The Patriot Post® · Trump Defends Free Speech
President Trump signed an executive order yesterday going after big tech giants for their censorship of social media, a vital source of news and information in this modern age.
Conservatives have documented voluminous examples of big tech’s left-wing bias for years. Prager University has had many of its videos censored by YouTube, even videos about the Ten Commandments!
We have tried negotiating directly with the companies involved. I am part of an informal group known as the Free Speech Alliance, led by my good friend Brent Bozell, who has fought media bias for decades.
I applaud the president’s action because something must be done to stop the left from controlling the debate on social media. And let me give you another example of just how blatant the bias is.
Yoel Roth is the Head of Site Integrity at Twitter. That title may sound technical in nature and innocent enough. But it would be more accurate to label him Twitter’s “CCO” or “Chief Censorship Officer.” Roth created the platform’s “fact-checking” policies, and he is anything but neutral.
He has accused the voters of “fly over states” of being racists. He compared Kellyanne Conway to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, and made disgusting comments about other Republican leaders. He has tweeted that there are “ACTUAL NAZIS IN THE WHITE HOUSE."
This is the person at Twitter responsible for "fact-checking” the president.
Meanwhile, there’s virtually no fact-checking of the left or even communist China. For months now, operatives of the communist Chinese regime have been tweeting that COVID-19 originated in a U.S. military lab.
Nobody believes that. It is pure communist propaganda. But Twitter never fact checked any of the outrageous statements coming from Beijing.
Columbia University recently released a study suggesting that tens of thousands of lives could have been saved if state governments had acted a week earlier to impose social distancing and other measures. That’s fake research masquerading as science.
Will Twitter fact-check that study? I won’t hold my breath.
Remember when we were told that two million people were going to die? Here’s one way to lower death totals: Don’t put COVID patients in nursing homes!
Pro-Life Event Hacked
Last week, Students for Life attempted to hold a virtual graduation for pro-life students over Zoom. Conservative commentator Liz Wheeler delivered the commencement address. Her remarks about the sanctity of life would have been impossible to deliver on many university campuses.
But within minutes of Wheeler beginning her remarks, hackers “Zoom bombed” the event and posted Nazi imagery and graphic pornography. Thankfully, Students for Life was able to regain control of the broadcast and continue the virtual graduation.
Sadly, this is just one more example of the radical left attempting to shut down debate and impose its values on the rest of society. Wheeler wasn’t speaking at a public university or even in a public forum. This was a private event, hosted by a private organization. Yet intolerant progressives still attempted to hijack the event in order to shut it down.
The progressive movement has no interest in tolerance or free speech. It wants to be the only group that is allowed to speak.
Confronting Communist China
Here’s one thing there is no argument about: Once the coronavirus gripped the world, communist China used it to move aggressively on every front. It moved against Hong Kong. It is moving against India. It is moving against Taiwan. It is moving against Australia.
The progressive left sees every crisis as an opportunity. It is using the coronavirus crisis to massively expand government and shut down our churches.
Well, the Chinese communists clearly believe in the same philosophy. They are using the crisis they caused to advance on all the fronts they care about. And the Trump administration is pushing back.
Congress has passed legislation imposing sanctions on communist Chinese officials for their gross human-rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims.
Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo informed Congress that Hong Kong no longer “maintains a high degree of autonomy from China.” Therefore, Hong Kong “does not continue to warrant [special] treatment under United States laws.”
The White House is preparing to instruct the State Department to revoke the visas of 3,000 Chinese students and researchers at American universities. There are at least 360,000 Chinese students in the U.S., but thousands of them have connections to the People’s Liberation Army.
Speaking of Chinese Influence…
We’ve been reporting for some time now about the efforts of the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate America through our universities. It is using a variety of tactics from the Confucius Institutes, which operate as propaganda centers, to the Thousand Talents program, which essentially bribes American researchers to act as spies.
Now the Justice Department is being asked to investigate the University of Pennsylvania because it has received tens of millions of dollars from Chinese sources in recent years.
Why is communist China suddenly feeling so generous toward the University of Pennsylvania? Well, in 2017, the prestigious school opened the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Public Engagement, and that’s when the Chinese cash really started flowing.
Since the Biden Center opened three years ago, the university has received more than $60 million from China. More than $20 million of these Chinese gifts are labeled “anonymous” in financial reports. But federal regulations require all donors making gifts of $250,000 or more to be publicly disclosed.
This is how the Chinese communists operate. They buy influence and use it to steal knowledge.
By the way, Joe Biden has been paid nearly $1,000,000 by the university since he became a visiting professor in 2017.
No one seriously believes that “Beijing Biden” is going to confront China’s communist bosses.
Chag Sameach
This weekend, Jews will celebrate Shavuot, which commemorates the day God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. To our Jewish friends and allies, we wish you a joyous Shavuot!