Glenn Greenwald Profile picture
Journalist; Author; Host, @SystemUpdate_; Columnist, @Folha; Founder: @TheInterceptBr; Co-Founder: @theintercept, @abrigo_hope, @FreedomofPress, @idm_org. Vegan

Sep 16, 2021, 8 tweets

Democratic Officials Continue to Threaten Tech Companies to Censor More

The latest example is one of the most egregious: @SenWarren & Rep. @AdamSchiff demanding Amazon remove or suppress books on COVID:

rumble.com/vmkc0j-democra…

A few points to highlight about the above-linked video report we just published on the attempts by Sen. Warren & Adam Schiff to demand Amazon suppress certain books.

First, this is part of a year-long campaign by Dems to use their majority power in DC to mandate censorship.

There are so many reasons why this attempt by the Democratic Party to commandeer Big Tech censorship power for themselves is so dangerous.

Perhaps the gravest is that this is all about imposing a framework where dissent from or questioning of decrees from authorities is banned.

In the video, I revisit the destruction of Parler - it became *the most-downloaded app*, when leading Dems demanded Apple, Google and Amazon destroy it, and they obeyed.

A key Dem with amazing candor said why: Big Tech now knows Dems rule DC & thus must comply with their orders.

That Democrats should use their political domination of the US Government to censor the internet is now a widespread view of most Democrats, as is the view that tech monopolies should do so. Polling data makes clear: internet censorship is extremely popular among Democrats.

The most bizarre part is that liberals, to justify censorship, haul out the classic libertarian view that private companies can do whatever they want.

But that's false: the law is clear: the First Amendment is violated when the state pressures private actors to censor for them.

Many liberals dismiss *state censorship* as just Culture War trivialities -- as if a free internet is like bickering over pronouns.

It's especially bizarre that people who spent 5 years shrieking about fascism are so cavalier about this union of state & corporate power.

The full video report is here. The internet was heralded in the 1990s as an unprecedented tool of liberation from centralized control. The Snowden reporting was about defending internet freedom. It's now becoming the greatest tool of coercion and control:

rumble.com/vmkc0j-democra…

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