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Big Tech appears to be dusting off the same censorship tactics it used to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election cycle, an expert said.
As we draw closer to the Nov. 8 presidential election, a security expert is predicting how Big Tech might influence Americans to decide who wins another term in the White House.
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Mr. Riddaugh explained how Big Tech appears to be dusting off the same censorship tactics it used to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election cycle—shutting down the accounts of people expressing views outside of the preferred narrative, suppressing stories that might damage President Joe Biden’s campaign—to impact the results in 2024.
“What we saw in 2020 and 2021 was technology companies becoming openly biased,” he said. “We always knew they were liberal-leaning, but they kept a veil of neutrality.”
All of that “went out the window” he said, when news broke about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
It’s an allegation Mr. Blinken denies, telling Fox News in May 2023, “It wasn’t my idea, didn’t ask for it, didn’t solicit it.”
‘Across All Fronts’
Since social media platforms played a big role in helping Joe Biden win the presidency in 2020 by suppressing a story that would have changed how many people cast their ballots, Mr. Riddaugh is convinced they will run the same play to help him win reelection in November.
“They’re going to play it across all fronts, starting with email delivery,” he suggested, saying, we already saw how Google engaged in a massive email suppression campaign against the Republican National Committee (RNC) during the 2022 midterms.
“They will start targeting messages they don’t like,” Mr. Riddaugh said, noting how President Biden has already received help from social media platforms to suppress news about the border crisis.
The latest Gallup survey revealed that Americans consider immigration to be the biggest problem currently facing the country.
The latest Gallup survey showed that Democrats lagged behind Republicans in enthusiasm for casting their ballots in November, Mr. Riddaugh is also confident that Democrats will expand efforts to coordinate directly with Big Tech to influence public opinion.
“From what I’ve seen in the polling, Democratic candidates are not performing well, and their policies are flopping,” Mr. Riddaugh explained. “So, I think it’s critical for them to control the message and they know censorship is one of the routes they can win with. If Democrats can tightly control the narrative, it makes it easy to influence how people will think and vote.”
A perfect example, Mr. Riddaugh noted, was how the Biden administration controlled the topic of COVID-19.
In 2021, Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) had their YouTube accounts suspended for violating the platforms’ COVID-19 policy. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) had her Facebook account suspended for the same reason, and after multiple suspensions of her Twitter account for violating the platform’s COVID-19 policies, her account was permanently shut down on Jan. 2, 2022.
As we move closer to the Nov. 5 general election, Mr. Riddaugh suggests tech companies will use a variety of tactics to control the narrative.
“They will deplatform candidates, organizations, and businesses for their political positions,” he proposed. “If there’s a news article they don’t agree with, like the New York Post Hunter laptop story, they will suppress it.”
“Going into 2024 there will be a lot of traps Big Tech companies will set to suppress conservative voices,” he said further. “You saw Democrats working directly with these tech companies to suppress the message of their opposition in 2020. That alone is a massive threat to free and fair elections and trust in the system.”
“The writing is on the wall,” he said. “The Biden administration would not be fighting so hard in the courts to retain their right to coordinate with Silicon Valley if they didn’t believe it helped their cause. That alone is a massive threat to free and fair election and the trust in the system.”
“If you don’t allow Americans to consume both sides of the story and to come to their own conclusions, that’s dangerous,” he proposed. “Look at Russia and China. One of the things they have in common is they control the narrative. It’s a one-sided debate. It’s eerie to see it happening here.”