VIEWPOINT CENSORSHIP ON THE INTERNET
TIMELINE:
Johnson Gives Social Media Platforms Ultimatum to Fix Censorship of Christian, Conservative Viewpoints
QUOTES FROM: http://nrb.org/index.php?cID=9730
“They need to fix this quickly,” said Dr. Jerry A. Johnson during a
panel discussion on the reported silencing of “unpopular voices” at the
Reboot 2018 conference in San Francisco on Friday. “And what I’m saying
is: if they don’t do this – by December 31, mind you – we are going to
ask Congress to take a look at 230,” he added, saying NRB would ask for
“very careful, thoughtful” hearings.
But Johnson suggested Friday that Big Tech companies no longer need “an extra layer of protection,” stating that Section 230 “came in when it was a new day.”
“It’s time to leave the ‘incubator,’” Johnson said. “Why do they need that now?”
NRB President Highlights Internet Freedom Watch at First Amendment Lunch, 2018
60-MILLION-STRONG CHRISTIAN GROUP TARGETS BIG TECH OVER CENSORSHIP
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
The National Religious Broadcasters group has sent out a
final ultimatum to Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter warning that if
they don’t stop censoring Christian and conservative viewpoints, the NRB
will lead its organization of 60 million members into a campaign to
remove their Section 230 legal protections.NRB President Jerry Johnson disputed claims by those tech companies which suggest they’re not actively burying Christian and conservative viewpoints.
“We have documented over many years that they are consistently censoring political debate between conservatives and liberals, religious and philosophical debate between Christians and non-Chirstians, on issues like life, marriage, and Islamic terrorism,” Johnson told PJ Media on Monday.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects web sites from legal liability for third-party content, but only if the sites act as a platform and not as a publisher.
However, censorship of content is a role more associated with that of a publisher, which is why Big Tech is running a risk of losing their Section 230 protections.
You can read NRB’s letter below:
NRB RENEWS CALL FOR SILICON VALLEY EXECS TO PROTECT FREE SPEECH
Will Ask Congress to Review ‘Good Samaritan’ Protection If They Fail to Act
WASHINGTON (NRB) – National Religious Broadcasters
has renewed its request to Silicon Valley executives to implement their
own free speech charter governing their content moderation or the
evangelical organization will ask Congress to review the “Good
Samaritan” protection the social media giants enjoy.In December 6 letters to the CEOs of Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Apple, Dr. Jerry A. Johnson, president & CEO of NRB, warns that time is running out for the companies to act as evidence grows of censorship of Christian and conservative viewpoints at the social media companies.
If the companies “do not take concrete action against censorship of Christian and conservative viewpoints by the end of this calendar year, then NRB will be calling for new hearings” Johnson said. “Specifically, we will call for a review of the ‘Good Samaritan’ section of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.”
The provision not only protects internet companies from liability for what users post on their platforms, it also includes a section facilitating their “Good Samaritan” blocking of offensive content by defending them from lawsuits based on content their moderation efforts may have missed. Echoing a statement he first raised in September during remarks at a tech conference in San Francisco, Johnson suggested it may be time to remove or suspend this “extra layer of government-granted content moderation protection for ubiquitous platforms suspected of acting in bad faith.”
While calling for this “reluctantly” and noting such a review should be “very cautious,” Johnson said, “if major tech corporations continue to effectively ignore substantiated cries of viewpoint suppression – intentional or not, algorithmic or human – then I believe it’s time for a remedy.” Reconsideration of Section 230 is preferable to other “possibly heavy-handed government interventions,” he said.
The letters come one year after NRB launched Internet Freedom Watch, a new initiative to draw greater attention to viewpoint censorship on the internet, expanding NRB’s longtime focus on the subject. With the launch of the initiative, NRB sent letters to the same companies. To date, none of the companies has formally responded to the 2017 letters, although some have engaged NRB in various ways.
In the intervening year, the concerns about censorship of Christian and conservative viewpoints has only grown, and so has NRB’s timelinedocumenting examples of such censorship – now with more than 40 documented cases.
“This timeline does not include every verifiable example of viewpoint suppression, and we believe it is actually only ‘the tip of the iceberg’ with many more instances of censorship going unreported by people who feel they have no recourse,” Johnson said.
