U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) continues to shock with remarks regarding conservative censorship. Khanna was the only Democrat congressman to inquire about Twitter’s use of censorship of the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story. According to Breitbart News:
Khanna said, “It is problematic. Look, technically, they are private actors, but they are a modern public square and should not be engaged in censorship. It is one thing for them to say don’t put up sensational pictures of Hunter Biden. I understand that but to censor The New York Post. They haven’t written a positive about me in my six years in Congress, but I never dream of saying shut them down or don’t allow them to publish articles. That’s the essence of democracy, and we need to stand up for the First Amendment.”
Anchor Dana Perino said, “Before they would say that anybody who thought conservatives were being shadow banned on Twitter was being paranoid. Now they’re saying, of course, they de-amplified the hard right, and that was the right thing to do. I don’t know if that is the best place to land if you are concerned about democracy and freedom of speech. Do you think Elon Musk is doing a good thing by releasing this information?”
Khanna said, “I do. I do think we have to have transparency. There are two conflicting values. On the one hand, we shouldn’t be censoring people based on viewpoint. What concerns me with the second release of the Twitter files is it seems some people are being censored or de-amplified because of their beliefs. Another thing is to have respect, and I don’t think you want these sites to have anti-semitism or racism. My understanding is it is going beyond that. Not just that, they are taking down speech that is hate, and Elon Musk said he wants the take that down. It is that they are censoring based on viewpoint, and that is simply not what we do in this country.”
Substack journalist Matt Taibbi, who published a report about Twitter’s systemic censorship, wrote regarding Rep. Khanna, “Khanna was the only Democratic official I could find in the files who expressed concern” about the story.
You cannot legislate opinions. I think its great the first amendment protects the right of one person to say they hate another person and it doesn’t matter what the reason why is. Our current government wants a police state that dictates a standard public opinion. The best outcome is a “hands off” approach by government and social media and let users use the “BLOCK” buttons. If you don’t like what other people are saying, what their political agenda is, nobody is twisting your are to read it. I probably hold the record for the number of people blocked because I take advantage of that option. Having some idiot that works for the social media platform attempt to make these decisions on my behalf is insulting, like telling black people they are too stupid to do things so the DNC will decide for them. FYI I block comments and posts that insinuate such idiotic things. People need to do their own thinking and the government(s), FAKE media and social media need to respect that right.