Oh good, you got this video!
I’m glad, because it turns out that Facebook,
and so on, don’t show us all our friends’ posts.
They just show us some… from some of our friends.
That’s why I ask for your email address
so we don’t get cut off.
Now why might we be cut off?
Well, sometimes I agree with conservatives,
and social media companies are accused of being…
biased against conservatives.
against conservatives.
biased against conservatives.
Are they?
All the companies say
“our policies apply equally to everyone.”
For example, “You may not promote violence.”
[yelling]
But in Portland Oregon,
Antifa threw things at journalist Andy Ngo,
because he criticized Antifa’s violence.
At one point, they beat him,
kicking and punching him in the head.
[yelling]
The attack left Ngo with brain damage.
But the attackers’ account is still up,
linking to their website that justifies the violence,
saying “if you rally the far-right to attack our city,
the community will stop you, however it can”
So what does that tell you?
That there's probably bias?
[Laughs]
Glenn Beck runs a big media operation called The Blaze,
which has millions of followers.
Voices on the right being silenced
Lately he’s been charging that
social media companies push a leftist agenda.
“They manipulate algorithms to reshape our world.”
Beck has not been banned.
But he says Facebook has reduced his reach.
You can post whatever you want.
We have the little higher wall here for you.
While I’m not a conservative,
I have noticed some weird stuff going on.
My videos average more than a million views.
But when I did that one,
which included some criticism of Facebook.
That video got less than half as many views.
Because Facebook didn’t show it to many people?
I can’t know.
That’s secret.
For those who seek to push hate …
Today, social media companes are pressured
to cut off anyone spreading hate.
You have no place on our platforms.
[Applause]
Now, YouTube and Facebook say they even demote
content that almost violates policies.
We do not allow hate groups on Facebook overall.
They're shaping you.
[yelling]
As an example of how they
treat some groups differently,
Beck points out that Twitter and Facebook leave up
Antifa accounts that promote violence.
In Austin they were actually calling for the
next phase to have people be a paramilitary operation.
That was up forever.
It’s still up.
It links to a manifesto calling for their opponents
to be “beaten bloody… annihilated.”
By contrast, Beck says conservative accounts
are censored merely for making fun of Democrats.
The opportunity to do something historic.
Remember the person who slowed down Pelosi
and they were outed, outed.
Facebook did say
“we dramatically reduced its distribution.”
The person who was in charge happened to be
one of the leaders in Nancy Pelosi's office
who had just left Nancy Pelosi's office to go to work.
Well, did that play a role?
They must hire some Republicans, too.
They do, but it's about 20%
and they're not from top level positions.
Zuckerberg met with 15 conservative leaders.
Facebook once invited Beck and others to discuss
accusations that Facebook censors conservatives.
Sitting with Zuckerberg,
who is either not really running his company,
is naive, or a liar.
I don't know which.
But I sat with him and he said,
“Why would we do that?
Why would we do that?"
And okay, I agree with you.
I want to believe you.
Why would they tick off half the country?
Why would they tick off half of the people, you know?
And so I want to believe him.
However, your actions don't match.
Beck was also unhappy
with some of his fellow conservatives.
There were some conservatives
that were there who said,
"Well, Mark, you can solve this
by basically having affirmative action.
Making sure that for every liberal you hire,
you hire ..." I don't want that.
Was there any talk about saying,
look, we're just a platform.
We shouldn't be doing any of this.
We should just run everything that-
No.
Nobody even brought it up?
No.
It bothers me that there are so many conservatives
that want more regulation.
We don't need more regulation.
But it’s human nature,
whenever we see something we don’t like, to say,
“Government must do something.”
Even Beck fell prey to that.
Remember when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
visited the border and claimed she saw immigrants
Being told by CBP officers to drink out of the toilet.
Beck was so upset by that,
he said she should be punished.
"I would like to prosecute
anyone who is making outrageous charges like this."
So you want prosecution of one of the 500
members of Congress who says nonsense?
No.
Half of them say nonsense.
I mean, John, first of all,
I speak five hours off script everyday.
So, you're not eager to prosecute Cortez?
No.
No.
No.
I’m glad he walked that back.
Truth comes out through argument, open debate.
The more social media companies censor,
the less we learn.
On at least some platforms,
all speech should be free.
And I’m glad Beck agreed with that.
You would have them publish everything?
Stop all this censorship?
Yes.
Just let people say whatever?
Yep.
Yep.
We can handle it.
Stop treating us like children.
