A total of 50 Young Republican, College Republican and other conservative youth groups signed a letter calling on Senate Republican leadership to take substantive action against big tech’s censorship of the New York Post‘s reporting on Hunter Biden’s hard drive.
In the letter, the groups slammed the conduct of social media giants Twitter and Facebook as “consistent with Big Tech’s long track record of manipulating their platforms to aid the political left”.
Twitter and Facebook notably blocked posting of the New York Post report on Hunter Biden’s hard drive, claiming that it was disinformation aimed at impacting the outcome of the election.
The letter went on to call on Republican Senators to reverse Section 203 liability protections for social media platforms, in order to make them liable for their censorship of conservative political opinions.
“We call upon our representatives to immediately revise the civil liability protection to specifically safeguard political speech,” the groups wrote.
They went on to urge further action by the administration against these social media companies for interference in the 2020 presidential election, given that these companies also heavily finance the Biden/Harris presidential ticket.
“We also call upon the Department of Justice to investigate social media companies for possible violations of election law,” the groups added.
The time for action is long past due. The President and the American people demand Big Tech be held accountable for their behavior. We represent a young generation of Americans calling on @SenateGOP to do their jobs and protect our rights. pic.twitter.com/zA9ZM1HCNA
— 𝕮𝖔𝖑𝖑𝖊𝖌𝖊 𝕽𝖊𝖕𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖎𝖈𝖆𝖓𝖘 𝖀𝖓𝖎𝖙𝖊𝖉 (@ASU_CRU) October 23, 2020
The letter was organized by the Arizona State University (ASU) College Republicans United, the Bruin Republicans of UCLA and the Iowa State University (ISU) College Republicans.
Signatories included the Stanford University College Republicans, the Notre Dame University College Republicans, the Las Vegas Young Republicans and the San Diego Young Republicans.
ASU College Republicans United founder and spokesman Rick Thomas slammed Democrats for their hypocrisy in defending social media companies.
“Democrats used to be the loudest critics of ‘Corporate America’ trampling on the rights of average Americans,” Thomas wrote. “These days they are nothing more than corporate apologists who protect crony capitalism.”
Mark Ivanyo, the legislative director of Republicans for National Renewal, an advocacy organization involved in gathering support for the letter, was similarly critical of Republican Senators.
“This letter shows that there’s a growing movement among the Republican youth for our party’s elected officeholders to stand up to big tech giants instead of capitulating to their lobbyists,” Ivanyo said in a statement to the National File.
More College Republican and Young Republican groups are set to sign the letter in the coming days.
