Glenn Greenwald: Psaki's Rogan comments show 'explicit strategy' to coerce companies to censor speech
Spotify did not cancel Joe Rogan, but added a disclaimer to some content
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}White House press secretary Jen Psaki's comments about Spotify adding a disclaimer to certain Joe Rogan episodes is another example of Democrats using corporate allies to censor free speech in a way the First Amendment prohibits the government itself from doing directly, Journalist Glenn Greenwald told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Monday.
Psaki said last week the White House hopes "all major tech platforms - and all major news sources for that matter - be responsible and be vigilant to ensure the American people have access to accurate information on something as significant as COVID-19 … That certainly includes Spotify."
"Obviously that comment [by Psaki] that you just referenced is in and of itself disturbing. Why should the White House be weighing in at all on who they think should be on Spotify, who they think should not be what they think Spotify should and shouldn't be doing about their podcast host?" Greenwald said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Glenn Greenwald feels "censorship has become the liberals’ North Star" but only when rhetoric they want to silence doesn’t coincide with their ideology. (EVARISTO SA/AFP via Getty Images)
"But it's even more alarming when you consider that it's actually part of a broad pattern, even an explicit strategy by Democrats to use their majority in power in Washington to coerce companies to censor for them in ways the Constitution would prohibit."
"They've repeatedly subpoenaed social media companies and explicitly said If you don't start censoring more, you will face legal and regulatory reprisals," he said.
Greenwald noted how social media platform Parler, an alternative to Twitter, was deplatformed by Amazon Web Services and telecom companies' application stores despite being one of the most popular downloads.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Comedian Joe Rogan responded to criticism over past racist comments. (Photo by: Vivian Zink/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
"That was because [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.] went online the day before and said, 'hey, Google and Apple and Wall Street and Amazon, why are you allowing this app that I don't like on the internet?; – And three days later, it was gone," Greenwald said.
"So this is exactly the kind of coercion that the Supreme Court has said in the First Amendment that the government can't engage in without violating the First Amendment."
Host Tucker Carlson noted that despite claiming to be defenders of the Constitution and free speech, many Republicans have remained silent or ineffectively oppositional to Democrats' alleged end-run around the First Amendment.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}White House press secretary Jen Psaki (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
"I think this is one of the key most overlooked parts of the whole censorship debate is these Silicon Valley companies never set out to want to censor -- why would they? Why would you want to kick people off your platform?" Greenwald replied.
"You want more people on your platform. And ideologically, they came out of Silicon Valley, which is about the free internet. So why are they now doing it? It's in part because they got pressured by journalists the New York Times and NBC saying, If you don't censor, you have blood on your hands and you're responsible for the destruction of democracy'. -- But a big reason is they know that Democrats will start enacting laws and enforcing regulation against them if they don't censor more."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"And they know that because Democrats are saying it explicitly over and over," he concluded.