FLUNKED: Big Tech Receives Failing Grades on Free Speech, Religious Freedom

May 22nd, 2023 5:24 PM

A legal organization released a disturbing report, demonstrating that Big Tech giants, including major corporations, have a vendetta against the free speech rights of their employees and customers.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) released its annual Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index on Tuesday, rating 75 major American corporations “on respect for free speech, religious freedom.” These ratings included Big Tech companies like Alphabet (Google) at 4% out of 100%, Meta (Facebook) at 10%, and Twitter at 5%. They also included the parent companies of media giants NBC, CNN, and ABC: such as Comcast at 7%, Warner Bros. Discovery at 8% and Disney at 5%.

All these companies received failing grades. The companies’ low scores reflect both their failure to protect viewpoint diversity and their failure to participate in the survey portion of the report. ADF Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco said in a statement that “[t]hreats to freedom don’t just come from the government, but from major corporations like financial institutions and big tech companies that have concentrated power over essential services and communication channels.” He’s exactly right

Tedesco forcibly condemned the blatant viewpoint discrimination against customers and users:

Too often, these corporations de-bank or de-platform Americans, citing policies that give them unbounded discretion to censor people for their views. That needs to change. Companies need to take seriously the way their policies and practices can chill the exercise of speech and religion and deter individuals from participating in the democratic process.

Conservatives know this all too well. After former President Donald Trump was banned from major social media platforms following the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Big Tech shut down free speech platform Parler. Prior to Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, proponents of biological reality were routinely suspended by anti-free speech activists on Twitter. On April 18th, Twitter finally removed a prohibition on “deadnaming” (referring to someone by the name their parents gave them) and “misgendering” (referring to someone by the correct gender) from their Terms of Service. During the 2020 election, Twitter aggressively suppressed the bombshell New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Due to the release of the Twitter Files, we know that Twitter not only censored users and stories, but did so at the behest of politicians, well-connected individuals, and government entities. Facebook is also notorious for censoring free speech in America, and it is also on record censoring people in countries like India. MRC Free Speech America has also exposed Google for actively suppressing Republican campaign websites to benefit their Democratic counterparts in hotly contested senate races in the 2022 midterm elections. These three organizations have earned their failing scores.

Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.