OPINION:
Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States, said he was launching a lawsuit — seeking class action status, too — against Google, Facebook and Twitter and their respective CEOs over allegations of wrongful censorship, as premised on the social media companies’ acceptance of government-backed benefits known as Section 230 protections.
That’s what happens when you boot from social media a sitting president with deep pockets and scores of influence. You get sued.
You get sued and quite possibly, hit with a massive class-action slap-down.
This is a winning issue for Trump.
It’s a real “give the people what they want” moment.
Americans — at least conservative Americans — are ticked off at smug social media giants that smugly silence voices who don’t follow the left’s talking points, and then just as smugly refuse to acknowledge that what they’re doing is targeting conservative voices to silence.
Everybody knows this is taking place.
Everybody knows it’s not the renegade algorithms’ fault.
Everybody knows left-leaning Jack Dorsey and left-leaning Mark Zuckerberg and left-leaning Sundar Pichai are in cahoots with their left-leaners in the political world — in the globalist political world — to shut down voices of individual liberty that counter collectivist thought.
And everybody knows the real reason Congress won’t take decided action to stop these social media giants from shutting down dissenting viewpoints that counter the leftist narrative is because too many on Capitol Hill are on the financial take from Big Tech CEOs. Too many have a financial stake in the Big Tech markets.
Too many put personal agendas and political ambitions above individual liberties, above First Amendment considerations, above free expression and free speech and freedom in general.
“Free speech,” Trump said, in announcing the suit, “is a bedrock of our liberty and our strength. It’s not granted to us by government; it’s given to us by God and no one should have the power to take that right away.”
Yep.
Trump’s got the winning cause.
Trump’s got the stuff that resonates.
Win or lose, it’s the fight that’s going to rouse the Trump base further, to unite the Trump base further. Win or lose in court, win or lose a class-action label, it’s Trump’s announced willingness to make the fight, to bring the fight, to at least take the fight to a war-like level, that’s going to solidify the conservative base further, that’s only going to put more faces on the enemies of freedom, that’s only going to unify further the patriotic voters against Democrats who shield the social media execs from accountability, against even Republicans who fail to side with Trump by calling for a stripping of Section 230 protections for social media.
Win or lose, the social media giants are already losing.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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