Dem Rep. Jackson on Biden Censorship: There’s Free Speech, But Also Stopping Misinformation

On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) reacted to Alphabet saying that the Biden administration pushed it to censor content by stating that “something that we should all be very much concerned about is misinformation. There’s freedom of speech, but also, how do we stop misinformation?” And “we’re going into an era of disinformation. Political rhetoric is going to be weaponized. People are going to be misquoted, lied about. There are going to be all sort[s] of programs that can act like they’re synthesizing and recreating our messages and words. This is something we should have a conversation about.”

Co-host Audie Cornish asked, “YouTube says it’s bringing back the accounts of creators banned for violating its COVID-19 and election content policies. This could impact all kinds of people, including the FBI Deputy [Director], Dan Bongino. The reason why I wanted to bring this up with you is because Alphabet actually told the committees investigating this, look, the Biden administration leaned on us for this content moderation. Are Democrats going to have to rethink those kinds of approaches?”

Jackson responded, “Absolutely. And something that we should all be very much concerned about is misinformation. There’s freedom of speech, but also, how do we stop misinformation?”

Cornish then cut in to ask, “But isn’t this conversation about Kimmel kind of reflecting the fact that, as a country, we’re not decided on that, right? Is it better for everyone to say everything? Or, as Democrats decided during the pandemic, actually, no, some of this stuff you shouldn’t be saying?”

Jackson responded, “I don’t think it’s decided. I think it’s going to evolve. You’re going to see a new wave of dark media and dark web and bots and fake imageries that are coming out on elected officials. So, that lie is going to run around the world through the Internet and other things before the truth can walk and finally catch up. But it will be too late. So, we’re going into an era of disinformation. Political rhetoric is going to be weaponized. People are going to be misquoted, lied about. There are going to be all sort[s] of programs that can act like they’re synthesizing and recreating our messages and words. This is something we should have a conversation about.”

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