Rebel News Podcast - May 30, 2020


Antifa burns down Minneapolis with help from the mayor. But Twitter thinks Trump is the problem


Episode Stats

Length

38 minutes

Words per Minute

170.54454

Word Count

6,504

Sentence Count

455

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

On today's show, Ezra takes you through Donald Trump's new executive order for fighting Silicon Valley censorship and other Silicon Valley bias, and takes a look at the videos from last night's riots in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In both cases, he's joined by Sheila Gunn-Reed's show and David Menzies' show.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, Rebels. Today, I take you through Donald Trump's new executive order for fighting Twitter censorship and other Silicon Valley bias.
00:00:10.040 I also take you through some videos from last night's riots in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
00:00:17.640 In both cases, I think it helps to have the video version of this podcast.
00:00:21.920 And I know I say that a lot, but it's true. We're primarily a video medium.
00:00:25.720 And to get the video version, you have to become a member of what we call Rebel News Plus.
00:00:29.260 It's eight bucks a month or 80 bucks for the whole year in advance.
00:00:32.940 And you can just get it at rebelnews.com.
00:00:35.460 And it supports us and you get video version of the show plus Sheila Gunn-Reed's show and David Menzies' show.
00:00:42.600 Okay, here's today's show.
00:00:59.260 Tonight, Antifa burns down Minneapolis with the assistance of its mayor.
00:01:04.140 But Twitter thinks Donald Trump is the problem.
00:01:06.780 It's May 29th and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
00:01:09.160 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:15.020 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
00:01:19.080 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
00:01:24.960 Rioters burned down Minneapolis last night.
00:01:33.440 It's nominally in response to an act of police brutality against this man, George Floyd.
00:01:39.800 He was killed.
00:01:40.760 Cops crushed him.
00:01:42.240 Apparently, it was in response to an alleged forgery incident, which is a non-violent crime.
00:01:47.660 The four cops involved in that were fired and I think they'll probably be charged.
00:01:54.160 The one in particular, the strange details, that cop that put his knee on his head worked security at the same nightclub as Floyd, the victim, himself did.
00:02:08.220 It's very strange.
00:02:09.740 But the details, I think, are secondary.
00:02:12.680 The video of the brutality is all that mattered and the city was torched and looted.
00:02:17.660 I have become more conservative in my middle age on most things, immigration, pro-life, nationalism.
00:02:24.720 But I have become more liberal on two things, trade deals and police brutality.
00:02:31.760 Just this week, our own Kian Bexty was strong-armed out of a Trudeau press conference for no reason at all,
00:02:37.440 other than Justin Trudeau's personal staff hate him.
00:02:40.500 Obviously, there's no comparison between that and what happened to George Floyd,
00:02:43.760 other than both were physical acts of violence committed by police in excess of their lawful powers.
00:02:50.500 Again, no comparison in degree.
00:02:53.340 But I'm getting a little sick of it.
00:02:55.820 Our David Menzies was literally thrown to the ground by police, acting at the behest of that coward Ron McClain last year.
00:03:02.220 In both cases, we're suing.
00:03:03.760 We're suing the York Regional Police, who assaulted David,
00:03:07.560 and we're suing the Privy Council Office for blocking Kian's access to the press conferences.
00:03:12.100 But, look, those are the remedies of a corporation with some legal know-how
00:03:16.560 and supporters who are generous enough to crowdfund our expenses.
00:03:20.140 And we've got some patience.
00:03:22.340 But what if you're a poor black man in Minneapolis?
00:03:24.540 This is awful to watch.
00:03:27.480 And if you're black, you surely identify with him.
00:03:29.680 And it confirms your worst fears about the police.
00:03:32.280 But there are plenty of people who would take that apparent injustice and exploit it for political purposes.
00:03:38.400 I say that everyone in America condemned this, from the top to the bottom, and of all parties.
00:03:43.340 But it's an opportunity.
00:03:45.320 Take this guy, Keith Ellison.
00:03:47.380 He's the Attorney General of Minnesota.
00:03:49.700 And that's him posing with the Antifa handbook.
00:03:54.920 They're a violent leftist street gang.
00:03:56.860 Here's the Attorney General.
00:03:58.760 Do you see the problem here with him endorsing the terrorist group that torched the city?
00:04:03.800 Well, probably you don't if you're a Democrat.
00:04:05.980 I mean, if that were a white Republican who was praising a white racist militia
00:04:11.780 and who had a track record of being abusive to women, as Ellison does,
00:04:16.960 well, that white Republican would be out in a heartbeat.
00:04:19.300 But Ellison is a black Democrat, and he was the first Muslim congressman in America.
00:04:25.080 It would be racist to criticize him, you see.
00:04:27.540 Minneapolis isn't what it once was.
00:04:29.380 It's now the city of Ilhan Omar, the largest Somali population in America.
00:04:34.620 How's that going?
00:04:35.780 Do you feel more comfortable living under American law,
00:04:39.220 or do you feel more comfortable living under Sharia law?
00:04:44.820 Sharia law.
00:04:46.160 I'm a Muslim.
00:04:47.060 I prefer Sharia law.
00:04:48.160 Sharia law, yes.
00:04:50.360 You prefer Sharia law over American law?
00:04:54.140 Of course, yeah.
00:04:55.300 Of course, yeah.
00:04:57.260 And do you find most of your friends feel the same way?
00:05:01.180 Yeah, of course, if you're Muslim, yeah.
00:05:02.480 Oh, that's how it's going.
00:05:04.640 But it was politicians and activists and Antifa, and I think a city that's being cooped up for two months,
00:05:11.700 going stir-crazy from the pandemic.
00:05:13.940 And of course, the media lighting the fuse, and the place just blew up.
00:05:18.100 Here are people looting stores, stealing televisions, stealing clothes, just smashing things.
00:05:25.820 Not sure what the connection is between looting and George Floyd.
00:05:30.660 That's just stealing.
00:05:32.100 That's just opportunistic theft.
