A CBS News correspondent and her guest complained about free speech online heading into the 2024 election.
For CBS News reporters, free speech is an obstacle to overcome ahead of the 2024 election. Senior Business and Tech Correspondent at CBS News Jo Ling Kent whined on Face the Nation Dec. 31 about there being not enough censorship. She specifically complained about how “bad information spreads constantly online and it is continuing to be very hard to stop especially with arguments and protections of free speech.”
Host Margaret Brennan asked, “The Biden administration has been concerned about what this will mean for our politics on the campaign trail, the use of deep fakes or misleading voters. What are the companies doing to prevent that?” Kent replied by critiquing tech companies. “The social media companies are telling me that they’re throwing every resource that they have to stop misinformation and disinformation,” Kent said. “But the reality is that this is a sprawling, endless game of Whack-A-Mole.” But it seems Kent misses the fact that that is the point of free speech in the first place: to protect the speech that is often disliked without the fear of thought control.
As MRC Free Speech America Director Michael Morris pointed out, “Attempting to put a halt to so-called misinformation or disinformation through content moderation in the leadup to the 2024 election is just another way of pushing for more censorship. Kent appears to be complaining that Big Tech is not doing enough, and for the left it will never be enough, which is precisely the problem.”
She favorably mentioned how Meta removes and fact-checks content on Facebook and Instagram, but scare-mongered about X. “Elon Musk and his team have basically allowed the return of conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and they've also dramatically reduced the size of their trust and safety team,” Kent said.
The CBS reporter also noted the complications caused by adding artificial intelligence into the mix and accused Congress of not imposing enough regulation on Big Tech companies. “Congress does not have a good track record when it comes to regulating tech or social media,” she said. It was unclear if Kent supported anti-free speech legislative action from Congress or not.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency and an equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.