The Free Speech Alliance (FSA), a coalition of more than 60 conservative organizations, released the following statement Wednesday about President Donald Trump’s executive order addressing bias on social media platforms.
The FSA declared that the biased fact-checkers, leftist oversight boards and lack of transparency are part of a "campaign against conservatives."
The full statement is available below:
"Last week President Trump signed an executive order responding to the undeniable bias against conservatives on social media platforms. President Trump wasn't just angry about being personally fact-checked. He was expressing the frustration of the right and saying strongly that we are tired of being abused, suspended, censored, banned and otherwise mistreated on what are supposed to be free speech platforms.
The Free Speech Alliance has been declaring since its inception that it’s time for social media companies to embrace the ideals of the First Amendment. Instead, they have layered on new rules, added restrictions, employed biased "fact-checkers," created a leftist oversight board, and much more. It's time for them to stop their campaign against conservatives:
- Stay out of politics.
- Stop censoring us.
- Stand up for free speech.
- Spread American freedom around the world.
If Twitter, Facebook, and Google/Youtube embrace the four principles we have been encouraging from the beginning, it would go a long way towards addressing the concerns of conservatives. Those principles are:
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.
MRCTV is a division of the Media Research Center.