00:05:34.340 Is that fighting against the system and the man?
00:05:37.360 Yeah, not when you're burning down small mom-and-pop stores owned by black businessmen.
00:05:43.860 No.
00:05:44.700 Take a look at this clip from MSNBC.
00:05:46.880 I want to be clear in how I characterize this.
00:05:50.160 This is mostly a protest.
00:05:52.760 It is not, generally speaking, unruly.
00:05:56.920 But fires have been started, and there's a crowd that is...
00:05:59.760 Yeah, got it.
00:06:01.460 He's standing in the middle of a riot zone.
00:06:03.940 It looks like Mogadishu, frankly.
00:06:05.780 Total war zone.
00:06:06.540 Fires burning all around him.
00:06:08.300 No law, no order in sight.
00:06:09.940 And he says, oh, it's just a protest.
00:06:12.160 It's a peaceful protest.
00:06:13.340 He reminds me of Baghdad, Bob.
00:06:14.800 Well, Saddam Hussein's spin doctor in the Gulf War.
00:06:18.720 I liked this video that I found online.
00:06:22.180 Lawful black gun owners standing guard outside their own businesses.
00:06:25.900 They weren't going to let their life's work be torched by Antifa or Black Lives Matter or
00:06:30.740 looters or anyone.
00:06:32.120 And they sure weren't going to rely on politicians like Ilhan Omar or Minneapolis's cartoon of a
00:06:38.280 liberal mayor.
00:06:38.860 His name is Jacob Fry.
00:06:40.320 When rioters started to attack a police station, seriously, a police station, Fry ordered the
00:06:48.600 police to surrender.
00:06:49.960 He ordered them to run away.
00:06:51.700 Or as he put it, I love this, he said, to evacuate.
00:06:54.920 The danger was, the danger became necessary, and I made the decision to evacuate the third
00:07:06.800 precinct.
00:07:07.660 What?
00:07:08.300 Yeah.
00:07:08.900 Believe it or not, in the last mayor's election in Minneapolis, he was not the most anti-police
00:07:13.620 candidate.
00:07:14.080 He actually beat the guy who actually wanted to disarm police.
00:07:17.700 So, the city burns, riots, mobs, looting, but no policing.
00:07:22.880 The mayor says policing is racist or something.
00:07:26.100 This feels like Obama's America, not like Trump's America.
00:07:29.640 And it is actually.
00:07:30.720 Minnesota used to be Republican, obviously, if you can believe it, but the generation of
00:07:34.560 mass immigration, especially from Somalia, has changed that.
00:07:38.440 Don't think Trudeau hasn't noticed.
00:07:40.620 Here is Trudeau's Somali cabinet minister, Ahmed Hassan, with Somalia's Ilhan Omar.
00:07:45.860 Hey, didn't that mayor sort of remind you of Trudeau, too?
00:07:49.580 Anyways, Trump was watching all this, of course, and he didn't like what he saw, so he tweeted
00:07:53.840 this at 1 a.m. last night.
00:07:55.680 He said, I can't stand back and watch this happen to a great American city, Minneapolis.
00:08:00.140 A total lack of leadership.
00:08:01.680 Either the very weak, radical left mayor, Jacob Fry, get his act together and bring the
00:08:06.260 city under control, or I will send in the National Guard and get the job done right.
00:08:10.220 Those thugs are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen.
00:08:16.720 Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him the military is with him all the way.
00:08:20.340 Any difficulty, and we will assume control, but when the looting starts, the shooting starts.
00:08:24.640 Thank you.
00:08:26.320 I think he's right about the total lack of leadership.
00:08:28.580 Telling police to run away and let black neighborhoods burn isn't leadership.
00:08:35.120 The city is indeed out of control.
00:08:37.260 Here's how Jacob Fry answered that.
00:08:38.800 Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your own actions.
00:08:43.920 Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis.
00:08:50.040 Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis.
00:08:54.140 We are strong as hell.
00:08:56.420 Is this a difficult time period?
00:08:58.180 Yes, but you better be damn sure that we're going to get through this.
00:09:01.940 He even looks the part, doesn't he?
00:09:03.800 He's the perfect anti-Trump.
00:09:05.880 But look again at that second tweet by Trump.
00:09:08.020 If you click on it, on your computer, you can't actually read it.
00:09:11.560 You get this warning.
00:09:13.000 This tweet violated the Twitter rules about glorifying violence.
00:09:17.020 However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the tweet to remain accessible, learn more.
00:09:22.920 And if you click through that warning, you can see it.
00:09:25.280 But you can't retweet it.
00:09:26.620 You can't like it.
00:09:27.520 You can't share it normally.
00:09:28.680 Unfortunately, all the normal social media tools are removed.
00:09:31.480 And of course, there's the denunciation of it all.
00:09:35.020 Just like Twitter did earlier this week to Trump when he warned about voter fraud in mail-in ballots.
00:09:39.560 Twitter is going to war against Donald Trump.
00:09:43.000 But look at that.
00:09:43.800 They claim Trump was glorifying violence.
00:09:46.180 They didn't say that about the rioters, though, who were doing violence and glorifying it.
00:09:52.780 They didn't say that about Minnesota's Attorney General, Keith Ellison,
00:09:56.340 the abusive boyfriend who poses with an Antifa terrorist manual.
00:10:00.480 There are literally thousands of tweets glorifying the riots, calling for the riots, whipping up the riots, calling for murder right now.
00:10:05.840 I don't know if a single one of them has been censored other than that of the President of the United States,
00:10:11.260 whose constitutional duties, if you care about such things, include an oath of office to, quote,
00:10:16.160 support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
00:10:22.760 It is absolutely Trump's job to stand up to violent political riots, which are a species of terrorism, especially if the mayor won't.
00:10:29.260 Trump said he's ready to send in the National Guard.
00:10:31.040 He appropriately consulted with the governor, a Democrat, I might add.
00:10:34.180 Perhaps his flourish, that rhyme, looting and shooting, is not quite as somber as the censors at Twitter might like,
00:10:40.740 because, as you know, Twitter is nothing if not dignified.
