Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has been suspended from uploading videos to YouTube for seven days and had a video of a speech talking about early treatments to COVID-19 removed by the video-sharing giant.
The video removal and upload ban came after two videos of Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearings he led on early experimental treatments to the novel coronavirus, such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.
Johnson told Fox News that “YouTube’s ongoing COVID censorship proves they have accumulated too much unaccountable power.”
“Big Tech and mainstream media believe they are smarter than medical doctors who have devoted their lives to science and use their skills to save lives,” Johnson said. “They have decided there is only one medical viewpoint allowed, and it is the viewpoint dictated by government agencies. How many lives will be lost as a result? How many lives could have been saved with a free exchange of medical ideas?”
“Government-sanctioned censorship of ideas and speech should concern us all,” Johnson added.
I am glad to see that Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis is fighting for his state against Big Tech censorship. We were all shocked to see how they could remove President Trump from Twitter, and also shut down Parler. I hope his law proposal comes through and eventually Big Tech will be restricted from all their efforts to control anyone in this country. It is not right for this country and for any person to be censored. I want to offer this prayer of David’s as a prayer on behalf of President Trump.
Keep me from the jaws of the trap which they have set for me,
And from the snares of those who do iniquity.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
While I pass by safely. (Psalm 141:9-10)
I pray that President Trump will get his twitter account back, or something just as good or better, and those who entrapped him unjustly would be trapped in their own nets and would pay a high price.
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 02/02/21-Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks out on the the controls he says technology companies are placing on public discourse, Tuesday during a news conference at the Capitol in Tallahassee.
COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO
Here is the article from Newsmax about what DeSantis is proposing:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday proposed a law that would combat big tech’s “censorship” of right-wing political candidates and blasted the “monopoly of communications platforms” that “monitor and control” Floridians.
The legislation will target Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, and Apple, according to Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls.
“What began as a group of upstart technology companies from the west coast, has since transformed into an industry of monopoly communications platforms that monitor, influence, and control the flow of information in our country and among our citizens,” DeSantis said during a press conference at the State Capitol in Tallahassee.
“These platforms have played an increasingly decisive role in elections and have negatively impacted Americans who descend from orthodoxies favored by the big tech cartel,” he added.
Citing former President Donald Trump’s removal from Twitter in his final days in office and restrictions on social media app Parler, DeSantis said Big Tech has been allowed to “manipulate” news content and design algorithms that favor their candidates of choice.
“That’s why in Florida we’re gonna take aim at those companies and pull back the veil and make sure those guys don’t continue to find loopholes and grey areas to live above the law,” DeSantis said. “Under our proposal, if a technology company de-platforms a candidate for elected office in Florida during an election, that company will face a daily fine of $100,000 until the candidate’s access to the platform is restored.”
The bill, if passed, would prevent platforms from rapidly changing standards, allow people to opt out of content algorithms, create a “cause of action” pathway for legal action and fine tech companies $100,000 daily for “deplatforming” political candidates.
“Used to be that consumers were trusted to make their own decisions about what information to consume, about which leaders to ‘follow,’ about what news to watch,” said DeSantis. “Now those decisions are increasingly made by nameless, faceless boards of sensors.”
DeSantis’ press conference comes a week after two Florida GOP lawmakers filed bills that would prohibit the state and local governments from doing business with Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google and its parent company, Alphabet, starting July 1.
“What prompted me to draft this legislation was the lifetime ban of the president of the United States — the duly elected and non-removed president of the United States — forever, including after he was a private citizen, coupled with the sudden shutdown of competitors of companies by their fellow Big Tech companies,” state Rep. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, told the Orlando Sentinel.
Stephen Nielsen 