How the establishment Left embraced government control of digital speech.
“Even Joe McCarthy’s anti-Communist frenzy encountered strong opposition from elements of the political and media establishment. The new censorship seemed to rely on universal elite conformity. No debates had been held, no enabling laws passed. The federal government’s standing legal authority had been used to silence, in secret, the online opinions of an untold number of Americans. . . . From the Democrats’ perspective, the portents look grim. The loss of Twitter to Elon Musk was a terrible blow. The condemnation of free speech that attended Twitter’s sale astonished many of us; we can now see that it was driven by foreknowledge that the new censorship, so discreetly implemented, was about to be exposed. The loss of the House reminded Democrats of the eternal problem of democracy. Other means of control will be preferred, with the serial prosecution of Trump serving as the model. The IRS thus paid a surprise visit to Taibbi’s New Jersey home while he was testifying in Washington. The FTC hit Musk with “more than 350 specific demands” for information, including all the juicy details of Twitter’s dealings with journalists like ‘Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger.’ As we swing into campaign mode, we should expect an upsurge of creativity along this front.”
THERE GOES BIDEN AGAIN, RESTORING OUR PRECIOUS NORMS: Biden’s FTC Punished Twitter For Seceding From The Censorship Complex.
The Federal Trade Commission inappropriately pressured an independent third-party auditing firm to find Twitter had violated the terms of its settlement agreement with the FTC, a motion filed last week in federal court reveals. That misconduct and the FTC’s own repudiation of the terms of the settlement agreement entitle Twitter to vacate the consent order, its lawyers maintain.
This latest development holds significance beyond Twitter’s fight with the FTC, however, with the details providing further evidence that the Biden administration targeted Twitter because of its owner Elon Musk’s support for free speech on his platform.
I “felt as if the FTC was trying to influence the outcome of the engagement before it had started,” a CPA with nearly 30 years of experience with the Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) testified last month. The FTC’s pressure campaign left EY partner David Roque so unsettled that he sought guidance from another partner concerning controlling ethical standards for CPAs to assess whether his independence had been compromised by the federal agency.
Read the whole thing.
EVERY INSTITUTION HAS BEEN CORRUPTED: FBI whistleblower: FBI headquarters tipped Hunter off, prevented interview.
CLOSE ‘EM DOWN, LET THOSE “NON-ESSENTIAL” WORKERS GO, AND IT’S A WIN FOR LIBERTY AND FRUGALITY: Half to 90% of federal agency HQs empty, billions wasted.
The Biden corruption CONTINUES.
Biden's DOJ is now indicting the whistleblower who blew the whistle on his corruption. The crime? Being an unregistered foreign agent. But wait, HUNTER BIDEN DID THE SAME THING.
Biden's Banana Republic. pic.twitter.com/8z7hZQsEms
— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) July 12, 2023
h/t Stephen Green