00:10:44.040 But there's nothing wrong with the tweet.
00:10:46.000 But Twitter has declared war on Trump.
00:10:47.740 They made it clear they're going to not only limit him and what he says,
00:10:51.940 but they're also going to shame him and rebut him and attack him in the guise of being neutral.
00:10:56.460 Well, Trump has had enough.
00:10:58.660 Yesterday afternoon, he rolled out his executive order on preventing censorship.
00:11:02.160 I'll read some of it to you.
00:11:03.600 Free speech is the bedrock of American democracy.
00:11:06.920 Our founding fathers protected this right with the First Amendment to the Constitution.
00:11:11.020 The freedom to express and debate ideas is the foundation for all of our rights as a free people.
00:11:16.700 That's a good way to start.
00:11:18.360 Those are words Trudeau probably would never say, but Trudeau does say some free speech cliches.
00:11:23.560 Sometimes he just doesn't mean them.
00:11:25.200 Here is Trump, and I think he means them.
00:11:26.780 In a country that has long cherished the freedom of expression,
00:11:29.600 we cannot allow a limited number of online platforms to handpick the speech that Americans may access and convey on the Internet.
00:11:36.340 This practice is fundamentally un-American and anti-democratic.
00:11:39.880 When large, powerful social media companies censor opinions with which they disagree,
00:11:43.960 they exercise a dangerous power.
00:11:45.980 They cease functioning as passive bulletin boards and ought to be viewed and treated as content creators.
00:11:51.040 That's exactly right.
00:11:53.120 And the reason that's important is because if you're just a bulletin board where anyone can tack up a poster,
00:11:58.660 you're not a publisher.
00:11:59.500 You can't be held liable for the words that other people put on you.
00:12:03.060 But if you actively police and censor and choose what goes on your bulletin board,
00:12:07.680 well, that's what Twitter is doing.
00:12:09.320 Well, here's what.
00:12:10.080 Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube wield immense, if not unprecedented, power
00:12:15.160 to shape the interpretation of public events,
00:12:17.940 to censor, delete, or disappear information,
00:12:21.100 and to control what people see or do not see.
00:12:24.300 As president, I have made clear my commitment to free and open debate on the Internet.
00:12:28.740 Such debate is just as important online as it is in our universities,
00:12:32.200 our town halls, and our homes.
00:12:34.200 It is essential to sustaining our democracy.
00:12:37.700 That's true.
00:12:38.460 It's the town square now.
00:12:39.660 If you're not allowed online, it would be like a generation ago,
00:12:42.580 you're not being allowed to go to a physical meeting hall, a town hall.
00:12:46.240 It's just not allowed.
00:12:48.060 The Internet is where we live so much, as the pandemic has shown us in a weird way.
00:12:54.540 Online platforms are engaging in selective censorship that is harming our national discourse.
00:12:59.400 Tens of thousands of Americans have reported, among other troubling behaviors,
00:13:03.100 online platforms flagging content as inappropriate,
00:13:06.000 even though it does not violate any stated terms of service,
00:13:08.760 making unannounced and unexplained changes to company policies that have the effect of disfavoring certain viewpoints,
00:13:14.960 and deleting content in entire accounts with no warning, no rationale, and no recourse.
00:13:19.280 Exactly. When Trudeau censors me, I hate it.
00:13:23.480 But there are some rules, and I have some recourse.
00:13:26.380 It's expensive, it's slow, it's an uphill battle, but there is a process.
00:13:30.220 What do I do if I'm suddenly deleted on YouTube or Twitter?
00:13:33.140 There's no Twitter court.
00:13:34.480 I don't even know who would have done it to me, or why, or who complained, or what I did wrong.
00:13:38.300 Now, there's a lot of interesting commentary in the executive order,
00:13:41.700 but I'm going to skip over it in the interest of time.
00:13:44.040 But here's the key part.
00:13:45.420 And you've heard me talk about this before, about a year ago,
00:13:48.360 Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
00:13:51.400 It's what makes social media companies unsuable.
00:13:55.500 Section 2, protections against online censorship.
00:13:58.160 It is the policy of the United States to foster clear ground rules
00:14:01.660 promoting free and open debate on the Internet.
00:14:04.420 Prominent among the ground rules governing that debate is the immunity from liability
00:14:08.320 created by Section 230C of the Communications Decency Act.
00:14:13.220 It is the policy of the United States that the scope of that immunity should be clarified.
00:14:17.360 The immunity should not extend beyond its text and purpose
00:14:20.400 to provide protection for those who purport to provide users a forum for free and open speech,
00:14:25.100 but in reality use the power over a vital means of communication
00:14:28.560 to engage in deceptive or pretextual actions,
00:14:32.500 stifling free and open debate by censoring certain viewpoints.
00:14:36.380 So just to be clear, when an Internet company allows something to be published,
00:14:40.100 you can't sue them.
00:14:42.260 It's like a phone booth.
00:14:44.120 The phone company doesn't regulate what people say
00:14:46.220 when they talk on the phone in the phone booth,
00:14:48.180 so you can't sue the phone booth or the phone company for what people say through it, right?
00:14:52.560 Same with the Internet.
00:14:53.320 Unless the phone company would actually, I don't know,
00:14:56.160 have someone listening in on your calls telling you what you could or couldn't say
00:14:59.200 or telling you to say something else,
00:15:00.600 then it would be an active publisher, a participant, a censor, an editor.
00:15:04.620 Section 230 provides the Internet version of that phone booth.
00:15:07.760 It protects them.
00:15:08.900 It also legally protects the Internet
00:15:10.440 if they positively do censor things that are awful,
00:15:13.720 like illegal child pornography, just as an example,
00:15:16.860 if it's done in good faith.
00:15:17.860 But it doesn't protect political meddling.
