Sen. Blackburn writes letter to Biden about Big Tech censorship

July 19, 2021 Amber Coakley US 0

File – Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is pictured. (AP Photo)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 9:17 AM PT – Monday, July 19, 2021

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has addressed the Biden administration’s collaboration with Facebook to combat so-called vaccine misinformation. In a letter sent to Joe Biden himself, she highlighted her concerns while noting this move by the administration could be a violation of the First Amendment.

The Tennessee lawmaker asked about the criteria they are using to flag and remove posts or ban users. She also questioned the administration’s legal basis to direct social media platforms to follow its guidance.

Biden is using Big Tech as an arm for his agenda. This is state-sponsored media.

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) July 19, 2021

Blackburn requested to be briefed on the matter by August 2. Her inquiry comes as the Democrat Party continues to push Big Tech to get rid of what they deem to be misinformation surrounding coronavirus from the internet.

Namely, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) went on CNN Sunday to call on companies like Facebook and Twitter to remove this alleged misinformation from their platforms.

The Democrat Party is continuing to push Big Tech to get rid of what they deem to be misinformation surrounding coronavirus from the internet.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) went on CNN Sunday to call on companies like Facebook and Twitter to remove this misinformation from their platforms.

“When we have a public health crisis and people are dying every day, enough is enough,” stated the Democrat. “These are the richest companies in the world. There’s absolutely no reason they shouldn’t be able to monitor this better and take this crap off of their platforms.”

The floodgates for Democrat criticisms of tech seemed to burst after Biden recently claimed Facebook is allowing so-called misinformation on their site, in turn, killing people.

“They’re killing people….the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated,” he stated. “And they’re killing people.”

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called the spread of disinformation online an insidious threat to public health. While speaking with CBS, he laid out what he thinks the companies should do to fix the alleged problem.

“But it’s also why technology companies have a really important role here to play in identifying super-spreaders of misinformation, in stopping their activity and spread of misinformation online,” Murthy stated. “And it’ll also help being more transparent, so we understand just how much misinformation is being transacted on these platforms.”

Conservative radio host Mark Levin pointed out what he sees as Democrats colluding with Big Tech to censor unfriendly information. He said he believes the Big Tech companies are acting as government entities because they are working with Democrats to enact speech codes the party in power wants to see.

Republican House candidate from Washington, Joe Kent simply tweeted he felt the alleged collusion is how democracy dies. His plan for taking on what he sees as unlawful collusion is to make social media platforms public utilities.

It’s time to go after the tech oligarchs that bankroll the far-left. We cannot be a sovereign nation if the globalists control our lives. #AmericaFirst 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/dr0PUHQzu3

— Joe Kent for WA-3 (@joekent16jan19) July 18, 2021

Facebook, for its part, has criticized the Biden administration for promoting what they claim are lies about the company. In a statement, the social media giant asserted billions have used their platform for accurate information on COVID-19 and they do not accept the charge made by Democrats of being so-called misinformation super spreaders.

It’s yet unknown if Facebook, Twitter or Google will follow this new government guidance on content moderation, although the White House has said they are working closely with those companies to flag what they see as problematic content.