A government corrupt enough to coerce big tech into stamping out opposition is borderline tyrannical

Yesterday, September 7, a teenage gunman went on a 20-hour killing spree in Memphis, tragically killing four people, injuring three more, and committing two armed carjackings before being arrested on Wednesday night. Disturbingly, the appalling crimes were live-streamed on Facebook and Instagram.

Not surprisingly, both of these apps remain available for download on major app stores including the Google Play Store. Interestingly, however, Google continues to ban former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social due to its failure to enact “effective systems for moderating user-generated content.”

Over the past several weeks, the media has slammed Truth Social for allegedly breeding Qanon content. Vanity Fair accused Trump of making his social media platform into a “Qanon Playground.” The Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, People, and others blasted the site for fostering conspiratorial falsehoods. According to Google, content moderation “is a condition of our terms of service for any app to go live on Google Play" and Truth Social has not yet met those terms.

Apparently, however, big tech and the media are less concerned with content moderation on their own favored sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Or, more accurately, they are only interested in moderating content that promulgates a certain political narrative undesirable to the elites in Washington.

Trump’s team constructed Truth Social after the impeached president was permanently dropped from Twitter and other social media platforms due to “risk of further incitement of violence.”

Many have pointed out the hypocrisy of banning Trump simply for how his tweets might be “received and interpreted” while at the same time letting other users make explicit calls for violence. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran, for example, has routinely used his account to arouse violence. He encouraged the murder of 1,500 peaceful protestors. He frequently calls for the nation of Israel to be “eradicated.”

Kathy Griffin is still on Twitter despite twice posting a picture of herself holding the president’s severed, bloody head.

The point is that social media platforms are actually very lenient when it comes to moderating violent content. When it comes to unpopular political ideas, on the other hand, censorship abounds.

Recently, the Convention of States Project has documented several examples of the federal government pressuring social media companies to crack down on free speech. Of course, these companies are private companies with the freedom to act, more or less, how they see fit. But when the government gets involved, things become a whole lot more dangerous.

Suddenly, it’s our elected officials who decide what information we get access to. They can even decide to withhold information that might influence the results of their elections.

This alliance between the government and big tech must be ended immediately. Any government corrupt enough to compel private companies into stamping out opposition is, indeed, borderline tyrannical.

Fortunately, we are not defenseless. The Founders gave us Article V for such a time as this. They gave us Article V to be used in resistance to federal tyranny.

The Convention of States Project is hard at work to preserve our system of governance as the Founders gave it to us and invites you to be a part of history in the making. Join the movement today and sign the COS petition below!