On Thursday, the Internet Accountability Project’s Mike Davis led a letter calling on Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to do their part in breaking up and reining in Big Tech. Townhall received an exclusive sneak peek at the letter, which begins by calling on the Committee “to hold a markup meeting, pass bipartisan antitrust reforms, and take other crucial steps to break up trillion-dollar Big Tech monopolists Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple’s illegal stranglehold over online information and commerce.” The letter also addresses such members for being “leaders in Congress on competition, consumer policy, and antitrust law,” adding “we know you understand the importance of ensuring there is a level playing field.”

Specifically, the letter later goes on to ask for Committee votes on the Advertising Middlemen Endangering Rigorous Internet Competition Accountability (AMERICA) Act (S.1073), the Open Apps Market Act from the previous Congress, and the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S.2033). 

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The letter reminds how Big Tech has been able to have a monopoly, a role which has allowed them to have “manipulated elections, COVID guidance, and the news–all without repercussions or checks. Worse, they do China’s bidding.”

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Davis was joined by Aiden Buzzeti and Ziven Havens of the Bull Moose Project, as well as Jon Schweppe of the American Principles Project and bestselling author Geoffrey Cain in his letter.

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Big Tech censorship is also an issue that has affected Townhall directly, as has been covered at length lately, including by Spencer who just did so last week.

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Read the full article HERE.

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Clemson University is using federal funds to create technology meant to track what researchers consider to be patterns of “mis-, dis-, and mal-information (MDM)” by internet users.

Researchers said they are taking steps to ensure their work is unbiased, but two watchdog groups argued the project could be used to silence speech online.

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“The federal government’s involvement in policing so-called ‘disinformation,’ or what some of us would call inconvenient truths, should send a chill down everyone’s spine,” Mike Davis, founder and president of the Internet Accountability Project, told The Fix. “And it’s plainly unconstitutional.”

Davis, former Chief Counsel for Nominations to U.S. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, said censorship is a likely result of such projects.

“Leftists fear free speech and open debate, so they fight through their allies in the Washington bureaucracy to cancel those with whom they disagree,” he told The Fix.

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Read the full article HERE.

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The Biden administration has pursued a more aggressive antitrust approach than previous administrations, filing numerous lawsuits seeking to break up large companies and block mergers with mixed success.

The administration’s antitrust action through either the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been aggressive since the president took office in January 2021, targeting tech companies like Google and Microsoft, but also airlines, e-commerce and more. Some conservatives say the crackdown will increase competition and consumer outcomes, while others say that the action will stymie legitimate business operations, reducing operating viability and harming consumer experiences.

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“Free markets require functioning markets,” Mike Davis, founder and president of the advocacy organization Internet Accountability Project, told the DCNF. “This means enforcement of our century-old antitrust laws to target anti-competitive actors. Trillion-dollar Big Tech monopolists have too much power over information and commerce. We need more than extremely expensive, David-versus-Goliath antitrust lawsuits to hold accountable the trillion-dollar Big Tech monopolists like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.”

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“Just about the only thing the Biden administration is doing right is bipartisan antitrust law enforcement,” Davis told the DCNF. “At the same time, we can’t let the federal government take control of American industry. Currently, Section 230 and antitrust amnesty protect these Big Tech behemoths. Consumers, conservatives, and small businesses suffer as a result, while Big Tech billionaires profit. We need more bipartisan antitrust actions to keep Big Tech from taking over every facet of American life.”

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Read the full article HERE.

The post The Daily Caller: Biden Has Cracked Down On Big Business Mergers And Monopolies. Are Americans Better Off Because Of It? appeared first on Internet Accountability Project.

A State Department-backed “disinformation” tracker under congressional investigation is shielding key details about its operations from the Washington Examiner despite blacklisting conservative media outlets for having “opaque ownership structures.”

The Global Disinformation Index has faced heightened scrutiny from Republican lawmakers over the British group’s covert efforts to defund websites it disagrees with, and it is also at the center of a new lawsuit against the State Department over the agency wiring $100,000 to GDI. While GDI brands itself as a “nonpartisan” proponent of transparency, that didn’t stop its two affiliated nonprofit groups in the United States from providing the Washington Examiner with heavily redacted copies of their newly filed 2022 financial disclosures, a maneuver tax experts warn likely violates federal law.

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“The Global Disinformation Index is violating the law by hiding its disclosures, and that’s pretty funny and hypocritical for a group that pretends it cares about transparency in the media,” conservative lawyer Mike Davis, who leads the Internet Accountability Project, a group seeking to rein in the power of Big Tech social media platforms, told the Washington Examiner.

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Read the full article HERE.

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Media Matters for America, the organization that has successfully targeted advertisers on billionaire Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, has long been a beneficiary of donations from major institutional liberal donors and organizations connected to the Democratic Party, according to tax documents and grants.