00:15:21.800 It is the policy of the United States to ensure that,
00:15:23.840 to the maximum extent permissible under the law,
00:15:26.680 this provision is not distorted to provide liability protection
00:15:29.880 for online platforms that, far from acting in good faith,
00:15:32.920 to remove objectionable content,
00:15:35.100 instead engage in deceptive or pretextual actions,
00:15:38.480 often contrary to their stated terms of service,
00:15:40.860 to stifle viewpoints with which they disagree.
00:15:43.320 Section 230 was not intended to allow a handful of companies
00:15:47.800 to grow into titans controlling vital avenues for our national discourse
00:15:51.600 under the guise of promoting open forums for debate
00:15:54.280 and then to provide those behemoths blanket immunity
00:15:57.780 when they use their power to censor content
00:15:59.680 and silence viewpoints that they dislike.
00:16:02.340 When an interactive computer service provider
00:16:05.240 removes or restricts access to content
00:16:07.680 and its actions do not meet the criteria of subparagraph C2A,
00:16:11.820 it is engaged in editorial conduct.
00:16:15.420 It is the policy of the United States that such a provider
00:16:17.440 should properly lose the limited liability shield
00:16:21.020 of subparagraph C2A
00:16:23.160 and be exposed to liability like any traditional editor
00:16:26.340 and publisher that is not an online provider.
00:16:29.580 Okay, that was a little long,
00:16:31.080 but what's happening now is under this order,
00:16:34.720 the Section 230 immunity,
00:16:36.380 that's basically a huge subsidy to the Internet,
00:16:38.520 since it absolutely removes from the Internet
00:16:41.040 countless lawsuits, including defamation lawsuits,
00:16:44.600 that bedevil other publishers.
00:16:46.600 So Section 230 will only apply to Internet companies going forward
00:16:50.180 if they act in good faith,
00:16:52.620 including that they not engage in the following things.
00:16:57.120 A, deceptive, pretextual, or inconsistent
00:16:59.420 with a provider's terms of service,
00:17:01.720 or B, taken after failing to provide adequate notice,
00:17:05.800 reasoned explanation, or a meaningful opportunity to be heard.
00:17:09.520 So, from now on,
00:17:12.600 Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google,
00:17:15.260 they can't trick you, they can't lie to you,
00:17:17.200 they can't have secret political filters,
00:17:19.820 they can still be immune
00:17:21.940 to litigation like a phone booth is,
00:17:24.120 but only if they are truly neutral and fair
00:17:27.080 like the phone booth is.
00:17:29.180 And I think the most interesting part
00:17:30.640 is a call for a review of Internet companies
00:17:32.720 in concert with the states
00:17:35.080 about the following.
00:17:36.380 Increased scrutiny of users
00:17:39.600 based on the other users they choose to follow
00:17:42.720 or their interactions with other users.
00:17:45.580 Algorithms to suppress content or users
00:17:47.780 based on indications of political alignment or viewpoint.
00:17:51.160 Differential policies allowing for otherwise impermissible behavior
00:17:54.240 when committed by accounts associated with the Chinese Communist Party
00:17:57.440 or other anti-democratic associations or governments.
00:18:00.440 Reliance on third-party entities including contractors,
00:18:04.480 media organizations, and individuals
00:18:06.080 with indicia of bias to review content.
00:18:09.240 And acts that limit the ability of users
00:18:11.380 with particular viewpoints to earn money on the platform
00:18:13.720 compared with other users similarly situated.
00:18:16.180 It's like he's talking directly to me.
00:18:20.740 That's exactly what happens to us.
00:18:22.360 The demonetization, the shadow banning,
00:18:24.680 the de-boosting, as YouTube calls it,
00:18:27.140 when they smother your content and downrank it.
00:18:29.780 All of that happens to us.
00:18:31.820 We talked about two things today.
00:18:33.980 The riots and looting in Minneapolis
00:18:35.660 and then the president's executive order,
00:18:38.160 including the review of social media.
00:18:39.620 In a way, the two things couldn't be more opposite,
00:18:41.840 more different, less related,
00:18:42.960 but they are related
00:18:43.920 because social media is how we learn about the world now.
00:18:46.900 It's how we talk amongst each other.
00:18:48.240 It's how our leaders communicate to us and vice versa.
00:18:51.740 It's how criminals foment riots.
00:18:54.000 It's how politicians react or not.
00:18:56.640 Twitter has decided that this riot is the moment
00:18:58.880 they're going to de-platform the president of the United States,
00:19:02.520 but let the fires of the riot keep burning.
00:19:05.800 Trump has decided this is the moment he's going to push back.
00:19:09.140 I expect more riots before the 2020 election.
00:19:11.740 It's the George Soros way.
00:19:13.300 He's a major funder of Black Lives Matter and Antifa.
00:19:16.080 He likes this chaos.
00:19:17.320 He thinks it hits Trump.
00:19:18.840 It makes Trump look chaotic and out of control,
00:19:21.400 and it takes away hopes for an economic success
00:19:24.080 that Trump was counting on.
00:19:26.260 And I expect that Twitter and the rest of Silicon Rally knows
00:19:28.780 that if they don't knock Trump out now,
00:19:32.940 his second term will be something they and all other liberals hate.
00:19:36.540 We're in the big battle now, folks.
00:19:38.620 I wonder how it's going to end.
00:19:39.940 Stay with us for more on this.
00:19:42.140 The choices that Twitter makes when it chooses to suppress,
00:19:57.300 edit, blacklist, shadow, ban,
00:20:00.600 are editorial decisions, pure and simple.
00:20:03.120 They're editorial decisions.
00:20:05.060 In those moments, Twitter ceases to be a neutral public platform,
00:20:08.720 and they become an editor with a viewpoint.
00:20:11.780 And I think we can say that about others also,
00:20:13.940 whether you're looking at Google,
00:20:15.200 whether you're looking at Facebook,
00:20:16.540 and perhaps others.
00:20:18.660 Well, there you have it, Donald Trump reiterating the difference
00:20:23.140 between being a neutral platform, like a bulletin board,
00:20:26.520 or my favorite example, like a phone booth,
00:20:29.240 versus being a publisher with editorial opinions,
00:20:31.860 who is legally responsible for their conduct.
