George Washington once quipped that “if the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” Americans ought to keep that in mind as we recognize Free Speech Week and the efforts by the Left to undermine this crucial right.

Free expression is under attack from many liberal elites, including those running the leftist news outlets and Big Tech corporations, who shamelessly favor the discriminatory censorship of opposing views.

Executives at Big Tech corporations, in particular, are doing everything in their power to stifle any speech with which they disagree while advancing radical political agendas.

Publicly, these corporations claim to support free expression. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his company’s support for free speech during a speech at Georgetown University where he said that his company's values were rooted in “the American tradition, which is more supportive of free expression than anywhere else.”

Google representatives, likewise, defended their company’s “deep commitment to free expression.”

Privately, however, their commitment to the First Amendment has been insincere. An internal Google memo called “ The Good Censor, ” leaked in 2018, spells out the organization’s deep-seated antagonism towards free speech. It described free speech as a “social, economic, and political weapon” prioritized “for democracy, not civility.” It’s no coincidence that Google buried 10 out of 12 Republican Party Senate candidates’ campaign websites during the 2022 election cycle while highlighting the campaign sites of Democrat candidates.

These tech companies have also targeted their own consumers’ speech online, often for expressing political views antithetical to those held by the majority of platform executives. Facebook, for example, swiftly suspended the Instagram account of a Gold Star mother who used her profile to criticize President Joe Biden for withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan, leaving her son behind to die.

Twitter is best known for interfering in the 2020 elections by censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story. Under Elon Musk’s leadership, Twitter’s previous collusion with the FBI and other government agencies came to light through the Twitter Files . Fortunately, Musk has shed light on and rooted out much of Twitter’s censorship, but there is still more to be done to promote freedom of speech.

Contrary to what many left-wing politicians would have you believe, censoring ideas of any kind does little to foster civil discourse among friends, family, and neighbors. In fact, it tears them apart.

America’s founders, by contrast, advocated free speech precisely because of its propensity to foster civil debate and deliberation. Since its founding, free expression has allowed legislators at every level to determine how best to protect our nation and enhance the common good. Tolerance for those with differing viewpoints is a foundational virtue that must not be forsaken.

Recent polling reveals, however, that 47 % of Democrats think free speech should be legal “only under certain circumstances.” More than one-third also said they believe Americans “have too much freedom.” Worst of all is the fact that 75% of Democrats think the government has a responsibility to censor so-called “hateful” posts on social media.

Unfortunately, the problem is growing beyond Big Tech. Recently, the White House sent a letter to left-wing news outlets, including CNN and ABC, asking them to call out Republicans for having “no evidence” to bring an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden. What is more Orwellian than the executive branch demanding their political opponent be censored by so-called “news” outlets?

Censorship from the Left across any medium is undoubtedly one of the greatest threats to freedom in our country. Without the bedrock ability to express one’s opinions and deeply held beliefs, we cannot have a functioning democracy. This Free Speech Week, Americans must vociferously promote a return to our founding principles while they still have the right to do so.

Brent Bozell is the president and founder of the Media Research Center, and Mike Lee is the senior U.S. senator from Utah.