Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., told Newsmax Friday that Congress should take a look at DirecTVs removal of the news outlet from its satellite television platform, as well as other forms of Big Tech censorship.
"The fact that you could have the ability to just, with a snap of the fingers, deprive potentially millions of people of that [news outlet], I think it's a really concerning thing. And I think it speaks to the sort of environment of censorship and cancel culture that is permeating multiple facets of our society," Kiley, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said during "American Agenda" Friday."I think that to the extent that there have been legal issues raised, whether it's [with Newsmax], whether it's with the issues related to censorship, we definitely need to look at that."
AT&T subsidiary DirecTV removed the conservative news network from its satellite television service and 13 million subscribers in late January, claiming it did so as part of a "carriage fee dispute."
DirecTV customers call toll free at 877-763-9762 to complain, demand Newsmax is returned! Oppose censorship – sign The Petition – Click Here
Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy said in a statement at the time that the move came because of the views expressed on the channel, and that DirecTV was paying the fees to 22 liberal-leaning news channels without a problem.
DirecTV already had removed the conservative One America News from the platform in April 2022.
Kiley said that Congress is currently looking at at a number of Big Tech companies including Apple, Amazon, Facebook's parent Meta, and others for "textbook" First Amendment violations that appear to just "go one way," against conservative speech.
"There's a whole host of issues that we need to look at here," he said. "But you know the No. 1 concern is potential violations of the First Amendment, because we've seen very clear evidence ... not only that you had censorship of ideas, which frankly, the censorship tended to be very one-sided."
Kiley said the most disturbing thing so far is evidence that the federal government was working closely with the Big Tech firms to censor information that later turned out to be true, especially related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We're seeing everything that was censored related to vaccine information, related to things like natural immunity, related to the origins of COVID," he said. "A lot of this, by the way, turned out to be true, which is all the more reason why we don't censor speech in this country. [It] is because our founders recognized that there is no oracle who can define what is and is not true; and if there was, it certainly wouldn't be the government."
Actions to Take Now
1. DirecTV customers call toll free at 877-763-9762 to complain, demand Newsmax is back on air!
2. Call your congressman or senator at 202-224-3121 and demand they stop AT&T/DirecTV's censorship of NEWSMAX — ask them to give you a date on the hearings!
3. Go to our online petition and get more info: iWantNewsmax.com.
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