fter serving in the U.S. Army for more than a decade, I started a
media company from my truck with a cell phone. What started as flippant
rants I would post on social media turned into a media enterprise that
has raked up more than 1 billion views across platforms and has allowed
me to become a successful American small business and job creator.
Sadly, Big Tech’s partisan censorship is jeopardizing my business and
has robbed me of income. I am not the only one, and Big Tech should now
be held accountable.
In today’s
hyper-partisan political environment, companies like Facebook and Google
have stepped in as the self-appointed arbiters of truth and fact.
However, in doing so, they have infringed on the First Amendment and
cheated American entrepreneurs out of millions—maybe billions.
Media
businesses like mine produce content, mostly in the form of videos and
podcasts. We generate income from platforms like Facebook and Google
(YouTube) who sell advertisers' ad placement on our content. Before or
during one of my rants on Facebook or podcasts on YouTube you may be
served an advertisement.
These ads sometimes come in the form of a
banner ad and sometimes in the form of a video. This is one way how Big
Tech makes money and it is also how content creators like myself make a
living.
Sadly, for those of us who are right-of-center, we don’t
just have to compete with other creators who are going after the same
viewers, we must navigate around Silicon Valley’s secret arbiters of
permissible truth.
We do not know much—if anything—about these people, but
they get to decide what is “true.” They also have the power to decide
what violates their ever-shifting Community Guidelines by applying
labels like, “Misleading,” “Missing Context,” and “False.”
If
creators are flagged too many times as failing to meet Community
Guidelines, they are demonetized. That means they are prevented from
making money from their content. The platforms’ algorithms then kick in to suppress the reach of their message. The result: fewer “Likes” and fewer “Shares.”
So,
creators don’t just suffer monetarily, but their First Amendment Rights
are stifled. It is as if you’re standing in the middle of a public
square, in front of an audience that you have attracted. When Big
Tech decides to pull the plug, the majority of the people who were there
can no longer hear you, and you can no longer reach them. You may still
be standing, but you cannot be heard.
Now, some may say, “Good! There is enough fake information and scams going around the internet, it shouldn’t be encouraged.”
However,
what we are talking about is not like the email scams from a Nigerian
Prince promising you a billion dollar inheritance or the “copy and paste
this message to stop the world from ending.” Instead, we are talking
about debatable topics that benefit from open, honest dialogue.
Over the course of the 2020 election, Big Tech’s partisan
censorship resulted in an estimated $200,000-$300,000 in lost revenue
for my company due to suspensions and demonetizations. Again, I wasn’t
peddling conspiracies, though that’s what they wanted you to think—I was
merely asking the questions that the media wouldn’t.
For example, I had the audacity to question the origins of COVID-19.
While
the mainstream media was carrying the water for the World Health
Organization and the Chinese Communist Party, I believed it was worth
questioning that this emerging strain of the coronavirus, a known
infectious disease, could have escaped from the Wuhan Center for
Emerging Infectious Disease—especially given its first reported cases
were in Wuhan. Most Americans recognized this as reasonable, and that’s
why it had so much social engagement—but not Big Tech.
Big
Tech labeled it as false disinformation, likely because the
propagandists at the WHO and CCP deemed it as so. My account was
censored. Now, more than a year later, Big Tech is allowing those same
questions. Why? Because they have been exposed as legitimate.
I also questioned the effectiveness of masks—not because I hate
masks, but because there was legitimate research arguing they weren’t
effective. I also doubted Anthony Fauci and, like President Trump,
believed there was evidence to support the benefits of Zinc and
Hydroxychloroquine as treatments to the disease.
We now know from released emails that Fauci was regularly lying
from the podium, masks weren’t as effective as government bureaucrats
suggested, and Zinc and Hydroxychloroquine are proving to be extremely
effective in the treatment of COVID-19.
I never suggested I was an
expert, but I did find it valuable to explore the research and science
put forth by scientists and experts that ran contrary to the mainstream
narratives. For this, like many others, I was punished and censored.
It
wasn’t just me who suffered, it was my family, my editors, and my
social media managers who also relied on this income. But more important
even than money, was the infringement of our Freedom of Speech.
Big Tech’s censorship and its prohibition on certain thoughts made our communities less safe, it made America and the world less safe, and it compromised the very foundation of this free Republic.
The
damages suffered by content creators and everyday Americans are real
and Big Tech companies deserve to be held responsible. I plan on doing
just that, whether it be in the courtroom or on the floor of the United
State House of Representatives.
