In a Dec. 24 press release, Hochul’s office bragged about alleged “Online Safety Legislation.” One bill in particular, S895B/A6789B, “Requires Social Media Companies To Disclose Their Terms of Service Relating to Hate Speech.” But “hate speech” is a vague and easily abused term, often weaponized by anti-speech leftists like Hochul and Big Tech censors as justification for draconian censorship.

In the release, Hochul’s office detailed how the S895B requires social media companies to inform users about terms of service, while also requiring social media “to submit to the [NY] attorney general certain terms of service reports,” and offer “remedies for violations.”

MRC Vice President for Free Speech America Dan Schneider set the record straight:

“We have all seen how the New York AG uses and abuses her office. Her ‘suggestions’ to the Big Tech platforms are really demands that, if not complied with, will result in her bringing all kinds of cases against them. If they don’t censor enough political speech, these tech companies can expect to be sued for not complying with business records laws, not enforcing enough diversity requirements, or not tying their shoes correctly. This is thuggish legislation designed to silence political opposition from the right. It is un-American and unconstitutional.”

Disturbingly, Assembly member Grace Lee (D-District 65) praised the legislation in the release while citing COVID-19 speech as justification for the Orwellian legislation. Lee hysterically whined about “hate and disinformation spread[ing] like wildfire” online and railed against Big Tech platforms for not censoring enough. “These companies have a responsibility to protect users from this hate, but have failed to do so,” she said. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the Murthy v. Missouri lawsuit have both revealed that the federal government pressured social media companies to censor free speech about COVID-19, including humor and satire. […]

— Read More: mrcfreespeechamerica.org

The Legacy Media’s Descent into Propaganda

The legacy media, once a bastion of journalism, has devolved into a propaganda machine for the political left. With declining influence and revenue, these outlets have abandoned any semblance of objectivity, opting instead to push pre-packaged narratives that serve the interests of the establishment. During the 2024 election cycle, networks like CNN, MSNBC, and ABC provided Kamala Harris with 78% positive coverage, while former President Donald Trump was subjected to 85% negative coverage. This blatant bias was not just a failure of journalism; it was a deliberate effort to manipulate public opinion.

The media’s obsession with framing Trump as a “threat to democracy” and a “Putin puppet” was nothing more than a smokescreen to distract from the real issues — inflation, illegal immigration, and a failing economy. Yet, when Trump won, the media’s response was not introspection but a desperate attempt to blame alternative media for their own failures. The truth is, Americans have rejected the legacy media’s lies, turning instead to alternative sources for truthful information.

Government and Big Tech’s Collusion to Censor Truth

The collusion between government agencies and Big Tech has reached unprecedented levels. The American First Legal team’s litigation against Facebook and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has exposed the chilling extent of this partnership. Facebook employees trained CDC officials on how to censor Americans, creating a portal titled “COVID & Vaccine Misinformation.” Through this system, the CDC censored over 16 million pieces of content, silencing dissent on critical issues like COVID-19 lockdowns, masks, and the dangers of the vaccines.

The Biden administration’s pressure on social media companies to eliminate “misinformation” was a thinly veiled attempt to control public discourse. Facebook, under Mark Zuckerberg’s leadership, caved to this pressure, allowing the government to wield unprecedented power over online speech. This censorship not only violated the First Amendment but also harmed countless lives by suppressing the truth about the vaccines’ adverse effects, including spike protein shedding and increased miscarriage risks.

The Congressional report on the Weaponization of the Federal Government reveals an even more sinister plot: the collaboration between federal agencies, universities, and private firms to censor Americans’ political speech. The Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), funded by the Department of Homeland Security, worked with organizations like the Atlantic Council, Stanford Internet Observatory, and the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public to target conservative voices. These groups used sophisticated algorithms to shadow-ban, de-platform, and defame individuals who dared to question the official narrative.

The Atlantic Council, for example, employs former intelligence officials to “expose falsehoods and fake news,” but in reality, they are censoring the truth and promoting government propaganda. The Stanford Internet Observatory and the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public have built psychological profiles on dissenters, isolating them from public discourse and destroying their reputations. This coordinated effort to control information is not just anti-democratic; it is a direct attack on the First Amendment.

The fight for Free Speech and truth must continue

The Censorship-Industrial Complex has shown its true colors: a network of government agencies, Big Tech corporations, and left-wing organizations working together to silence dissent and maintain control over public discourse. This collusion is not just unethical; it is unconstitutional. The First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech, yet this right has been systematically undermined by those in power.

It is time to demand accountability. Congress must investigate the collusion between government agencies and social media companies. The Supreme Court must uphold the First Amendment and strike down any laws that seek to regulate “misinformation.” And most importantly, the American people must reject the legacy media’s propaganda and seek out alternative sources of information. It is time to dismantle the Censorship-Industrial Complex and restore the First Amendment to its rightful place as the bedrock of the American republic.