00:20:35.140 Joining us now via Skype is our friend Alam Bokhari,
00:20:37.820 a senior tech correspondent for Breitbart.com.
00:20:40.260 Great to see you again, Alam.
00:20:41.880 Hey, Ezra.
00:20:42.320 Hi, you and I have been talking about this very subject for years, really,
00:20:47.640 Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
00:20:50.900 And when I first heard of this, I thought,
00:20:52.980 what's communications decency?
00:20:54.640 That sounds like a law about obscenity or pornography,
00:20:57.140 and indeed it is,
00:20:58.400 but it's the source of the immunity for tech companies.
00:21:02.800 If they just behave neutrally,
00:21:05.360 no one gets to sue them for publishing a bad thing
00:21:09.380 if they did it in good faith by accident, right?
00:21:12.320 So that was the source of their legal immunity
00:21:14.680 that's probably worth billions to them,
00:21:16.940 because they're just not sued like a newspaper is.
00:21:19.620 But if they're going to start acting like a newspaper,
00:21:21.320 they're going to be on the hook for it.
00:21:22.340 That's basically my takeaway.
00:21:23.660 Is that your takeaway from this executive order, too?
00:21:26.720 Absolutely.
00:21:27.260 The thing to understand is a social media platform
00:21:30.140 can't really function without this legal immunity,
00:21:32.520 because they'd have to assume legal responsibility
00:21:35.960 for what millions and billions of users post on their platform.
00:21:40.500 That's an impossible legal risk to take.
00:21:42.980 So it would destroy social media companies' very business model.
00:21:47.040 So you'll think they'd be especially keen to preserve it.
00:21:51.740 And yet, with all the censorship we've seen over the past four years,
00:21:56.280 they're now acting like publishers
00:21:57.420 who do have legal responsibility for what they publish.
00:22:00.240 So they're threatening their own legal immunities, really.
00:22:03.300 That's central to their business model.
00:22:05.060 And I think that's why this has been a huge focus for Republican lawmakers,
00:22:09.900 and indeed Democrat lawmakers as well,
00:22:11.760 because they know this is crucial to the way the Internet works right now.
00:22:15.960 The problem with it is that, in my view,
00:22:18.680 it's not the legal immunity for hosting content.
00:22:20.620 That's defensible.
00:22:23.120 But the law also contains legal immunity for taking down content,
00:22:26.700 something I don't think they need,
00:22:28.220 because they do that in a much more limited number of cases
00:22:31.340 than compared to what they host.
00:22:34.500 You know, what often gets lost in this debate
00:22:37.120 is the fact that I don't think social media platforms
00:22:40.960 or tech platforms need to censor anything
00:22:42.860 that's First Amendment protected, even obscenity.
00:22:45.580 So, you know, Google, when it still believed in free speech,
00:22:51.240 going way back to the very start of the company,
00:22:55.180 has had a safe search option that you can voluntarily turn on or off
00:22:59.540 if you want to filter out of the scene results.
00:23:01.900 So these platforms can very easily develop custom filters
00:23:06.420 for any kind of content you can imagine
00:23:08.260 and then leave it up to users what they want to filter in and filter out.
00:23:11.880 The reason why they haven't been doing that over the past four years
00:23:15.180 is because they want to control information.
00:23:17.520 They and other progressive elites realize
00:23:20.180 they're losing the public debate, they're losing elections,
00:23:23.960 and that unless they clamp down on free speech,
00:23:26.080 unless they get back control over the flow of information,
00:23:29.700 like, you know, the good old days of cable news
00:23:31.760 when, you know, MSNBC and CNN filtered everything
00:23:34.380 that, you know, Americans got to hear,
00:23:37.060 then they're going to continue to lose.
00:23:39.120 They can't win on the basis of facts.
00:23:40.600 They can't win a fair debate,
00:23:41.620 so they have to censor public debate instead.
00:23:44.180 You know, that's a great point,
00:23:46.620 because, of course, you still can find indecent or obscene things
00:23:50.960 on the Internet in a hurry.
00:23:53.800 And you're right, that safe search or parental lock,
00:23:57.840 or these things are available if people willingly take them
00:24:02.000 or want them, and a lot of people do.
00:24:03.360 I mean, there's a lot of parents want to put filters
00:24:07.360 on what their kids see,
00:24:08.380 but this is about Google executives putting filters
00:24:12.140 about what grown-ups can see
00:24:14.880 without the grown-ups choosing it.
00:24:16.700 I mean, the choice of YouTube,
00:24:19.620 or, sorry, in this case, Twitter,
00:24:21.380 putting huge warning alerts
00:24:23.740 on Donald Trump's political opinions
00:24:25.880 is so far removed from communications decency,
00:24:30.500 and it's so ham-fishing.
00:24:32.100 I've got to ask you this.
00:24:34.140 Alan, you and I were always saying,
00:24:35.860 when is the president going to do something?
00:24:38.400 And I thought he never would.
00:24:40.580 It's almost like Twitter wants to pick a fight,
00:24:44.440 and, boy, they've picked one now.
00:24:47.440 Is this part of a strategy by Twitter?
00:24:49.480 Because, I mean, they're doubling down.
00:24:51.280 They're having blinking lights and flashing buttons
00:24:54.420 and hiding things and rebuttals,
00:24:56.220 and they're even being snarky.
00:24:58.880 There's a little Twitter public policy team
00:25:01.480 that's being snarky to Trump.
00:25:04.960 What's their strategy?
00:25:06.240 I'm just shocked by how brazen Twitter is.
00:25:08.240 I think they think they're bigger
00:25:09.040 than the president of the United States.
00:25:10.400 I don't know.
00:25:10.700 Maybe they are.
00:25:11.140 What do you think?
00:25:12.720 It is brazen, and they're still doing it today.
00:25:15.260 They hit another one of Trump's tweets
00:25:17.180 about the riots in Minneapolis,
00:25:19.200 falsely claiming he was glorifying violence.
