George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley warned Wednesday that a Harris-Walz administration would be disastrous for free speech.
Vice President Kamala Harris has advocated for limits on speech, including urging former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in October 2019 to suspend former President Donald Trump’s account, while he was still serving as president. Turley, on “Fox & Friends,” reacted to a clip of Harris expressing a similar desire later that month to remove Trump from the platform, suggesting the vice president perceives “speech as a privilege” that can be revoked from Americans deemed “reckless.”
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Jonathan Turley Warns ‘Harris-Walz Administration Would Be A Perfect Nightmare For Free Speech’ pic.twitter.com/qo4G3F6Ms8
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“It’s really Brazil that I think many in the anti-free speech movement are watching carefully. If Brazil can succeed in banning Twitter from the entire country, it will be replicated. Because many hold the view from what you just heard from Vice President Harris. They view speech as a privilege. It’s like a driver’s license that they think that can be rescinded if you’re reckless,” Turley said. “And this is the ultimate destination for this movement where if they can’t convince people to give up their own freedoms to embrace censorship, they’re going to start to take sites offline to prevent people from hearing opposing views.”
A Brazilian judge ordered internet providers to block citizens’ access to X on Friday after billionaire Elon Musk refused to comply with his orders to suspend certain accounts in the country.
“We need more protection through Congress. And this should be the issue of this election. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams in the only presidential election where free speech was the central issue,” Turley added. “Free speech is on the ballot. Not democracy. Free speech is on the ballot. Because, quite frankly, a Harris-Walz administration would be a perfect nightmare for free speech.”
As vice president, a senator and California’s attorney general, Harris supported policies restricting speech, including defending a law later overturned by the Supreme Court that mandated pro-life pregnancy centers advertise abortions. Harris has also espoused support for holding social media platforms “accountable” for “hate speech” and so-called misinformation.
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said on MSNBC in 2022 that there’s “no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech.”
Government agencies engaged in vast efforts to limit online speech under the Biden-Harris administration, urging platforms to censor content on issues like COVID-19.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/X/Fox News)
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