Although companies like Meta (formerly Facebook), Instagram, and “X” (formerly Twitter) initially had good intentions when they were created, they quickly became confused about the meaning of free speech in the age of technology. From subtle fact-checking to outright account bans (when sharing information on topics like the coronavirus, election fraud, and corruption), these online platforms have, to varying degrees, illegally interfered with the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment – at least according to those outside the world of “political correctness.”
In October 2022, Elon Musk, after acquiring “X,” promptly handed over internal documents from the Twitter era to journalists such as Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and writers Michael Shellenberger and David Zweig for publication.
The Twitter documents released at the end of 2022 indicate that the platform not only targeted conservative figures like Charlie Kirk and Dan Bongino but even medical professionals, including Stanford University professor and epidemiologist Jay Bhattacharya, who were affected by “shadow banning.”
Bhattacharya’s view was simple: lockdown policies during a pandemic would have negative effects on children’s social development and learning abilities. However, Twitter, in an effort to prevent Dr. Bhattacharya’s tweets from trending, secretly placed him on a “Trends Blacklist” – tweets from accounts on this list would not influence public trends no matter how many likes or retweets they received.
Ultimately, left-wing media institutions collaborated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and received over $3 million in processing fees to determine whether tweets, including those from former President Trump, were involved in election manipulation.
Attacks on former President Trump by the intelligence community are all too common, as seen in the strange Steele dossier compiled in 2017. The FBI paid retired British spy Christopher Steele $1 million to gather “evidence” of Trump colluding with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump was proven innocent, but the fabricated story from that time caused a storm in the major media and social media circles, with former Republican Congressman Devin Nunes calling it a “disinformation funnel.”
Back then, fact-checkers were too lazy to defend Trump based on facts, keeping the doomed argument alive, trying to seize on every word Trump said to prove their point: a bunch of Facebook ads paid for by Russians for a small amount made Trump the president.
Interestingly, when I wrote for the Matador Messenger at Yorba Middle School in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, I was prohibited from writing about the discrepancies in the Steele dossier and the case. I was even kicked out of the journalism class for advocating for free speech and sent to the principal’s office for wanting to write about political topics. False information not only ferments in the media world but also within schools. The truth is often hidden by educational institutions filled with leftist ideologies, but that’s another matter.
Platforms that do not conduct comprehensive censorship on important social topics, such as Truth Social, allow for the dissemination of free information. I had the opportunity to interview Devin Nunes, CEO of the platform, in Rancho Mirage, California, and documented his responses on social media, former President Trump, and critical issues related to America’s future. (Note: Truth Social is an application developed by Trump Media & Technology Group.)
Question: How do you plan to develop Truth Social and media companies to have a greater impact on voters?
Nunes’ response: Our platform is open to everyone; even the California governor and Chinese users are on this platform, so it’s essentially a competition of how many users we can attract. We are trying to integrate the strengths of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit… We need to rebuild from scratch to make this application better. It used to be just a research and development company, but now with funding, it has entered the public capital market (listed on NASDAQ on March 26). We will intensify development efforts while protecting the entire internet.
We don’t want to become Twitter but want to provide a good social media platform for people. I call it a “fortress against the giant tech companies that cannot be shut down.” The next steps include integrating streaming services into the platform… We are the home for all the “canceled” ones, and Truth Social will also have a television channel.
Question: You have spoken out about investigating “naked short-selling” of Truth Social stocks, which has been ongoing in the financial sector for some time. How would you carry out a genuine cleanup operation? How do you face adversity, just like Citadel Securities did?
(Note: Naked short-selling refers to selling stocks that don’t actually exist on the market. When the stock falls, it is repurchased to profit. Due to the non-existent stocks sold through naked short-selling, trading volume can be significant and have a strong impact on stock prices.)
Nunes’ answer: Essentially, it’s requesting the NASDAQ exchange to ensure that nothing strange happens, the news has inferred… My past role was to protect voters, and now we need to protect our shareholders. Truth Social has a significant number of retail investors as basic shareholders; in fact, I am not aware of any institutional investors owning our stock, which is unprecedented. If there are irregularities in the market, our responsibility is to protect shareholders from the impact of seemingly unstable activities.
Question: How do you feel about collaborating with Trump? What will it be like during the election season?
Nunes’ answer: We’ve never seen anything like this before. (Trump) has received four indictments… I don’t know how Trump manages to handle these indictments, but people underestimated him; you will never work harder than this person… If anyone thinks they can beat Trump, they better work 24 hours a day, because that’s basically Trump’s current state, and that’s why I think he will win. ◇