Last Updated on February 3, 2021
Twitter has suspended the account of a small business advocacy group whose president and CEO has made no qualms about trumpeting the idea that Big Tech companies – like Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Google – should be treated like utility companies under the law.
Twitter suspended the account of the Job Creators Network (JCN). This organization is a nonpartisan advocacy group that champions small businesses and promotes policies that protect American jobs.
According to the group’s president and CEO, Alfredo Ortiz, Twitter sent them a message last week claiming JCN had violated their “rules against platform manipulation and spam.”
LISTEN NOW: Elaine Parker: Twitter suspending Job Creators Network is ‘pure retribution’ | Just The News https://t.co/Bv8jb6Q0L6
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) February 2, 2021
Ortiz vehemently rejected the claim, instead insisting the de-platforming action was in retaliation against JCN’s position that Twitter and the other internet behemoths should be regulated as a utility.
“Twitter has silenced JCN and the 30 million small business owners it represents after JCN implied that the tech giant should be regulated as a utility,” Ortiz said in a statement. “Given that JCN’s internal review demonstrates we did not violate Twitter’s terms and conditions, the tech giant’s bold move is likely pure retaliation against us for our position on tech regulations.”
JCN, in addition to advocating for small business and the preservation of American jobs, promotes progressive policies and legislation that facilitates lower taxes. JCN has been removed in total from the Twitter platform.
Twitter Censored Job Creators Network Account for JCN implying tech giant Should be regulated as utility. What’s next, apple pie and 4th of July? JCN is as mainstream as it gets. Twitter’s radical extremism will be its own ruin if Gov’t fails to do it. https://t.co/ICMvdyqMVY
— Senator Kevin Cramer (@SenKevinCramer) January 30, 2021
Last month, Ortiz wrote an op-ed published by a well-known conservative online publication titled, “Big Tech’s Conservative Purge Changes the Free Speech Debate.”
Elaine Parker, JCN’s Chief Communications Officer, said in a podcast interview that the onus of the article argued for Washington to regulate social media platforms and other tech giants as utilities.
“The reason behind that is because it would preclude them from excluding services based on political beliefs and ideology,” Parker said. “I mean, when you’re getting your phone service through AT&T, they don’t care who you vote for, or who you support or what your political background is. They just want to sell you a service, right?”
Many familiar with the issue support the idea that the de-platforming of JCN only serves to validate Ortiz’s point, and that his position becomes more tenable by the day.
