Liberty Must Not Be Silenced

January 16, 2021

A Conversation With Ron Paul

The tech oligarchs have spoken… And it seems they don’t want us to say anything.

In the last week, Twitter, Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook have revealed their power and will to censor ordinary citizens like us. Say something they don’t like? They’ll delete your account. The trend of banning people online smacks of a place like China, not the freedom-loving, First Amendment-touting United States.

Just this week, American Consequences‘ own Buck Sexton wrote about the state of Big Tech censorship.

But I got to hear about the digital purge from someone who experienced it firsthand.

One of my guests on the most recent American Consequences podcast, former Texas Congressman and noted civil liberties champion Ron Paul, appeared to be another victim of the latest social media purge.

Last week, Ron noticed that Facebook had blocked him.

Why? For violating the platform’s “community standards,” whatever that means (and whichever Orwellian council decides that).

Seriously, Facebook? Ron Paul? The man is a Libertarian dove – a tireless advocate for nonviolence. What kind of incendiary content did these bots find on his page?

Facebook later said it was a mistake… an accident… a blip.

This brings me to the following question… If someone as reasonable as Ron Paul is at risk of digital censorship, how safe is it for the rest of us?

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Banning Together in the Shadows

Many Americans view the recent social media purge of the likes of Parler as a Leftist attack on the Right, but I think they are missing the bigger picture.

Restrictions of opinions on digital platforms are not only a conspiracy against conservatives… Big Tech is out to narrow all views that don’t fall within mainstream elitists’ parameters, a space composed of both parties.

As Ron Paul told me, the irony about these private tech companies is that there’s nothing private about them. Big Tech is, in fact, an arm of the State. These tech monopolies have government contracts and full immunity from lawsuits.

In Ron’s words…

Anybody who has libertarian beliefs would say, well, [Facebook is] a private company and we shouldn’t interfere and tell them what to do. But there’s nothing private about them. I mean, the whole Internet was created by the government. So many of these companies (Facebook included) have contracts with the government.

They say they’re an arm of the government. They provide all the security information, the spying information for national security, you know, national security affairs. And so it has nothing to do with freedom of speech. And then [these tech companies] are excluded… You can’t ever sue them. You know, to me, that is protection from the government.

For Big Tech, it’s about their freedom with your speech.

What’s happened with social media lately has nothing to do with the First Amendment from Big Tech’s perspective.

For these Silicon Valley CEOs, they’re just protecting their bottom line and political agenda. And this rise of corporatism, of Big Business blending with Big Government, should make every citizen very wary.

The Algorithm of Freedom

So, what can we do? There are no simple solutions here.

For now, you can follow Ron Paul, so please check him out and his Institute for Peace and Prosperity – they have thoughtful approaches on how to protect and preserve our civil liberties. And you can listen to our full interview here.

It’s time to rethink our approach as people who love freedom. We need healthy, positive ideas right now in the digital space and with the people we see and talk to every day.

This is still America. We must stand up and be heard. You can block us or deactivate us, but you can never completely silence us.

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