Facts Under Attack From Big Tech

It’s no secret that Big Tech has been censoring conservative voices for quite some time. And it just happened to us. Over the weekend, some of our content was labeled “partly false” by Facebook. This label was reflected on our page – and anyone’s page who shared it. At the ACLJ, we use these platforms to share real, true, and accurate news and legal analysis, yet our content was labeled as “false” across the platform.

As the midterm elections approach, this type of censorship could continue and have severe impacts. ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy and former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell explained how conservative censorship is a growing problem:

Look, I think that is growing. The censorship is growing. We’ve got to be able to push back. I mean it is a supply-and-demand issue. We have so many conservatives who are demanding that their voices be heard on social media or other platforms. And when they are canceled, it’s a silencing of conservatives. I am so happy to see the Truth Social launched – President Trump’s new social media platform. I am excited to see it because I know that conservatives won’t be silenced, and our voices won’t be censored in any way. So, I think if you have a business or if you have a voice on social media, even if you’re commenting, you’ve seen how Facebook, Instagram, and a whole bunch of platforms are beginning to take the conservative voice and silence them, and shadow ban them, and put warning labels on their opinion and it’s getting out of hand.

We’ve seen all of the above. Even if you don’t get the “partly false” label, some of the content you post or share is not reaching the amount of people who have opted into notifications and alerts for your page. Ric explained how this much control makes a huge impact on businesses and messaging:

They are controlling access, and that is their power. So, when you control access to half of the country, you can really make an impact on the effectiveness of a message or a business. So, I think that we have to move back to the day where, you know, when I grew up, my dad would say, "Sit and listen to the other argument." . . . That whole tolerance and diversity argument is really now with the conservatives. The conservatives are the ones saying, "Just hear me out before you scream, or shut me out, or run out of the room."

ACLJ Chief Counsel and my dad, Jay Sekulow, summed up how to deal with differing opinions:

We used to say, when I argued those Supreme Court cases, that the way you handle speech you disagree with is more speech. But that is not the view of the Left. And that is clear, and by the way, crystal clear on that. 

That’s exactly what we do here at the ACLJ. We provide you with analysis of news reports every single day and discuss the different perspectives even if we do not agree with them. For example, we’ve been reporting on the Ukraine and Russian conflict from Day One, even though we haven’t always agreed with President Biden’s strategy to solve it.

President Biden is set to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin as long as an invasion does not take place before then. Ric Grenell gave his take on where he thinks this conflict stands:

They have clearly moved equipment into the borderline. We know that the Russians have always been very bad about being belligerent and bullies in this part of the world. So, what I think we have to be able to do is utilize every possible diplomatic tool, peaceful measure, before we just assume that the bloody war is going to happen and there isn’t much we can do about it. And that’s why I am supporting sanctions – Nord Stream 2 sanctions, banking sanctions – all of these things are peaceful measures. They are diplomatic measures that have been shoved aside. And for some reason, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Antony Blinken are all talking about a bloody war before they implement sanctions. It’s like they want to see the blood in order to believe this is going to happen, but yet they are out there messaging that the intelligence is verified, and that this bloody war is coming. So, I don’t understand why, if we believe a bloody war is coming, why aren’t we utilizing peaceful measures to stop it?

The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky even called out the Biden Administration for potentially imposing sanctions against Russia after an invasion into his country:

We don’t need your sanctions after the bombardment will happen, and after our country will be fired at or after we will have no borders or after we will have no economy or parts of our country will be occupied. Why would we need those sanctions then?

Exactly. To wait to issue sanctions until after the bloodshed does not help Ukraine at all. We’ve been saying this from the beginning. We hope this conflict does not lead to bloodshed, but we will continue to monitor this situation and provide you with updates.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of censorship and the ongoing Russian/Ukraine conflict.

Watch the full broadcast below.