While some continue to claim concerns about censorship are a “hoax” or “conservative fantasy,” Johnson commended President Donald Trump, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, and Members of Congress who have become “powerfully vocal” about the growing problem.
In launching Internet Freedom Watch, NRB called for Silicon Valley leaders to adopt a free speech charter that “utilizes the wisdom of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment,” noting that those freedoms have been “refined by centuries of jurisprudence” and would still permit these platforms to “combat obscenity, incitements to violence, and the like, without unduly burdening free expression with an array of confusing and haphazardly applied speech codes.”
Last December, NRB also called for congressional hearings about internet censorship. Since then, CEOs of Facebook and Twitter have appeared before congressional committees where members have pressed them on censorship concerns.
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SEE ALSO:
http://www.nrbconvention.org/
http://nrb.org/news-room/press_center/ifw/nrb-renews-call-silicon-valley-execs-protect-free-speech
http://nrb.org/index.php?cID=9730
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VIDEOS:
https://internetfreedomwatch.org/video/
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Documenting Online Censorship
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Illustrating the growing problem of viewpoint censorship on the
internet, NRB has compiled a timeline with representative examples of
suppression of Christian and conservative views on the internet.
Although private corporations, such as those in this timeline, are not
constrained by the First Amendment, most claim to affirm and even
celebrate freedom of speech. NRB has called on these tech giants to
afford their users nothing less than the free speech and free exercise
of religion rights embodied in the First Amendment as interpreted by the
U.S. Supreme Court. The following timeline is not exhaustive, but
merely representative, and some instances of censorship may have been
later corrected in some manner. To view, click the image below or scroll
through the timeline below. For a PDF of a vertical version of the
timelines, click here.
November 2018
Radio talk show host and former congressional candidate Jesse Kelly banned from Twitter without any explanation.
Instagram deletes an image by Founders Ministries, “Only Men Can Be Pastors,” claiming the post was “hate speech.”
October 2018
U.S. Senate candidate from Tennessee Marsha Blackburn’s ad, “Stop The Mob,” rejected by Google Ads as “shocking content.”
Facebook rejects pro-life ads by Susan B. Anthony List about babies born prematurely.
August 2018
PragerU announces that it is being “heavily censored” on Facebook after videos were blocked as “hate speech.” Facebook later apologized and restored the content.
Because it “related to politics or an issue of national importance,” Facebook denies an ad that Steven Solomon, a pastor and Army veteran, wished to use to promote his radio program that said, “Speak the truth, Love God, Defend America.”
Facebook suspends popular blogger Elizabeth Johnston (“The Activist Mommy”) for unspecified “hate speech.” Facebook later apologized and restored content it had removed.
July 2018
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) confirms that he filed an FEC complaint against Twitter due to an apparent shadow ban of his account. Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Mark Meadows (N.C.), and Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) were reportedly also so treated by Twitter.
June 2018
Facebook blocks Dr. Robert Gagnon, previously on the faculty of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, for criticizing a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation video that promoted homosexuality and nudity to young children.
May 2018
Amazon denies Alliance Defending Freedom access to its charitable AmazonSmile program based on a categorization of the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center.
April 2018
Just prior to Easter, Facebook rejects an ad from Franciscan University of Steubenville featuring the historic San Damiano Cross because it was deemed “shocking, sensational, or excessively violent.”
January 2018
Google’s YouTube flags and deletes the live stream of NRBTV for an unspecified Community Guidelines violation. YouTube also inflicts a three-month strike on NRBTV’s account.
November 2017
Twitter informs radio talk show host Erick Erickson that his tweet related to the debate about transgenderism “has been flagged for possible violations” of its “hateful conduct policy and/or German laws.”
October 2017
Twitter blocks a political ad Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) attempted to promote because it deemed her reference to Planned Parenthood’s documented “sale of baby body parts” to be “inflammatory.”
August 2017
Google’s YouTube demonetizes hundreds of videos produced by Dr. Michael Brown, host of Line of Fire radio show, and targets “controversial religious” content.
