CFIF often highlights how the Biden Administration's bizarre decision to resurrect failed Title II "…
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Image of the Day: U.S. Internet Speeds Skyrocketed After Ending Failed Title II "Net Neutrality" Experiment

CFIF often highlights how the Biden Administration's bizarre decision to resurrect failed Title II "Net Neutrality" internet regulation, which caused private broadband investment to decline for the first time ever outside of a recession during its brief experiment at the end of the Obama Administration, is a terrible idea that will only punish consumers if allowed to take effect.

Here's what happened after that brief experiment was repealed under the Trump Administration and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai - internet speeds skyrocketed despite late-night comedians' and left-wing activists' warnings that the internet was doomed:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="515"] Internet Speeds Post-"Net Neutrality"[/caption]

 …[more]

April 19, 2024 • 09:51 AM

Liberty Update

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Biden Is a Threat to Democracy Print
By Betsy McCaughey
Wednesday, September 27 2023
In reality, this is a case about protecting the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans to post their views and freely access the views of others.

President Joe Biden is pitching himself as the savior of democracy. "I will always defend, protect, and fight for our democracy," he said at a campaign event last week in New York City. He's been saying it for four years. It's a blatant lie. He's the king of censorship, silencing his critics like a despot and even trying to defend his censorship regime before the Supreme Court. 

At high-dollar fundraising events last week from Manhattan to Silicon Valley, Biden bragged the survival of democracy hinges on his reelection over the MAGA Republicans. He'll reiterate that theme again in Phoenix on Thursday.

But democracy depends on a free marketplace of ideas. Biden is busy destroying that marketplace. He and his staff have masterminded a vast censorship scheme, coercing media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to take down views that challenge the administration on everything from vaccine safety and gas prices to Biden family mischief. 

On Sept. 11, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found the Biden White House guilty of threatening and coercing social media executives to do what the federal government is constitutionally barred from doing on its own  censoring the public. The judges ruled that bullying these companies into doing the administration's dirty work violates the First Amendment just as much as if government muzzles the public directly.

The Fifth Circuit issued an injunction, barring the Biden White House, surgeon general, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and FBI from trying to "coerce or significantly encourage social-media companies to remove ... content containing protected free speech." 

Undeterred, Team Biden has gone to the Supreme Court to fight this limit on censorship. It's easier to win reelection if you can silence your critics.

Justice Samuel Alito paused the Fifth Circuit's order until today, Sept. 27, when the Court is expected to take further action.

Meanwhile, Biden is weaseling around the First Amendment's prohibition on government censorship by moving his social media attack dog, Rob Flaherty, from the White House to his campaign staff. Flaherty, who largely masterminded the White House's censorship operation, will now be operating from a new, nongovernmental perch. 

Biden's lawyers argued in court that the tech platforms made their own decisions. That was a lie, and the judges saw right through it.

The evidence shows Biden threatened the social media platforms with punitive regulations, such as repealing liability immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and enforcing antitrust regulations, if the platforms didn't do his bidding. 

In 2020, candidate Biden told a New York Times editorial board that Section 230 immunity should be revoked because media companies like Facebook failed to censure rival Donald Trump's political ads criticizing him.

After winning, Biden issued arrogant censorship demands, more like a despot than a believer in democracy. 

On Feb. 6, 2021, Flaherty emailed Twitter to immediately remove a post that parodied Hunter Biden's adult daughter Finnegan. Twitter complied.

Over time, the censorship operation evolved into regularly scheduled meetings between Biden officials and tech employees, follow-up reports from the platforms on their compliance with Biden dictates, and special portals through which the Biden administration could request immediate action.

The New York Times depicts the legal battle against Biden's censorship as a challenge to "the government's ability to combat false and misleading narratives about the pandemic, voting rights and other issues that spread on social media."

Wrong. The Gray Lady presumes government can be trusted to decide what is false. 

In reality, this is a case about protecting the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans to post their views and freely access the views of others.

It is also a case about the future of democracy. If Biden's censorship scheme survives Supreme Court review  an unlikely outcome  democracy will be the worse for it. 

Expect Biden to continue parroting the claim he's defending democracy. It's far easier for him to campaign against a pretend threat than deal with real issues such as the economy and immigration, where his approval ratings don't break 30%, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. 

Biden's censorship and the fight he's waging to continue muzzling the public  the U.S. Constitution be damned  show he's no champion of democracy. The judges of the Fifth Circuit didn't believe it. And you shouldn't either. 


Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. 

COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

Notable Quote   
 
"Remember when progressives said the Trump Administration's rollback of net neutrality would break the internet? Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel now concedes this was wrong, yet she plans to reclaim political control over the internet anyway to stop a parade of new and highly doubtful horribles.The FCC on Thursday is expected to vote to reclassify broadband providers as…[more]
 
 
— Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
 
Liberty Poll   

If TikTok's data collection or manipulation under Chinese ownership is the grave danger that our government says it is (and it may well be), then wouldn't the prudent action be to ban it immediately rather than some time down the road?