Wednesday during Fox News Channel’s post-Democratic presidential debate coverage, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) offered an ominous warning regarding big technology companies like Facebook and Google as it pertains to the election in the United States.
Gabbard explained her ordeal with Google following last month’s MSNBC debate, which she said was a threat to free speech.
“In the first debate, I was in the first night, and I was the most-searched candidate of that event,” she said. “Unfortunately, Google chose to arbitrarily block our Google ads account for several hours at a time that was most critical for our campaign. I’m suing Google for taking that action. They provided no valid explanation for why that was done. There was no wrongdoing or problem on our part. Not because of me, but because of this monopoly – this power that these big tech monopolies have to simply shut out people arbitrarily. This is a threat to our freedom of speech and it’s an important thing for us all to stand united in calling out and to protect, because whether you are a Democrat or Republican or on the left or on the right, for a big tech monopoly to have this power, this affects all of us.”
Gabbard went on to say these issues were examples of how tech companies can influence elections.
“I think one of the problems is that we are seeing is that people seem to feel like this is a left-right issue rather than seeing it for what it is, which is a free-speech issue, and how dangerous it is that you have these big tech monopolies like Google and Facebook that literally have the power through their algorithms and the things that they choose to do, or the people they choose to shut out, to influence our fair elections,” she added. “This is what’s at the heart of the action that I’m taking, and I’m taking it on behalf of the American people.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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