The uproar over Big Tech's crackdown on social media users like President Trump and upstart platforms like Parler has little to do with the First Amendment, Laura Ingraham told viewers Monday.
"We obviously know that Facebook, Apple, Twitter, etc. are private companies," said "The Ingraham Angle" host. "We know that the Bill of Rights doesn't apply to private companies and when we use the terms 'free speech' and 'free expression,' we are speaking metaphorically, not literally."
The real issue, Ingraham explained, is that many private companies like Twitter have "too much power," and often have market caps "larger than the GDP of our closest allies."
"If Big Tech was truly worried about speech that incites harm and violence, well, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, they would have removed all the content from Antifa and radical Islamists years ago," she said.
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"There's always a risk that in a system like ours, a small group of rich people will end up having outsized influence, too much power," Ingraham went on. "And that's where we are right now. So instead of talking about rights, it's time to start talking about power.
"We cannot allow a situation where the [Chinese Communist Party] has unlimited access, unlimited ability to spout dangerous propaganda while the GOP is effectively silenced. And that means we must ensure that this tech oligarchy never amasses that type of power, that much power again."
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According to Ingraham, the real purpose of Big Tech's "war on conservate thought" is twofold: Halting what she called "Trump's digital momentum" while ensuring conservatives are "vanished altogether from the public square."
"I still remember when liberals were liberals, when they distrusted big corporations had they supported debate and dialogue," she said. "But long before Trump, they gave up on trying to persuade political foes and they decided instead to persecute them. Silence them. Demonize them."