‘Free Press,’ who claims to be a non-partisan organization “fighting for your rights to connect and communicate,” has issued a statement opposing free speech and calling for Big Tech to censor voices that they find unsavory.
The statement, filled with doublespeak, came after the organization faced massive backlash over calling for Alex Jones to be banned from Facebook on Wednesday.
An effective illustration of press freedom in 2019 https://t.co/CrLn7kwWga
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 16, 2019
In a post titled “Free Press vs. Hate,” the organization claimed that the backlash came from “detractors and racist trolls.” However, many of the people who pointed out the hypocrisy were leftists.
Free Press?
Alex jones is a crank, but there's definitely something extremely Orwellian about "a nonpartisan organization fighting for your rights to connect and communicate" demanding an extremely powerful global corporation ban someone from connecting and communicating.
— #StopNuclearBrinkmanship (@OrganicCucumber) January 17, 2019
2019, Bring on the doublespeak
The "@freepress" actively fighting against a free and open internet by demanding multinational billion dollar corporations ban opinions they don't like pic.twitter.com/MIC9Qy1o9w
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) January 16, 2019
The bizarre and jumbled statement from the organization argued that because black people have been historically silenced, it is totally fine to censor those that they decide are racist. They claimed that silencing of black voices continues presently, pointing to “comedian Leslie Jones” having to “contend with hostility on online platforms or are attacked in real life simply due to their race, gender, religion or sexual identity.”
The comedian was not silenced by the trolling.
It seems their solution for some people being allegedly “silenced” online is to actually silence others.
Addressing their call for Alex Jones to be further deplatformed, they claimed that it is “the right thing to do.”
“Jones has repeatedly violated the terms of service of these platforms with his threats and racist vitriol. While he’s free to set up his own website or stand on a street corner, he has no special right to algorithmic amplification. And companies like Facebook have a responsibility to protect their users,” the statement continued. “Kicking him off the platform was — and still is — the right thing to do.”
Free Press has also now partnered with an anti-free speech organization called “Change the Terms” which advocates for stricter terms of service and more censorship on social media platforms.
“Companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter have a moral duty to address this and the harm it causes their users. That’s why we’re calling on Facebook to ban Alex Jones — and we’re calling on all of Big Tech to #ChangeTheTerms by adopting model corporate policies to disrupt hateful activities on their platforms,” the organization ironically called “Free Press” continued.
The ridiculous statement was immediately called out by left-leaning independent journalist Tim Pool, who tweeted, “The @FreePress just issued a statement opposing Free Speech as a principle (not a legal right) and calling for certain opinions that are legal to be banned from online platforms.”
“They are advocating for billionaire corporations to control opinion,” Pool continued.
If the @FreePress has its way, there will be no more activism, there will never be another Occupy Wall Street.
"FreePress" has become elitist, authoritarian, and pro corporate control of speech
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) January 18, 2019
Make No Mistake, THIS Is What @freepress is calling for.
They will use Alex Jones as the boogeyman but he is just one person with one organization.
We know who they will target once this precedent is set and they have already startedhttps://t.co/zVgJJHOzOg
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) January 18, 2019
Pool correctly pointed out that people like Jones won’t always be the target of the censorship that they are advocating for — and that left-wing activists will also be harmed in the long run.
Occupy used social media and alternative media to spread a message.
Powerful interests wanted complete control of this message but they had no grounds.
Thanks to corporate special interest NPO's like @Freepress they now have their wish being granted
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) January 18, 2019
The award-winning journalist concluded that the organization has been completely corrupted.
The FreePress has betrayed you.
It was only a matter of time before powerful special interest knew they had to stick their tendrils into NPO's fighting for free speech and a free press.
They have been completely corrupted
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) January 18, 2019
In 2012, the organization’s mission statement said that their purpose was “building a powerful nationwide movement to change media and technology policies, promote the public interest and strengthen democracy. Free Press advocates for universal and affordable Internet access, diverse media ownership, vibrant public media and quality journalism.”
The organization boasted, at the time, that they fight “on behalf of millions of people everyday to protect our Internet freedoms.”
The mission statement has now been changed to heavily focus on “racial justice” and “challenging powerful corporations” — but apparently not the Big Tech overlords that they want to give the power to censor people at whim.
“We seek to change the media to transform democracy to realize a just society,” the Free Press mission statement now says.
Their motive of changing the media to do their bidding doesn’t sound like a “free press” to me.
