Speech Saviors

Free speech is making a comeback:

In 2019, Zuckerberg himself responded in an excellent speech at Georgetown University, pledging his company to free speech: "We can continue to stand for free expression, understanding its messiness, but believing that the long journey towards greater progress requires confronting ideas that challenge us. Or we can decide the cost is simply too great. I'm here today because I believe we must continue to stand for free expression." But then, in 2020, Facebook began to cave under pressure from the federal government on issues ranging from Covid coverage to the Hunter Biden laptop story. By 2021, the Biden White House was openly lobbying Facebook to change its standards to downgrade the traffic of the Daily Wire, among others. That same year, in April, our traffic began to plummet. Overall, our reach dropped by 90%. Facebook got comfortable with censorship; Zuckerberg has admitted as much. The Biden administration, Zuckerberg claims, pushed for censorship. And Facebook conceded. Not anymore. As Zuckerberg explained this week, "The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech." That is absolutely correct. And it is also a damning indictment of a Democratic Party that always values power above principle. Free speech has become a Republican principle because Democrats abandoned it. And now free speech is returning.

It's about time...