Sessions urged not to go after social media companies by technology activists

“With regard to alleged anti-competitive behavior, the activists write that ‘the degree of a media company’s market power does not change its protection by the First Amendment.’” What Orwellian garbage. What about the First Amendment rights of the people they are deplatforming, shadowbanning, and silencing in all kinds of ways? What about their systematic denial of First Amendment rights to those who dissent from their far-left agenda?

We were the first to sue the social media giants for our First Amendment rights. In light of that fight, I began to focus AFDI activism to pursue anti-trust laws be used to break up social monopolies and duopolies. The Wall Street Journal now is suggesting the same thing, albeit for the wrong reasons. For the WSJ, it’s all about the Benjamins, but for principled Americans, it’s all about freedom. Please contribute to that fight here. Make no mistake, it is the most pressing issue of day. If we are going to fight against the forces of far-left authoritarianism, and we must, freedom of speech in the social media public square is essential. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a free society. Without it, these leftist tyrants can and are wreaking havoc unopposed, while we are silenced. I have written extensively on this here.

Quick synopsis here: Pamela Geller, American Thinker: Urgent Case for Legislation against Facebook and Google

Here is what I argued back in 2016:

If the US government could break up Ma Bell, the USG can break up Facebook. Today’s IP address is yesterday’s phone number. It’s how we communicate today — whether by FB comment, messenger, Twitter DM etc.

Facebook adhering to the most extreme and brutal ideology on the face of the earth should trouble all of us, because Mark Zuckerberg has immense power. He controls the flow of information. He controls what you see and don’t see on Facebook. We did not give him the power to abridge our unalienable freedoms.

The US government used anti-trust laws to break up monopolies. They ought to break up Facebook. Section 2 of the Sherman Act highlights particular results deemed anti-competitive by nature and prohibits actions that “shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations.” Couldn’t the same be applied to information? The United States government took down Standard Oil, Alcoa, Northern Securities, the American Tobacco Company and many others without nearly the power that Facebook has.

I do not know how far my lawsuit against the social media giants will get but I do know that something must be done. Whether through legislation or anti-trust lawsuits, the chokehold that the uniformly leftist corporate media managers at social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google have on our means of communication must be broken.

Facebook, Google search, AdSense, Twitter, YouTube have banned, blocked, shadowbanned and scrubbed my site, my work, from their platforms and my millions of followers. And I am hardly alone. It is now standard operating procedure to silence conservatives and counter terror activists.

“Sessions urged not to go after social media companies by technology activists,” by James Rogers, Fox News, September 21, 2018 (thanks to Mark):

A group of technology activists and think tanks is urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to go after social media companies.

Companies such as Facebook and Twitter are firmly in the spotlight at the moment amid allegations of anti-conservative bias.

The Justice Department recently confirmed that Sessions has convened a meeting with a number of state attorneys general to discuss “a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms.”

The meeting will take place this month, according to officials. The announcement came in the wake of a recent Senate Intelligence Committee hearing attended by top executives at Facebook and Twitter.

In a letter sent on Friday, tech policy think tanks TechFreedom, which describes itself as “liberty oriented,” Lincoln Network and Copia Institute called on Sessions to rethink his pursuit of these companies. Other signatories include tech entrepreneurship group Engine Advocacy, Iain Murray, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, American Legislative Exchange Council CEO Lisa Nelson and law professor Eric Goldman.

“It is unclear what lawful action could result from your planned meeting. Indeed, we fear that the effect of your inquiry will be to accomplish through intimidation what the First Amendment bars: interference with editorial judgment,” the letter states.

With regard to alleged anti-competitive behavior, the activists write that “the degree of a media company’s market power does not change its protection by the First Amendment.”

The signatories also urge Sessions to call on the Federal Trade Commission in the event of an investigation. “We do not believe that the Department of Justice, as an arm of an Administration that has so consistently attacked social media companies (as well as traditional media companies), has the independence to act in the neutral, apolitical fashion required by the First Amendment,” they write. “The FTC has already handled multiple investigations into social media companies, and thus already has the relevant expertise in this area.”…