ACLU Defends Free Speech Rights of Corporations to Censor Conservatives

Mon May 25, 2020 Daniel Greenfield



Within a generation, unions pivoted from opposing illegal immigration to supporting it, and feminist groups decided within a few months that women should no longer be believed, but the ACLU's transformation from a lefty civil rights group to an advocacy group has been the biggest farce yet.

This has been a while in coming.

You'll recall that the ACLU had no objections when the Obama administration had a filmmaker arrested over a YouTube video offensive to Muslims. These days the ACLU is fighting against due process on campus and for the free speech rights...
... of major corporations.

President Trump is considering establishing a panel to review complaints of anticonservative bias on social media, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that would likely draw pushback from technology companies and others.
The plans are still under discussion but could include the establishment of a White House-created commission that would examine allegations of online bias and censorship, these people said. The administration could also encourage similar reviews by federal regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Election Commission, they said.
“Left-wing bias in the tech world is a concern that definitely needs to be addressed from our vantage point, and at least exposed [so] that Americans have clear eyes about what we’re dealing with,” a White House official said.

Enter the ACLU.

The American Civil Liberties Union’s senior legislative counsel Kate Ruane said any moves by the government carry significant risk of misfiring because of the companies’ free-speech rights and other concerns.

Question. When will lefty groups defend corporations?

Answer. When they crack down on conservatives.

The ACLU has an interesting proposal. If corporations have free speech rights that encompass controlling what everyone using their platform says, I assume that the ACLU is also cool with corporations banning union organizing on its premises?
Or maybe just prayer.

Is the ACLU also good with conservatives buying AT&T and using an algorithm to listen to calls and disconnect any conversation where the name ACLU is uttered without an accompanying pejorative?

The ACLU has gone from fighting for the right of Nazis to march in a Jewish neighborhood to arguing that Big Tech corporations have a free speech right to censor conservatives.

But wait, the ACLU argues that Facebook is wrong for censoring its statue nudity.

Facebook’s notice told us that the post was removed because it “violates [Facebook’s] Community Standards.” While my blog did include a comprehensive slate of synonyms for “boobs,” it was the visual subject of the blog—the image of the statue itself—that triggered Facebook’s mammary patrol.
Look, we’re the ACLU. Of course our Facebook posts are going to touch on controversial subjects—if they didn’t, we just wouldn’t be doing our jobs. We won’t ever (apologies in advance) post gratuitous nudity—flesh or metal—online. Anything we post illustrates a broader point about our civil liberties.

Yes, it does.

The ACLU believes Facebook has no right to censor statue nudity, but has a right to censor political speech.


https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2...el-greenfield/