The other night Fox’s Tucker Carlson had an opening segment that focused on Big Tech and censorship. Twitter had made the censorship news – again. This time because of a video tweeted by Donald Trump Jr. and Breitbart News.
The video featured a group of lab coat-clad doctors standing in front of the Supreme Court. The group, America’s Frontline Doctors, was discussing their professional view of the use of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19. Twitter took exception to the views of the doctors and temporarily suspended Don Trump for posting the video.
As Tucker said in his monologue:
“We happen to work for one of the very few mass media companies left in America that is not controlled by Google or Facebook. We can report the news honestly. Big Tech can’t censor us, at least not right now.
You’re not allowed to watch these physicians on YouTube tonight, but we can show them to you here, and we’re going to. Here’s Dr. Bob Hamilton.”
At this point, Tucker ran the first of three clips from the banished video. You can see Tucker’s monologue, complete with the clips from the banned video, right here and exactly as they were run by Fox News:
After this segment, Tucker had Don Trump Jr. on to discuss his Twitter suspension. You can find that segment right here:
There was also a clip from CNN. It is nothing short of amazing to see former colleagues at CNN standing up for censorship.
So let’s cut to the chase. Yes, in fact, there is a serious problem with Big Tech. The fact that these companies are run by leftists and manipulate what their users can and cannot see to advance the Democrats’ political agenda – whether now in an election year or any other time – is, again, a serious problem.
Question? Who at Twitter is qualified to decide a group of doctors with a medical opinion based on science should have their medical opinion silenced? Who at Twitter is medically qualified to intervene between a doctor and their patient? Over at American Greatness, Adam Mill had this sage observation.
“If what these doctors say is true, then it is conceivable that patients who could have been saved by the advice will die. If what these doctors say isn’t true, then the correct response is a rebuttal from properly-licensed physicians relying on the latest and best science (not censorship.) Indeed, Twitter expressly told Breitbart that the site’s entire account would be limited because the video, “may pose a risk to people’s health, including content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information.”
So not only is Twitter, which is not a medical provider, claiming that these actual doctors are wrong, Twitter is saying that patients following this advice could be at greater health risk. This is medical advice Twitter is offering to the general public. And if anyone dies as a result of this censorship, these social media giants will be responsible.
Social media should not be restricting legitimate medical policy debate on its platforms. It should not be permitting fearmongering while censoring advice from licensed doctors who actually have some demonstrated experience and claim success in fighting the disease.
A doctor who did this could be sued for malpractice. Why should these social media giants be immune from the same consequences?”
Good question.
