A majority of Americans recently surveyed by Pew Research favor restricting “false information” and “violent content” online, an alarming development with respect to one of the nation’s primordial principles — the right to speak one’s mind freely.
But worse still, by a large margin, Democrats, not Republicans, favor restrictions on free speech.
Survey respondents also would rather see Big Tech, not the government, control speech. If Big Tech is in charge, those who will define “false information” and “violent content” will be the leftists, if not outright communists, who largely control the major tech and social media companies and already have a record of censoring speech they don’t like.
In other words, the censors will share the same political views as those who told Pew that “false information” and “violent content” must be censored.
The Survey
The survey question returned two major findings:
Fifty-five percent of those polled believe the government should censor speech, while 65 percent would let Big Tech handle the job.
Those numbers have jumped from 39 percent and 56 percent in 2018.
“Americans are even more supportive of tech companies (71%) and the U.S. government (60%) restricting extremely violent content online,” Pew reported:
Democrats are more supportive than Republicans of tech companies and the U.S. government restricting extremely violent content and false information online. The partisan gap in support for restricting false information has grown substantially since 2018.
The breakdown by political party is particularly telling.
Seventy percent of Democrats or those who lean Democratic want the federal government to shut down speech. Just 39 percent of Republicans do.
That stark difference shows up across all the survey questions:
There was virtually no difference between the parties in 2018, but the share of Democrats who support government intervention has grown from 40% in 2018 to 70% in 2023, while the share of Republicans who hold this view hasn’t changed much.
There is a similar gap between the shares of Democrats and Republicans who say technology companies should restrict false information online.
A large majority of Democrats and Democratic leaners (81%) support technology companies taking such steps, while about half of Republicans (48%) say the same. The share of Democrats who support technology companies taking these steps has also increased steadily since 2018.
Turley: What Happened to My Party?
Those numbers have alarmed Democrat law professor Jonathan Turley.
“I was raised in a politically active Democratic family in Chicago,” Turley wrote. “Free speech was viewed as one of the defining values of the party and championed across campuses in the country.”
Not anymore:
That changed dramatically in the course of the last ten years as many liberal politicians and professors called for opposing voices to be banned or canceled. I no longer recognize the party as it pushes for censorship and speech regulation.…
What is particularly chilling is that this poll is occurring after the disclosure of biased censorship efforts by the government and corporations, including the suppression of views that were later found to be legitimate. That includes the banning or cancelling of scientists who raised concerns over Covid-19 that are now considered valid from the lab theory to the efficacy of masks to natural immunities. It also includes the suppression of political stories like the Hunter Biden laptop.
The growing support for censorship may reflect the echo chambered media environment. Many people watch and read news that continues to downplay or entirely omit reports on biased censorship. President Biden even charged that companies who refused to censor opposing views on social media were “killing people.” Others have denounced free speech as “a white man’s obsession.” New York Democrats called for limiting speech as a way of protecting democracy. Indeed, former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich has declared free speech is “tyranny.”
Who Decides What Is False?
Of course, free speech is “tyranny” for those who would label material from conservatives “false” or “violent.”
Example: Hunter Biden’s laptop. Twitter leftists censored the New York Post’s opening story because they claimed it was “false” or “Russian disinformation.” Backing that false opinion were 51 intelligence officials who knew better but simply lied about it, as well as the leftist Mainstream Media.
And on orders from the government, Twitter leftists also censored accurate information about Covid.
Twitter has also censored Libs of TikTok, the account that has exposed sex crimes against children at drag queen shows and Organized Grooming Inc.’s ceaseless effort to plant transgender and homosexual pornography and propaganda in public schools.
So, again, the people whom Democrats would put in charge of censoring information will be, undoubtedly, Democrats. Or Leftists. And some communists.
Out on a limb: When those censors red flag “false information” and “violent content,” most of it won’t be “false” or “violent.” It will be material they don’t like from voices of which they disapprove.