00:25:21.780 He was simply saying that, you know,
00:25:23.540 if the looting and riots continue,
00:25:25.140 the military force will be used,
00:25:26.460 probably a valid statement
00:25:27.560 for a head of government to say.
00:25:30.500 Meanwhile, they haven't taken down,
00:25:32.720 done anything similar to tweets
00:25:34.080 from Ayatollah Khomeini, for example,
00:25:36.600 encouraging, you know,
00:25:37.920 attacks of terrorism in Israel.
00:25:40.160 So there's no sense of fair standards here at all.
00:25:43.740 And, you know, going back
00:25:45.340 to what you were saying earlier,
00:25:46.800 these companies are harsher
00:25:48.240 on valid political speech
00:25:50.340 than they are on actual obscenity,
00:25:52.200 and that should tell you something.
00:25:53.180 I personally think that everything
00:25:54.960 should be optional.
00:25:55.900 If they insist on, you know,
00:25:58.320 having these stupid categories
00:25:59.800 like hate speech and fake news,
00:26:03.180 you'd think that at the very least
00:26:04.640 that allow users to choose
00:26:06.300 whether they want to filter that in
00:26:08.260 or filter that out or not,
00:26:09.280 and yet then they don't.
00:26:10.860 And the reason for that
00:26:11.520 is because they want control now.
00:26:13.340 These are not the free speech platform
00:26:15.600 that they were 10 or 15 years ago.
00:26:17.640 Yeah.
00:26:17.920 Oh, exactly.
00:26:18.480 They don't want to let you make that choice.
00:26:21.100 And by the way,
00:26:21.960 I wouldn't trust their filter.
00:26:23.960 What they consider hate speech,
00:26:25.260 I would probably consider breaking news
00:26:27.460 or an alternative point of view
00:26:29.120 or just, you know,
00:26:31.040 I mean, they deem hate speech,
00:26:32.720 speech, frankly, that they hate.
00:26:35.800 How is this going to happen?
00:26:37.000 Because I've seen a few other tech people
00:26:38.900 like Tyler Winklevoss,
00:26:40.840 who was one of the early executives
00:26:43.100 of Facebook that got bought out.
00:26:44.800 He sort of has an independent spirit
00:26:47.320 and he seems to be mocking Twitter a little bit.
00:26:50.580 How are the rest of the social media companies,
00:26:53.080 like Twitter picked this fight
00:26:54.380 and Trump's responding to it,
00:26:56.380 but his response will really hit
00:26:58.480 every social media company.
00:27:00.520 I see the Winklevosses seem to be siding with Trump,
00:27:03.340 if I'm not mistaken.
00:27:04.800 Are there other tech spokesmen, for example,
00:27:08.480 I don't know, Peter Thiel,
00:27:09.520 who's been an ally of Trump.
00:27:12.180 Is there anyone out there,
00:27:13.180 and Zuckerberg's been trying to have
00:27:14.620 a modus vivendi with Trump.
00:27:17.560 Are there other tech leaders
00:27:18.600 who are weighing in on this yet?
00:27:20.640 Well, you know,
00:27:21.220 I think behind the scenes in Silicon Valley,
00:27:22.920 especially some of the venture capitalists,
00:27:25.420 they're not happy with the way
00:27:27.080 Silicon Valley has conducted it.
00:27:28.680 These big tech companies
00:27:29.720 have conducted themselves
00:27:30.820 over the past few years.
00:27:33.180 There are all sorts of people in Silicon Valley
00:27:36.180 who are, you know,
00:27:37.280 uneasy with the political bias.
00:27:39.400 We saw what happened to Palmer Luckey,
00:27:40.700 you know,
00:27:42.120 this genius who invented the Oculus Rift,
00:27:44.380 revolutionized, you know, VR gaming.
00:27:46.700 Then he sold it to Facebook.
00:27:48.080 He joined Facebook,
00:27:49.020 and then Facebook essentially forces him
00:27:51.020 out of the company
00:27:51.620 for supporting Trump.
00:27:53.500 They even tried to force him
00:27:54.520 to endorse the libertarian candidate
00:27:56.820 just to satisfy their own far-left employees.
00:28:00.000 It was an insane story.
00:28:01.600 So there are many people in Silicon Valley
00:28:03.240 who are definitely uncomfortable
00:28:04.380 with the political climate there.
00:28:06.380 Going back to other tech companies,
00:28:10.740 you almost feel sorry for Twitter
00:28:12.340 because they just seem totally in over their head.
00:28:16.680 You know, Facebook conducts themselves
00:28:18.000 in a very Machiavellian way.
00:28:20.340 They outsource all their politically biased decisions
00:28:22.420 to these third-party liberal fact-checkers.
00:28:24.960 They're now outsourcing censorship
00:28:26.260 to this Facebook Supreme Court.
00:28:28.060 It's all to create a chain of plausible deniability
00:28:30.520 so they can wash their hands.
00:28:32.400 Obviously, they're not going to succeed.
00:28:33.560 They're still ultimately responsible,
00:28:35.860 but they're going about it in a much more clever,
00:28:37.660 much more sly way,
00:28:39.980 whereas Twitter just seem to be flailing around,
00:28:42.400 censoring the president's tweets,
00:28:44.120 taking the decisions themselves,
00:28:45.760 not giving themselves plausible deniability.
00:28:47.400 They've sort of deliberately put themselves
00:28:49.520 in the crosshairs,
00:28:51.080 and that shows Twitter is a much smaller company
00:28:53.920 than the other tech giants.
00:28:55.340 They have much fewer resources.
00:28:58.220 But again, I think the biggest threat
00:29:00.040 among the tech giants,
00:29:01.080 especially when it comes to political election interference,
00:29:04.380 and I might do a column on this shortly,
00:29:06.020 is Google.
00:29:07.160 Google has the two biggest search engines in the world,
00:29:10.880 Google and YouTube.
00:29:11.840 YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world.
