Trump Unveils Free Speech Policies

Trump Unveils Free Speech Policies

President Trump is taking on Silicon Valley censorship. He unveiled his free speech platform on Thursday, which includes promises to fire any federal official engaging in censorship and barring federal funds for universities that censor speech. President Trump noted, "the censorship cartel must be dismantled and destroyed."

Our Take:

• For years, the Democrats and the Deep State worked with companies like Facebook and Google to censor conservatives. President Trump will put an end to this censorship.
• President Trump's policies will end censorship of conservative voices offline by defunding censorious universities.
• The lack of free speech online amounts to election interference. Google can shift millions of votes with its ability to manipulate search results, according to expert Dr. Robert Epstein.

The Background:

President Trump detailed his free speech platform in a video Thursday. 

"In recent weeks, bombshell reports have confirmed that a sinister group of Deep State bureaucrats, Silicon Valley tyrants, left-wing activists, and depraved corporate news media have been conspiring to manipulate and silence the American People," Trump announced in the video. “The censorship cartel must be dismantled and destroyed — and it must happen immediately."

The platform includes:

• "An executive order banning any federal department or agency from colluding with any organization, business, or person, to censor, limit, categorize, or impede the lawful speech of American citizens."
• A ban on "federal money from being used to label domestic speech as ‘mis-‘ or ‘dis-information.’"
• "Firing every federal bureaucrat who has engaged in domestic censorship."
• A DOJ "investigation of all parties involved in the new online censorship regime" and to "aggressively prosecute any and all crimes identified."
• Signing a bill "revising section 230 to get big online platforms" out of the censorship business.  Digital platforms "should online qualify for immunity protection under section 230 if they meet high standards of neutrality, transparency, fairness, and non-discrimination."
• An end to federal funding of universities that engage in censorship activities such as "flagging social media content for removal."
• Enacting new laws "laying out clear criminal penalties for federal bureaucrats who partner with private entities to do an end run around the Constitution" to deprive Americans of free speech.
• To counter the problem of infiltration by intelligence officials of tech platforms a "7-year cooling-off period before any employee of the FBI, CIA, NSA, DNI, DHS, or DOD is allowed to take a job at a company possessing vast quantities of U.S. user data."
• Enacting a "digital bill of rights" that includes "a right to digital due process — in other words, government officials should need a court order to take down online content, not send information requests such as the FBI was sending to Twitter."