Religious broadcasters on tech bias: ‘Well-documented censorship’


America’s religious broadcasters are telling tech giants their bias is “well-documented” and they need to fix it before government fixes it for them.

The statement written by Jerry A. Johnson, president of the National Religious Broadcasters, comes as tech industry chiefs are being grilled by Congress over the bias issue.

On Wednesday, Twitter shares plunged 6 percent as CEO Jack Dorsey answered questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee.
He appeared beside Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg about election meddling and abuse on their platforms. Google refused to send its CEO or the CEO of its parent company, Alphabet.
President Trump and other Republican leaders have joined other conservatives in charging Twitter, Facebook, Google and others have a left-leaning bias that impacts their platforms.
Johnson said the NRB “has for years suggested a free speech charter based on First Amendment jurisprudence as the basis for an industry-crafted code of conduct.”
“I urge Jack Dorsey and his fellow Big Tech executives to assemble together immediately to fix the undeniable viewpoint suppression problem themselves,” he said.
The First Amendment does not set down requirements for private companies. But when operations become so big that they effectively monopolize one segment of a market, the United States in the past has taken action to regulate them or break them up, which is what happened with the telephone monopoly decades ago.









The European Union is in the final stages of crafting legislation that will force big tech and Internet companies to censor “extremist” content and cooperate with law enforcement, Reutersreports.
The bill is expected to be released by the end of the month and will absolutely require companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter to swiftly remove any content considered terroristic from their platforms.
In March, the European Commission told such companies that they had three months to show they were removing “extremist” content more rapidly or face legislation forcing them to do so.

EU recommendations were sent out at the time regarding the speedy removal of all content including terrorist content, incitement to hatred and violence, child sexual abuse material, counterfeit products, and copyright infringement.
The threat eventually led to the creation of an online “code of conduct” aimed at fighting racism and xenophobia across Europe, an effort both the EU and big tech collaborated on.
According to European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova, an existing code of conduct to counter hate speech could remain voluntary.
“(But on) terrorist content, we came to the conclusion that it is too serious a threat and risk for European people that we should have absolute certainty that all the platforms and all the IT providers will delete the terrorist content and will cooperate with law enforcement bodies,” Jourova said on Wednesday.
“Yes, this is in the final stage,” she added, addressing the new bill.
While details of the new legislation remain hidden, Financial Times in August learned that law enforcement will be in charge of flagging content for censorship.
EU security commissioner Julian King also had mentioned last month that the bill will “likely” turn the agreed upon “code of conduct” into mandatory law, placing the prediction by Jourova that it will remain voluntary on shaky grounds.
Within the code is a narrow explanation of “hate speech,” being defined as “all conduct publicly inciting to violence or hatred directed against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin.”
The nature of enforcing censorship based on a narrow and subjective term such as “hate speech” is likely to keep suspicions high that these types of decision aren’t about creating a safer world, but rather a world in which superstates like the EU control the content people see online for political purposes.







One day after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared on Capitol Hill to tell lawmakers how his company doesn't discriminate against conservatives, the company permanently banned Infowars host Alex Jones from the platform for insults hurled at CNN's Oliver Darcy on Wednesday. 


“Today, we permanently suspended @realalexjones and @infowars from Twitter and Periscope. We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts’ previous violations,” the company posted on its Safety account.
Twitter added that it will continue to take further action "regarding other accounts potentially associated" with Jones or Infowars, and will "take action if content that violates our rules is reported or if other accounts are utilized in an attempt to circumvent their ban." 









President Trump has raised the profile of the issue, and now a film is debuting Thursday that contends Google has crossed its CEO’s self-described “creepy line,” not only invading the privacy of millions of users but using its monopolistic stature to suppress conservative views and influence elections.

The producer of “The Creepy Line,” Peter Schweizer, told WND in an interview Thursday that Google’s frequent protestations that it provides a “neutral platform” with no bias lacks credibility.

For years, Schweizer argued, when companies such as Yelp charged Google was suppressing or manipulating the algorithm on commercial searches to its own benefit, the tech giant repeatedly denied the claims.

“We know know that the Federal Trade Commission the European Union and private academics have found that that’s exactly what Google is doing,” said Schweizer, the author of politically influential books such as “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich” and “Secret Empires: How Our Politicians Hide Corruption and Enrich Their Families and Friends.”

“So, I don’t think Google at this point deserves the benefit of any doubt, because when they have been challenged on this issue in the past, they have not been honest and forthright.”
The film debuts Thursday at the Toronto Film Festival and will be screened Sept. 17 in New York City and Sept. 18 in Washington, D.C.