Hawley: Facebook Board’s Trump Ban Proves It’s Time To ‘Get Serious’ On Anti-Trust
GOP Missouri Senator Josh Hawley has renewed his push for anti-trust measures against social media giants and big tech companies, after an oversight board confirmed Facebook’s earlier decision to ban former United States President Donald Trump from its platform.
The Republican senator said it is “a little bit ridiculous” how the oversight board — reportedly an independent body with binding authority over Facebook’s content decisions — said the social media’s move to suspend Trump following the January 6 chaos at Capitol Hill was “justified.”
A staunch critic of the tech industry’s monopoly of the market, Hawley noted that Facebook’s latest action proves that an antitrust action is “necessary” to limit Facebook and other platform’s overreach online — often hinging on quelling freedom of speech in cyberspace.
“Facebook is a private company. They are a monopoly,” the Missouri senator told Fox News.
“The whole reason that their decisions matter is because they have monopoly power, and until we get serious about confronting their monopoly, they can try to distract us with this board or that self-policing measure or whatever, and it’s not going to matter until we do something about their monopoly,” he added.
Hawley has made his pitch in several instances as he also launched his new book “The Tyranny of Big Tech” taking aim at big tech companies.
Sen. Josh Hawley: "We've got a monopoly problem in this country. We need to break them up." pic.twitter.com/RQtS5pBa6R
— The Hill (@thehill) May 2, 2021
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, among others — along with other Silicon Valley-based tech platforms have faced intense scrutiny from Republicans and federal regulators in recent months after it ramped up efforts to shutdown companies and individuals allegedly “violating” their self-created “rules” — but Republicans have accused the mostly-left leaning platforms of trying to “censor” and “silence” conservative views on social media.
Former President Trump, for example, was suspended in most social media platforms for allegedly “inciting violence” that led to the riot at the Capitol.
Most recently, Twitter has also permanently banned James O’Keefe — founder of investigative journalism organization Project Veritas — just as the outlet started releasing bombshell reports about top CNN staff admitting to using “propaganda” in its reporting related to the coronavirus, and its coverage of former President Trump and his administration, among others.
Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters (California) — who has repeatedly called for violence against former Trump administration officials, among others — has been allowed to continue using the social-media platforms.
Break-up the big tech
Senator Hawley noted that he supports antitrust efforts meant to unwind Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp as he called on Congress to pass legislation that would allow individuals to sue the social media for alleged violations of its “terms of service or user rights” — often the reason it gives for suspending individual accounts.
“Facebook does this all the time — they give people terms of service but they’re not enforceable. Right now, Facebook has all the power,” the senator commented. “
“Consumers have zero power.”
Following Facebook’s decision on Trump’s ban, Hawley took to Twitter to push the need for oversight in dealing with social media.
“Here’s a real life example of the tyranny of #BigTech — a fake @Facebook court decides @Facebook can do whatever @Facebook wants, in this case, suspending Donald Trump w/o process or standards. That’s what monopolies do. Break them up,” Hawley tweeted.
Here’s a real life example of the tyranny of #BigTech – a fake @Facebook court decides @Facebook can do whatever @Facebook wants, in this case, suspending Donald Trump w/o process or standards. That’s what monopolies do. Break them up https://t.co/rgTel7DopY
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) May 5, 2021
Facebook suspended former President Trump’s account on January 7, a day after the Capitol Hill chaos.
The oversight committee —formed as part of an unprecedented settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 — recently determined that Facebook’s ban against Trump was”justified.”
Senator Hawley, whose name is among those being touted as a potential presidential candidate of the Republican Party in the future, has maintained more than 630,000 followers on Twitter despite his stance against the platform.
“People rely on them because they’re monopolies,” Hawley said. “This is what happens when you have just a few companies controlling all digital speech in America as Facebook, Twitter, Google through its social media platforms does.”
“I think that what we’ve got to do is take steps to introduce competition, to give consumers power back so that we have more speech.”
Some Republican-led states like Florida and Texas have already acted against social media platforms — with Florida passing a measure that would fine social media companies for deplatforming state or national politicians. Texas also earlier passed a similar legislation.
Hawley then blasted Democrats for being the “real oversight of Facebook.”
.@Facebook’s real oversight board – the Democrats https://t.co/8rhbEygCb8
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) May 5, 2021
“@Facebook’s real oversight board – the Democrats,” the senator wrote.
“I think my colleagues on the left in the Senate really are going in the opposite direction – they want to see these companies crack down further on political speech that they don’t like, that the left doesn’t like, Hawley said.
“They kind of want to turn these companies into arms of the government. I think that’d be a big mistake.”
Free speech in America now depends on the whims of the most powerful monopoly in social media. This is bad https://t.co/6qXPwAoXL1
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) May 3, 2021
On his social media, Hawley said: “Free speech in America now depends on the whims of the most powerful monopoly in social media. This is bad.”
