Why Elon Musk and free speech advocates worry about ‘Big Sister’ Kamala Harris censoring social media platforms_l
A growing number of free speech advocates are raising the alarm over what Vice President Kamala Harris would do to censor social media platforms if she wins the election.
In 2019, Harris famously branded social media companies as purveyors of ‘hate,’ and ‘misinformation’ vowing to hold them responsible for content posted on their platforms.
‘We will hold social media platforms accountable for the hate infiltrating their platforms because they have a responsibility to help fight against this threat to our democracy,’ Harris said during a speech to the NAACP in 2019.
She warned technology moguls that she would ‘double’ the number of attorneys at the Department of Justice to target their platforms.
‘If you profit off of hate, if you act as a megaphone for misinformation or cyber warfare, if you don’t police your platforms we are going to hold you accountable as a community.’
Elon Musk has raised concerns about Kamala Harris censoring social media platforms if elected president of the United States
Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, online platforms are shielded from liability for what users post on their platforms.
The Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to censor online content was recently brought into focus after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed last week that his company acted to remove content the government asked them to censor, due to extreme pressure from the federal government.
‘I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,’ he said in a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan. ‘I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.’
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta, revealed that the Biden-Harris administration pressured his company to remove content on Facebook and Instagram
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign stop
The new details of government pressured censorship earned concerns from free speech advocates who have been watching Harris’ actions that would police the internet.
‘Western authorities are desperate to put a leash on tech platforms, which have become far less amenable to their censorship demands than they were in 2020, and represent a major threat to their ability to control political narratives,’ the Foundation For Freedom Online managing director Allum Bokhari told DailyMail.com.
Harris is not unfamiliar with the growing efforts by the Biden administration to police content on social media.
In June 2022, Biden appointed Harris to lead the White House Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse, prompting the New York Post to brand the vice president as ‘Big Sister II.’
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at Portsmouth International Airport
Free speech advocates are voicing their concerns about a Kamala Harris presidency
The position sparked free speech advocates to dub Harris as the ‘Disinformation czar’ warning that the Biden-Harris administration was trying to further restrict free speech on the internet.
The task force group quietly released a final report that recommended reforms that would make it easier to censor content online.
The report calls for tech platforms to expand ‘trust and safety’ teams to monitor online content, the same groups that censored content during the 2020 election.
The report also called on Congress to weaken Section 230 protections for tech platforms and included ‘hate speech’ in their definition of ‘harassment,’ to make it easier for the government to punish tech companies and remove content they did not approve of.
The decision by Brazil to ban X.com, the popular social media platform owned by tech multibillionaire Elon Musk raised concerns about the future of the platform in other countries including the United States.
Musk flagged his concerns about freedom of speech on X.com, after Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison praised the decision by Brazil to ban use of the platform.
‘The Democratic Party – same one that used to defend the First Amendment –now wants to destroy the First Amendment,’ he wrote.
SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk speaks with members of the media during the AI Safety Summit
Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Musk, who has publicly endorsed Donald Trump for president, has faced anger from Democratic activists for promoting anti-Harris content they consider ‘misinformation.’
But Musk raised questions about Harris trying to censor online speech.
‘Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and the Democratic Party (Kamala is just a puppet) wants to destroy it,’ Musk said.
Concerns of a future Harris administration are more than just about X.com, which has become a central platform for political content in 2024.
Users of the popular social media video platform TikTok are also concerned about what a potential Harris presidency would mean for the platform.
President Joe Biden signed a bill this year that could ban the platform from being used in the United States.
Harris has tried to reassure voters that a TikTok ban is not the purpose of the administration’s legislation, but has raised ‘national security concerns’ surrounding the Chinese company ByteDance ownership of the platform.
Despite their national security concerns, Harris and Biden continue to use TikTok to promote their political campaign content to the platform’s audience.
Earlier this week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared a video of Kamala Harris speaking in 2019 with CNN’s Jake Tapper about her mission to pressure Twitter to ban then-president Donald Trump from the platform.
‘There has to be a responsibility that is placed on these social media sites to understand their power,’ Harris said. ‘They are directly speaking to millions and millions of people, without any level of oversight or regulation and that has to stop.’
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard warned of political retribution from the Harris adminstration
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a town hall with former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard,
In October 2019, Harris used her call to ban Trump from Twitter to spark new life into her presidential campaign, but it was dismissed by her fellow candidates.
When Harris demanded that fellow candidate Elizabeth Warren to join her demands, she waved Harris off.
‘No,’ Warren replied dismissively as Harris tried to pin her down on the issue during a Democratic debate.
The fight to protect speech also raises concerns about the government physically harassing people who speak out against the administration in power.
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard voiced her concerns about Harris’ propensity for censorship, reminding her followers she was put on a secret terror watch list after speaking out against Harris, which resulted in multiple enhanced security screenings as she and her husband traveled through airports.
‘No one will be safe from political retaliation under a Harris administration,’ she wrote on X.com.
Harris also worked on the issue of online harassment and sex trafficking during her time as attorney general of California.
In 2015, Harris famously called major tech CEOs to a special meeting on the issue of online ‘cyber exploitation’ and pointedly reminded them about the problem of ‘harassment’ that was taking place on their platforms.
‘I’m very well aware that I have a carrot and a stick,’ Harris has said. ‘I prefer to start with the carrot. But I’m also prepared to use the stick.’
