White House free-speech petition gets 100,000 signatures

WASHINGTON – A White House petition calling for protection of free speech on the internet gathered the 100,000 electronic signatures in just three days to qualify for comment by President Trump.

Titled “Protect Free Speech in the Digital Public Square,” the petition was posted Aug. 28 and qualified Aug. 31.

President Trump is unlikely to need the encouragement to speak out on the topic since he has been doing to increasingly since early last week when he first warned Google its political bias was over the top.

The text of the petition reads:

“The internet is the modern public square. It is where political campaigns are fought and won, where journalism is created and distributed, and where grassroots movements are born. Yet, the free and open internet has become a controlled, censored space, monopolized by a few unaccountable corporations.

“By banning users from their platforms, those corporations can effectively remove politically unwelcome Americans from the public square. That is repugnant to our shared values of free speech and freedom of the press.

“The President should request that Congress pass legislation prohibiting social media platforms from banning users for First Amendment-protected speech. The power to block lawful content should be in the hands of individual users – not Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey.”

President Trump said Thursday that tech giants Google, Amazon, and Facebook could represent a "very antitrust situation."

Toward the end of a week in which Trump repeatedly accused Google of liberal and Democrat bias, the president raised monopoly questions about the firm and its peers.

"As you know, many people think it is a very antitrust situation, the three of them," the president told Bloomberg. Antitrust laws are meant to prevent companies from abusing their power to make the market less competitive.

Trump did not go so far as to suggest the companies be broken up.

"I won't comment on the breaking up, of whether it's that or Amazon or Facebook," he said.

About Google, Trump said, "conservatives have been treated very unfairly" and added, "I tell you there are some moments where we say, 'Wow that really is bad, what they're doing.'"

Joseph Farah, founder of WND.com, the first independent, alternative news company on the internet 21 years ago, has been attacking what he has variously labeled “The Digital Cartel” and the “Speech Code Cartel” – consisting of Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Amazon. All six mega-corporations partner with the extremist, left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center on determining which groups, individuals and companies promote “hate speech.” Among the individuals the SPLC attacks for promoting “hate,” “fascism” and “racism” is Trump himself.

Recently, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, cc-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, a member of Congress and a candidate for attorney general in Minnesota, demanded in a letter to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos that he use SPLC guidelines to ban books for sale at his company. Apple recently joined Facebook and YouTube, owned by Google, in banning content by internet talker Alex Jones.

“We have a First Amendment crisis of epic proportions facing this country – probably the gravest America has witnessed in history,” said Farah. “As this petition accurately states, this censorship is taking place on America’s digital public square, the most important and vibrant venue of dialogue, political speech and debate. Yet, it is increasingly being conducted with the openness one would expect on the campus of UC Berkeley. This is a communications coup. We cannot have monopoly communications companies distributing news and information, collected private secrets about Americans citizens and impacting elections in this country with one-sided, spoon-fed data tailored to citizens.”

On top of that, Farah says these companies have created conditions making it impossible for independent media, like WND.com, Breitbart.com and DailyCaller.com to be treated fairly, on an equal playing field, with liberal media like the New York Times, Washington Post and Huffington Post.

“What Google, Facebook and the rest of the cartel do is puff the Left and punish the rest,” he says. “It’s destroying our traffic and revenues. I believe we are the canaries in the coal mine, part of a grand Orwellian plot to destroy free speech, the free press and freedom of religion.”

Farah asks that those who rely on the alternative media for the truth support them with direct contributions due to the current crisis affecting them.

Here are two ways you can support WND in this time of emergency:

1. Support WND, the original pioneer in independent news 21 years ago, in its battle for survival against the “Speech Code Cartel” of Google and Facebook, which are purposely trying to destroy WND and the entire independent, alternative media. Don’t like to use credit cards? You are welcome to make your contributions by check by sending them to WND, 14501 George Carter Way, Suite 102, Chantilly, VA 20151.

2. You can also support WND’s groundbreaking new book, “The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament,” by yours truly, with your tax-deductible contributions in any amount to the fabulous missions organization, Gospel for All Nations, which has adopted the project to help spread the truth of the Good News around the world. This book, coming out in hardcover this month is an important part of WND’s recovery, rebirth and revitalization plan for later this year. For donations of $100 or more, you will receive a special signed advance reader copy of the book. Your support with book-printing and marketing expenses will help immensely to weather this storm – not to mention get proper distribution of this, if I do say so myself, compelling redemptive breakthrough Bible book.

If you prefer to write tax-deductible checks for this purpose, you can do so by sending them to “Gospel Book,” Gospel for All Nations, 580 E Street – PO Box 100 – Hawthorne, NV 89415-0100.