National Organization for Marriage
Clifford D. May
Founder and President, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Patrick Reilly
President, Cardinal Newman Society
Honorable Tim Huelskamp, Ph.D.
President, Heartland Institute
Craig Shirley
Reagan Biographer and Presidential Historian
William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
C. Preston Noell III
President, Tradition, Family, Property, Inc
James Martin
Founder and Chairman, 60 Plus Association
Francis DeLuca
President, Civitas Institute
Gary Bauer
President, American Values
Diana Banister
President, Shirley & Banister Public Affairs
Bob Adams
President, Revive America PAC
Elaine Donnelly
President, Center for Military Readiness
Ryan Bomberger
Chief Creative Officer, Radiance Foundation
Tricia Erickson
President, Angel Pictures & Publicity, Inc, Publisher of TheConservativePundit.net
Richard P. Bott II
President and CEO, Bott Radio Network
Saul Anuzis
President, 60 Plus Association
Floyd Brown
Publisher, Western Journal
Mark Fitzgibbons
President of Corporate Affairs, American Target Advertising, Inc.
Susan A. Carleson
Chairman/CEO, American Civil Rights Union
Kevin Freeman
Founder, National Security Investment Consultant (NSIC) Institute
Angelo Codevilla
Senior Fellow, Claremont Institute
Paul Gessing
President, Rio Grande Foundation
T. Kenneth Cribb
President Emeritus, Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Colin Hanna
President, Let Freedom Ring
Gene Mills
President, Louisiana Family Forum
John Hinderaker
President, Center of the American Experiment
Everett Piper
President, Oklahoma Wesleyan University
Amy Kremer
Co-chair, Women for Trump
The Honorable Donald J. Devine
Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during the Ronald Reagan Administration
Tom Donelson
Chairman, Americas PAC
Jeffrey G. Hunt
Chairman, Western Conservative Summit
George Landrith
President, Frontiers of Freedom
Patrick Brown
CEO, Liftable Media
Rod D. Martin
Founder and CEO, The Martin Organization
Tom McCabe
CEO, Freedom Foundation
Avik Roy
President, The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity
