Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr slammed Twitter’s censorship on Wednesday as “free speech for me, but not for thee.”
Randolph May, the president of the conservative tech think tank Free State Foundation, announced last week their Twitter ad campaign to rail against net neutrality was rejected as “political.”
The foundation explained, “In other words, @Twitter claims to be for Net Neutrality – but not when a view is expressed contrary to their views on Net Neutrality! Can you believe it was rejected?”
News Flash! I wanted to run an ad campaign to promote this tweet, but @Twitter rejected it as "political." In other words, @Twitter claims to be for Net Neutrality – but not when a view is expressed contrary to their views on Net Neutrality! Can you believe it was rejected? https://t.co/Qwqabrhgvl
— Free State Foundation (@FSFthinktank) June 5, 2020
The Free State Foundation’s ad campaign hoped to explain that public utility regulations on the Internet, or net neutrality, would harm innovation and investment into America’s broadband networks.
Twitter’s ad policy “prohibits the promotion of political content” that lobby for or against regulation. However, May noted Twitter has enthusiastically promoted net neutrality regulations.
May told Multichannel News, “[T]o my surprise, Twitter rejected it as ‘political.’ This is the same Twitter, I think, which proclaims vociferously it favors ‘net neutrality.’ I guess the neutrality doesn’t apply to tweets opposing its net neutrality position!”
Carr, a vocal opponent of tech censorship, torched Twitter for silencing opposing viewpoints.
“Free speech for me, but not for thee. Twitter put its full weight behind a political campaign for so-called Net Neutrality laws,” Carr wrote on Wednesday. “When a group sought to promote a contrary view, Twitter shut the ad down – labeling it impermissible political advocacy.”
Carr then cited Twitter’s December 2017 statement on net neutrality, in which they claim they are “impartial” and will treat all users “equally.”
“The truth is we are impartial and believe strongly in impartiality. The Twitter platform doesn’t take sides. Diverse perspectives are present every day and treated equally so users can see every side. And the Twitter Rules apply to everyone equally,” Twitter claimed.
“When it engaged in its own political advocacy, Twitter made a public representation of neutrality – asserting that it doesn’t take sides and treats diverse perspectives equally,” Carr said.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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