On Wednesday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) powerfully denounced Big Tech companies for censoring conservatives. At the beginning of a Big Tech hearing, he gave 15 examples — some of which are questionable, but many of which are legitimately worrisome.
“I’ll just cut to the chase, Big Tech is out to get conservatives,” Jordan declared. “That’s not a suspicion, that’s not a hunch, that’s a fact.”
He launched into a long list of examples. PJ Media has organized them chronologically.
- May 19, 2016: “Former Facebook employees admit Facebook routinely suppresses conservative views.”
- July 2018: “Two years ago, Twitter shadowbanned two members of this committee,” Jordan alleged. He claimed that Twitter shadowbanned Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), and himself. He mocked Twitter’s response claiming “it was just a glitch in our algorithm.”
- November 1, 2018: “Facebook silences a pro-life organization’s advertisement.”
- April 19, 2020: “Google and YouTube announce a policy censoring the content that conflicts with recommendations of the World Health Organization,” Jordan noted. He reminded the audience that the WHO is the same organization that “lied to us [about the coronavirus pandemic], the organization that shilled for China.”
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- May 27, 2020: “Amazon Smile won’t let you give to the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defense Fund but you can give to Planned Parenthood,” Jordan said, referring to Amazon Smile’s reliance on the far-left smear factory the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to ban the Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom (previously known as Alliance Defense Fund) from Amazon’s charity platform.
- May 28, 2020: “Twitter censors President Trump’s tweet on the riots in Minneapolis.”
- May 29, 2020: “Twitter censors the White House for quoting” Trump’s censored tweet.
- June 4, 2020: “Amazon bans a book critical of the coronavirus lockdowns written by a conservative commentator.”
- June 16, 2020: “Google threatens to demonetize and ban the Federalist.”
- June 19, 2020: Facebook removes posts from President Trump’s reelection campaign.
- June 23, 2020: “Twitter censors the president again for saying he’ll enforce the rule of law against any autonomous zone in Washington, D.C.”
- June 29, 2020: “Amazon bans President Trump’s account on Twitch after he raises concerns about defunding the police.”
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- July 20, 2020: “Google removes the homepages of Breitbart and the Daily Caller.”
- July 21, 2020: Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, the largest state-sponsor of terrorism in the world, tweeted, “The Islamic Republic of Iran will never forget the martyrdom of Soleimani and will definitely strike a reciprocal blow in the United States.” Jordan noted that Twitter did not censor Khamenei, who threatened American citizens, “but the president says he won’t allow an autonomous zone, and he gets censored!”
- July 28, 2020: “Just last night, we learned Google has censored Breitbart so much traffic has declined 99 percent.”
Some of the examples Jordan mentioned are not necessarily examples of Big Tech censoring conservatives. Claims of shadowbanning are difficult to prove, and it remains unclear exactly why the home pages of many sites (in addition to Breitbart and the Daily Caller) did not show up in Google searches on July 20.
That said, some of these examples are rather straightforward. The SPLC, for example, has a long history of smearing conservative and Christian organizations as “hate groups,” comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan. Amazon’s continued reliance on the SPLC — even after the SPLC’s racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal last year — is a serious black mark on the company’s record. Twitter’s censorship attacks on Trump are particularly noxious.
Jordan concluded his remarks by mentioning Google’s attempts to boost the Latino vote in 2016, apparently hoping that these efforts would boost Hillary Clinton.
“We saw what Google did in 2016. We all know about the email the day after the election where top executives about Google … talked about the silent donation Google made to the Clinton campaign,” Jordan said.
“We’re 97 days before an election,” the congressman noted. “We all think the free market’s great, we think competition’s great, we love the fact that these are American companies, but what’s not great is censoring people, censoring conservatives, and trying to impact elections. And if it doesn’t end, there have to be consequences.”
Big tech’s out to get conservatives. It’s time they face the consequences. pic.twitter.com/jfPRPL1rZ1
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 29, 2020
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.