Sources include:

• AMGreatness.com
• Censorship.news
• Censorship.news

Saturday, he stepped up his political philanthropy in a big way and will continue to do so until election days. According to The Post Millennial:

Elon Musk handed out a check worth $1 million dollars to a random voter who signed his “free speech and right to bear arms” petition in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Musk made the promise to do it every day until election day.

As the tech entrepreneur handed the man the check, the voter said, “Thanks, Elon. This is really great.”

Musk said that one of the issues was getting people to know about the petition and that the $1 million payment would be certain to get the legacy media’s attention. “The only thing we ask for the million dollars is that you be spokesperson for the petition and that’s it,” Musk said when he handed the man the check.

Watch the exchange:

Wow. @elonmusk just gave away a MILLION dollars to someone who signed his free speech petition. He vows to do this every day until Election Day. pic.twitter.com/7DaPg3MXhQ

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 20, 2024

Will corporate media cover it? Of course not. But the word will get out because conservative and alternative media will cover it. As independent journalism continues to fill the void of truth that partisan corporate media is abandoning, people like Musk and Trump are benefitting… as is America.

An exaggeration, you say?

Just listen to what high-profile leftists have been openly saying about denying you your right to information on both sides of the political equation.

Former presidential candidate and Obama Secretary of State John Kerry has gotten the most attention recently, mainly because of how bluntly he railed against our most fundamental freedom. But former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has been just as repressive—and more detailed. And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has been her usual self as she demands censorship without much specificity.

Kerry made his comments at a World Economic Forum panel on green energy on Sept. 25. A conservative comedian trying to satirize the views of the haughty ruling class could not have come up with better material.

As Kerry put it, “The dislike of and anger over social media is just growing and growing and growing, and it’s part of our problem, particularly in democracies, in terms of building consensus around any issue,” Kerry lamented, apparently referring to abhorrence of freedom by members of his ilk.

“It’s really hard to govern today!” The problem, he said, was that the internet and social media have liberated people to choose from different sources of information, adding competition. Little over two decades ago, the country was held hostage to the views of the journalists working at three networks and a handful of national newspapers.

Kerry pines for those days. “The referees we used to have to determine what’s a fact, and what isn’t a fact, have been eviscerated to a certain degree, and people self-select, where they go for their news, or for their information, and you get into a vicious cycle,” said the man who came within 19 Electoral College votes of becoming president in 2004. “So, it’s really, really hard, much harder, to build consensus today than at any time in the 40 to 50 years I’ve been involved in this.”

He continued, “There is a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities, if people go to only one source, and the source they go to is sick and has an agenda and it’s putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to hammer it out of existence.”

Kerry’s solution?

What we need is to win the ground, win the right to govern by hopefully winning enough votes that you’re free to be able to implement change. … Democracies are very challenged right now, and have not proven that they can move fast enough, or big enough, to deal with the challenges that we are facing, and to me, this is part of what this race, this election is all about—will we break the fever in the United States?

Reich also discussed his desire to hammer persnickety sources of information out of existence with a global audience. Writing in the leading newspaper of the British Left, The Guardian, he engaged in a bit of disinformation himself by mischaracterizing the actions of the man he’d like hammered out, X owner Elon Musk.

Musk and former President Donald Trump “have both floated the idea of governing together if Trump wins a second term,” wrote Reich, whereas, in fact, as Reich admitted himself, all Musk has done is recommend that Trump have in a second term a “government efficiency commission” in which Musk “would be happy to help out.” But apparently unaware that he was committing the same crime he accused Musk to be guilty of, Reich went on with his recommendation for how officials around the world should “rein in Musk.”

The first one was for people to boycott Musk’s electric vehicle, Tesla, and his social media company, X. But Reich wants much more. “Regulators around the world should threaten Musk with arrest if he doesn’t stop disseminating lies and hate on X,” he wrote. As for the U.S. government, it “should terminate its contracts with him, starting with Musk’s SpaceX,” wrote Reich, who published his screed weeks before the U.S. government had to come to SpaceX, hat in hand, asking it to retrieve two astronauts stranded by NASA.

Ocasio-Cortez has been far less trenchant and specific. The young representative, who’s been repeatedly dinged by left-leaning PolitiFact for spreading falsehoods, also wants to “rein in” media she considers guilty of spreading misinformation.

“We’re going to have to figure out how we rein in our media environment so that you can’t just spew disinformation and misinformation,” she posted on social media. “It’s one thing to have different opinions, but it’s another thing entirely to just say things that are false, so that is something that we’re looking into.”

Unfortunately, these unhinged comments by American politicians don’t come in a vacuum.

There is a sustained attack on freedom of information from Brazil to our ally the United Kingdom to next door in Canada. Of course, that makes it all the more important that we speak up for freedom.

Image via Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0.