00:29:14.100 They have more control over the flow of information,
00:29:17.020 including political information,
00:29:18.460 than any other company.
00:29:20.680 And we've already seen,
00:29:21.840 we've seen leaked footage
00:29:22.700 that I published on Breitbart two years ago.
00:29:24.920 They're executives saying that
00:29:26.620 they want to make the populist movement,
00:29:28.820 the Trump movement, a blip in history.
00:29:32.100 And it's crazy to think
00:29:34.600 they won't use that vast power
00:29:36.560 in the next election to sway the result.
00:29:39.600 And I think we'll be seeing a lot more about that
00:29:41.400 over the next few months.
00:29:43.520 Yeah, well, look, it's almost June.
00:29:45.660 So June, July, August, September, October, November,
00:29:48.760 it's six months, barely.
00:29:51.620 Well, it's called six months to the election,
00:29:53.260 less than that.
00:29:55.020 Yeah, for around 150 days.
00:29:56.360 Yeah, sorry, about five months.
00:29:59.380 And Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter,
00:30:04.000 not only do they have all the media themselves,
00:30:08.160 they are the media themselves,
00:30:09.640 they have an army of lobbyists.
00:30:11.700 They're the top lobbyist spenders in Washington.
00:30:14.780 They have some congressmen and senators on their side
00:30:17.960 because they know all these guys are liberal.
00:30:20.200 I'm wondering if it's too late,
00:30:23.200 if in the next five months,
00:30:25.840 Trump can make a dent in the problem
00:30:27.500 or if they're just going to brazen it out.
00:30:29.360 Because what can you really do in the next five months?
00:30:32.020 I think it's just...
00:30:33.100 Go ahead.
00:30:34.000 The problem is this executive order,
00:30:35.620 while it's a positive step,
00:30:36.920 it shows words are going to be backed up with action.
00:30:39.440 It can only be the beginning.
00:30:41.400 This is not going to fix censorship overnight.
00:30:43.360 You know, sources in D.C. tell me there was,
00:30:46.080 you know, pushback from the career bureaucrats
00:30:48.100 in the Commerce Department and other areas.
00:30:50.900 So it's going to be a struggle to get anything done.
00:30:53.960 And you've got to keep in mind,
00:30:54.760 Facebook has faced over $10 billion collectively
00:30:58.840 in fines from the FTC in the U.S.
00:31:01.280 and from European regulators of privacy violations.
00:31:04.820 And while they did alter their policies on privacy
00:31:07.620 because of all that scrutiny they received
00:31:09.140 because of the fines,
00:31:10.100 they're still going.
00:31:12.020 So that's kind of like the level of punishment
00:31:14.640 you have to deal out to these tech companies
00:31:17.380 to get them to change anything.
00:31:19.060 And I think this executive order,
00:31:20.360 while it's positive,
00:31:21.120 it's just the first step in doing that.
00:31:22.920 Yeah, that's your point.
00:31:23.260 So I don't think it's going to be fixed by the election.
00:31:25.280 And I think the challenge this election for Republicans
00:31:27.260 is how are you going to circumvent these tech giants?
00:31:30.000 How are you going to get the message out
00:31:31.280 in spite of their censorship?
00:31:32.960 Yeah, you're right.
00:31:33.560 I mean, $10 billion sounds like an awful lot,
00:31:35.840 but these companies are, you know,
00:31:37.540 in some cases coming up on a trillion dollar valuation.
00:31:41.320 That's, you know,
00:31:42.060 you give a $10 billion fine to Facebook,
00:31:44.980 they'll go up in the stock market
00:31:46.300 because people say, oh, that's it?
00:31:48.040 Oh, good.
00:31:48.460 Let's keep going.
00:31:49.380 I don't think they were really afraid of anything.
00:31:53.620 A last question.
00:31:54.840 Do you think Trump will find allies anywhere?
00:31:58.400 Do you think there will be some other power source
00:32:02.100 out there that wants to push back?
00:32:04.280 Or are there just too many dollars
00:32:05.780 being sloshed around?
00:32:07.360 And is it just too much inertia?
00:32:11.380 Is it just Trump versus the world again?
00:32:15.180 I think there's some signs of change
00:32:17.720 in conservative institutions.
00:32:19.680 The Claremont Institute, for example,
00:32:21.540 is one think tank that hasn't gone along
00:32:23.400 with this sort of pro-big tech line
00:32:25.840 that some of the D.C. think tanks have gone along with.
00:32:27.900 And I don't think the base will tolerate it for much longer.
00:32:34.420 This is crucial to them.
00:32:35.860 This is their accounts as well.
00:32:37.780 You know, whenever a big politician like Trump
00:32:39.920 or a big media commentator gets censored,
00:32:42.500 that's always headline news.
00:32:43.620 But there are also thousands and thousands
00:32:44.940 of ordinary Republicans,
00:32:46.300 ordinary members of the grassroots,
00:32:47.780 who have had their Twitter accounts
00:32:48.860 and their Facebook accounts taken away.
00:32:50.360 And that discontent is not going away.
00:32:54.340 And if Republicans think they can just,
00:32:56.580 you know, coast by and not do anything serious,
00:32:59.280 I don't think the base will let them.
00:33:02.260 And I think Republican politicians understand
00:33:03.700 if they let this continue,
00:33:05.180 they're not going to win elections ever again.
00:33:07.020 Yeah.
00:33:07.500 Okay, I got one last.
00:33:08.700 I said that was the last question.
00:33:09.740 I got another last, last question.
00:33:12.540 They're censoring Trump.
00:33:14.100 They're restricting Trump.
00:33:15.020 They're throttling Trump.
00:33:16.000 They're de-boosting Trump.
00:33:17.660 They're hiding Trump.
00:33:18.480 Things in the past, they only did the little guys
00:33:20.500 like you and me.
00:33:22.620 What's the likelihood that they will actually
00:33:24.840 suspend Donald Trump from Twitter?
00:33:28.240 I think that would probably be something
00:33:30.480 that even Twitter, with all its blue-haired
00:33:33.160 social justice warrior employees,
00:33:35.220 would not be stupid enough to do.
