What is striking about Tlaib’s protest speech is that she is denouncing the loss of First Amendment rights in this controversy in making these claims.I have repeatedly said that I oppose censorship of those who are making these claims. That will come as no surprise to regulars on this blog. However, Tlaib has not been a voice for free speech. While objecting to the censorship of Palestinians, Tlaib has supported the push of Democrats to get greater levels of “content moderation” on social media. Tlaib cut off Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg when he tried to defend policies to minimize censorship as protecting “hate speech.”Likewise, the New York Times has been unrelenting in attacks on Elon Musk and Twitter for restoring free speech protections on X and supporting broader censorship of disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation.

Fortunately for NY Times, Tlaib, and others, the free speech community will continue to support their own ability to speak even when they are accused of spreading disinformation.This controversy shows, again, how selective the media has been in its calls for bans and censorship. That includes various journalistic and scientific figures banned for expressing skepticism over pandemic claims from the origins of the virus to the efficacy of certain treatments.

[We need to stop enabling censorship by attempting any kind of suppression of political speech. That also includes the pro-Hamas, pro-genocide protests taking place at American universities. We can defund those platforms and call these people Nazis, which they are, but we need to protect speech so that we CAN call these people out. Too many of them are from the elite, protected classes that benefit from censorship and suppression of dissent. — Ed]