CNN: Trump Spreading ‘False’ Censorship Claim, ‘Hate Speech’ Bans Not Ideological

In an article published Friday, CNN reporter Oliver Darcy declared that claims of social media censorship of conservative voices are simply “false.”

“President Donald Trump on Friday morning claimed in a tweet that social media companies are ‘silencing millions of people,’ exacerbating a longstanding paranoia from conservatives who have for years erroneously accused social media companies of bias and censorship,” Oliver Darcy wrote.

Trump addressed social media censorship in a tweet sent Friday.

Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018

Darcy also wrote that claims of conservatives being “unfairly treated by social media companies” are part of a “flimsy narrative.”

The CNN reporter mentioned the fact that big tech had recently no-platformed Alex Jones and his Infowars brand, maintaining that had nothing to do with political ideology but was due to Infowars’ “harassment” and “hate speech” – a term which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself admitted was very difficult to define.

“The tech platforms said they removed Jones’ content for violations of their hate speech and harassment guidelines. They have maintained that they do not discriminate against users for their political beliefs,” Darcy wrote.

Asked by Sen. Ben Sasse to define hate speech in April, Zuckerberg answered, “Senator, I think that this is a really hard question. And I think it’s one of the reasons why we struggle with it.”

CNN was also directly involved in pushing big tech companies to get after Jones in the first place. First they started by going after Infowars’ presence on Youtube, an effort that started months ago and was ultimately successful.

Darcy himself wrote an article in July titled, “Facebook touts fight on fake news, but struggles to explain why InfoWars isn’t banned.” The piece was a barely veiled attempt to push Facebook to ban Infowars, which Facebook later did.

Having succeeded in getting Jones booted from Facebook, Darcy is now focusing on attempting to have Infowars banned from Twitter.

In his Friday article, Darcy wrote of “right-wing media outlets” that were spreading such “false” claims of social media censorship, mentioning Breitbart News by name.

In effect, Darcy, and others at CNN, are openly lobbying big tech companies to censor other outlets. Having largely accomplished this in the case of Infowars, they are now turning around and insisting that big tech isn’t actually censoring conservatives, just people who commit “hate speech,” which Mark Zuckerberg himself couldn’t even define when asked to do so.

Never mind the countless other examples of conservative speech being censored–it’s all a big right-wing lie, CNN tells us.

Finally, if CNN is so concerned about hateful speech on social media, it might behoove them to check up on some of their own commentators.

Just this week, CNN commentator Sally Kohn implied that supporters of President Trump don’t have a conscience, while CNN’s Ana Navarro said that first lady Melania Trump had “oxygen deprivation to the brain.”

CNN host Chris Cuomo also declared this month that violence, when directed at “bigots,” is different,and that those who are doing so to oppose “hate” are “on the side of right.”

And in terms of “harassment,” CNN doesn’t exactly have the best record with that, either.