00:33:39.160 With these tweets, they're sort of going,
00:33:41.860 taking a step, they're not taking a step
00:33:45.400 beyond adding little notices,
00:33:46.940 hiding them behind warning messages.
00:33:50.180 They know if they actually took down
00:33:51.980 one of President Trump's tweets,
00:33:53.300 then it would be non-stop barrage
00:33:57.020 of potential regulations, investigations,
00:34:01.000 negative media coverage
00:34:02.500 that they wouldn't be able to escape from.
00:34:04.460 I think they know that's a step too far.
00:34:06.360 But, you know, anything's possible.
00:34:10.400 I'd be slightly surprised,
00:34:11.700 but not too surprised if they did that.
00:34:13.160 But, you know, many, many people
00:34:15.200 in Silicon Valley and in the Democrat
00:34:16.780 media complex want that to happen,
00:34:19.220 no doubt.
00:34:20.600 Well, we're in very interesting days.
00:34:22.280 I think Twitter picked a fight.
00:34:24.240 I wonder if Donald Trump can win it.
00:34:25.680 Alan Bocardt, it's great to see you again.
00:34:27.600 Keep up the great work at Breitbart.com.
00:34:29.240 We enjoyed reading you.
00:34:29.980 You've been on this story for years,
00:34:31.340 far ahead of everyone else.
00:34:33.520 Thanks, Ezra.
00:34:34.200 Good to be on.
00:34:34.900 Cheers.
00:34:35.420 You too.
00:34:35.800 All right.
00:34:36.460 Stay with us.
00:34:37.260 Your letters to me next.
00:34:38.700 Hey, welcome back.
00:34:52.140 I'm in monologue yesterday
00:34:53.140 about Twitter censoring President Trump.
00:34:55.400 Dan writes,
00:34:56.840 Twitter needs to go back
00:34:57.740 to being a platform and not a publisher.
00:35:00.440 Yeah, but they're having too much fun.
00:35:02.900 I think what happens is
00:35:04.340 if you become a billionaire,
00:35:06.120 there's a chance I might not find out
00:35:08.340 what that's like.
00:35:09.460 Once you have all the money in the world
00:35:10.780 and once you can buy all the things you want,
00:35:13.380 you know, there's only so many houses you can buy.
00:35:15.580 You can only live in one at a time.
00:35:17.160 There's only so many jets or yachts you can buy.
00:35:19.900 You can only be in one at a time.
00:35:21.860 Once you got all the stuff you want,
00:35:24.200 then you start to think,
00:35:25.240 well, how can I change the world?
00:35:26.600 What's my legacy?
00:35:28.560 And you get a bit of a messiah complex.
00:35:30.840 I think Bloomberg has that.
00:35:32.780 I think Mark Zuckerberg has that.
00:35:34.220 And for sure, Jack Dorsey of Twitter has it.
00:35:36.760 And they want to transform people.
00:35:39.380 They start to look at people
00:35:40.620 as little ants in an ant colony.
00:35:42.400 I'm certain that's how Bill Gates looks at people.
00:35:45.480 I think that they don't want to just be a platform.
00:35:48.100 They want to mold minds.
00:35:51.040 Leslie writes,
00:35:52.040 this reminds me of the 1900s,
00:35:53.460 communist rule.
00:35:54.580 The true news is whatever Stalinists say it is.
00:35:57.840 Stalinists, but of course,
00:35:58.840 Stalin, I think, knew that he was brutal.
00:36:01.480 These people probably wouldn't think of themselves that way.
00:36:05.080 They'd say, well, we're just your more enlightened superiors
00:36:09.080 and we've done the hard thinking for you
00:36:10.820 and we want to gently nudge you in this right direction.
00:36:14.640 I don't think they think of themselves as evil,
00:36:17.120 but the fact that they take away your autonomy
00:36:19.180 and personal sovereignty means that they are.
00:36:23.160 Jim writes,
00:36:24.420 don't be surprised that the coward in the cottage
00:36:26.360 will have Twitter censor the conservatives.
00:36:28.820 Yeah, well, he certainly,
00:36:31.060 I don't know if Twitter answers to Justin Trudeau.
00:36:33.620 Maybe, maybe not.
00:36:34.880 I think that they look at Canada
00:36:36.500 as a rounding error in both cases.
00:36:38.900 But we know that Trudeau himself tries to censor us,
00:36:41.520 as you probably saw in Trudeau ejecting
00:36:44.260 Kian Bexte from the press conference this week.
00:36:47.740 On my interview with Joel Pollack,
00:36:49.020 on his new book, Red November,
00:36:50.580 Paul writes,
00:36:51.780 I have to get Joel's book.
00:36:52.920 Interesting times coming up this year.
00:36:55.120 Yeah, you know what I like about Joel?
00:36:57.100 I mean, he's smart, obviously.
00:36:58.400 He's very well informed.
00:36:59.240 I think he actually ran for Congress a few years back.
00:37:01.480 But he's fair.
00:37:03.860 He's fair to the left.
00:37:05.940 He covers them without a sneer,
00:37:08.260 and he doesn't twist the knife.
00:37:10.260 And so I think he's got,
00:37:11.580 he's one of the most interesting reporters
00:37:13.900 on the state of the left.
00:37:15.220 I don't want to read leftists covering the left,
00:37:17.420 because it's just slobbering kisses.
00:37:19.900 I don't want to read leftists covering the right,
00:37:22.000 because it's just smearing.
00:37:23.300 But I would read Joel Pollack covering the left,
00:37:26.300 because he would treat them seriously
00:37:27.980 and report it like he saw it.
00:37:30.660 Well, that's our show for today.
00:37:32.480 Until next time,
00:37:33.400 on behalf of all of us here
00:37:34.500 at Rebel World Headquarters,
00:37:35.580 to you at home,
00:37:36.180 good night,
00:37:37.120 and keep fighting for freedom.
00:37:38.220 We'll see you next time.