July 2017
Twitter blocks tweets and retweets of AT&T’s public policy blog expressing an opinion contrary to its own during a “Day of Action” supporting “common carrier” Title II federal regulation over internet service providers.
Facebook temporarily blocks more than 20 pages of Catholic organizations and individuals followed by millions worldwide.
May 2017
Twitter makes Live Action, a pro-life organization, ineligible to advertise on its platform until removal of “offensive” content.
March 2017
Citing disagreement with views expressed in four videos by Pure Passion TV on sexuality, Vimeo removes all 850 videos of the ministry and closes its account.
January 2017
Amazon denies D. James Kennedy Ministries access to its charitable AmazonSmile program based on a categorization of the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center.
October 2016
Prager University announces that Google’s YouTube is censoring many of its educational videos by placing them in “restricted mode,” which flags and prevents them from being accessed freely.
July 2016
Google’s YouTube temporarily blocks a Center for Security Policy video critical of the Muslim Brotherhood, jihad, and Sharia law.
May 2016
Gizmodo, a technology blog, reports evidence of Facebook workers censoring conservative content off of and injecting preferred articles into its influential trending news feed.
November 2015
Facebook blocks postings by Vanderbilt University professor, Dr. Carol Swain, for over 26 hours after liberal student activists organized complaints about her religious and moral viewpoints.
Google’s YouTube terminates account of Olive Tree Ministries after the ministry posted an interview about persecution of Christians in the Middle East. YouTube reinstated the account 3 days later after media inquiries.
August 2015
Facebook temporarily blocks user postings about a report on illegal immigration by the Center for Immigration Studies.
April 2015
Responding to pressure from complaints, GoFundMe deletes fundraising campaigns for Sweet Cakes by Melissa and Arlene’s Flowers — companies that had declined to provide services for same-sex weddings — and then changed its terms of service to support its decision.
October 2014
Twitter blocks users from linking to a petition supporting the Houston pastors whose sermons were subpoenaed by the city because the pastors supported a referendum against a gender-neutral restrooms ordinance.
April 2014
Citing a violation of its Community Standards, Facebook removes satirical post about immigration and Nevada rancher standoff by FOX’s Todd Starnes.
March 2014
Facebook temporarily bans evangelist Ray Comfort after he posts a photo of Westboro Baptist Church signs in an article in which Comfort encourages Christians to distance themselves from Westboro.
December 2013
Twitter blocks users from posting a link to a petition drive supporting Phil Robertson who had been suspended from the Duck Dynasty show by A&E after voicing his biblically-based views on homosexuality.
August 2013
Citing a violation of Community Standards regarding religion, Facebook temporarily blocks administrators of the Military with PTSD page.
Summer 2013
Citing a violation of its Community Standards, Facebook puts a 12-hour suspension on the page of a UNC-Wilmington professor making arguments against same-sex marriage.
July 2013
Citing a violation of its Community Standards because of a post which favorably mentioned the NRA, Chick-fil-A, Paula Deen, Cracker Barrel, the Gaithers, and the Gideon Bible, Facebook removes the post and temporarily blocks access to the account of Todd Starnes, host of FOX News & Commentary.
June 2013
Citing its policy against “excessively objectionable or crude content,” Apple removes from its App Store a Setting Captives Free app that promotes freedom from homosexuality.
March 2013
Citing “security concerns,” Facebook temporarily closes the page of an Israeli journalist after he posted criticism of the Palestinian Authority, restores the page 24 hours later, but deletes the article in question.
January 2013
Citing a violation of its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, Facebook removes a post by Chicks on the Right that was critical of the White House press secretary.
Facebook threatens content control by issuing warnings or temporarily suspending bloggers’ accounts for alleged “spam” when bloggers simply shared content on multiple like-minded pages.
October 2012
Facebook removes a post critical of President Obama’s handling of the Benghazi attack and puts a 24-hour block on the account of Special Operations Speaks PAC.
July 2012
Facebook temporarily removes Gov. Mike Huckabee’s post in support of Chick-fil-A.
May 2012
Google’s YouTube pulls video of a youth minister who warned of the same-sex marriage movement in America.
November 2010
Apple removes Chuck Colson’s Manhattan Declaration from its iTunes App Store.