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“Musk shouldn’t allow Media Matters to use his platform to organize advertiser boycotts to destroy his company,” Internet Accountability Project Founder and President Mike Davis told the DCNF.

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Read the full article HERE.

The post The Daily Caller: REMINDER: Left-Wing Megadonors Have Poured Money Into Media Matters, The Org Trying To Starve Musk’s X appeared first on Internet Accountability Project.

Billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X’s — formerly Twitter — lawsuit against Media Matters could lead to damages for the left-wing group, legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Media Matters alleged that advertisements from major advertisers show up on antisemitic content on X on Thursday, according to a report. While the case is not a slam dunk, there is merit to it and it could lead to financial damages and an injunction, experts told the DCNF.

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Media Matters has received scrutiny for publishing false information and attempting to censor conservatives. “Media Matters consistently gets away with these types of actions, and it’s refreshing to see someone like Musk call their bluff,” Internet Accountability Project Founder and President Mike Davis told the DCNF. “Taking Media Matters to court will air much of the corrupt entity’s dirty laundry.”

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Read the full article HERE.

The post The Daily Caller: ‘Compelling’: Legal Experts Say Elon Musk’s X Has A Good Case Against Media Matters appeared first on Internet Accountability Project.

Ignoring the warnings of Senate Republicans this week, President Joe Biden’s Federal Communications Commission is pushing forward with its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) agenda to take control of the Internet under the guise of “a fringe left-wing legal theory about discrimination.”

Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, denounced FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel voting to enact “Digital Discrimination,” by forcing broadband providers to expansive, indeterminate, and crippling liability under the “disparate impact” standard.

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Conservative legal expert Mike Davis founded the Internet Accountability Project (IAP) to watch over Big Tech and government attempts to tip the scales against conservatives.

“These latest moves shift the balance between governmental oversight and individual freedoms heavily toward the government,” Davis said in a statement this week. “Excessive government control from the Biden administration would curtail the very essence of a free and open digital environment, compromising privacy rights and growing the alliance between Big Tech and the federal government.”

The move will “stifle innovation” and restrict freedoms under the guise of equity, just as Biden Democrats intended, according to Davis.

“President Biden’s pronounced efforts to extend government control over the expansive tech landscape point toward an unprecedented level of government intervention in Americans’ digital lives and basic freedoms,” Davis added. “Consolidation of power over the tech space within the government, working in tandem with its corporate allies in Big Tech, will stifle innovation, freedom of speech, and freedom of association.

“Diversity of ideas and technological advancements will suffer.”

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Read the full article HERE.

The post Newsmax: Biden FCC Moves to Put New DEI Controls Over Internet appeared first on Internet Accountability Project.

New York‘s surveillance of social media posts for hate speech and incitement of violence poses no constitutional concerns as long as authorities only monitor public posts, legal experts say.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announced the surveillance effort earlier this week, as the New York Police Department noted a 214% increase in crimes against Jewish residents in October compared to the same period last year

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Mike Davis, founder and president of the Internet Accountability Project, said the governor is trying to “silence her critics by labeling anything with which she disagrees as ‘hate speech.’”

“Democrats policing so-called ‘hate speech’ online has always snowballed into targeting political speech leftists want silenced. The governor would be more effective in curbing antisemitism by calling out the Democrats’ BLM and Hamas hateful base,” Mr. Davis said.

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Read the full article HERE.

The post The Washington Times: NYPD Surveilling Social Media For Hate Speech Could Lead To Intimidation, Experts Warn appeared first on Internet Accountability Project.

President Joe Biden’s administration has recently taken unprecedented action to exert influence over Americans’ digital lives, including broadband internet, net neutrality, social media and artificial intelligence (AI).

The Biden administration is pushing for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to claim substantial control over the internet, pursuing a court ruling to gain the right to censor Americans and has issued a broad executive order to regulate AI. Such governmental dominance over the digital realm could have significant adverse effects on American consumers, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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“These latest moves shift the balance between governmental oversight and individual freedoms heavily toward the government,” Internet Accountability Project Founder and President Mike Davis told the DCNF. “Excessive government control from the Biden administration would curtail the very essence of a free and open digital environment, compromising privacy rights and growing the alliance between Big Tech and the federal government.”

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“President Biden’s pronounced efforts to extend government control over the expansive tech landscape point toward an unprecedented level of government intervention in Americans’ digital lives and basic freedoms,” Davis told the DCNF. “Consolidation of power over the tech space within the government, working in tandem with its corporate allies in Big Tech, will stifle innovation, freedom of speech, and freedom of association. Diversity of ideas and technological advancements will suffer.”

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Read the full article HERE.

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Conservative tech policy experts are urging Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to hold a hearing on a potential partnership between TikTok and Google, calling it “deeply concerning” both for U.S. markets and American citizens’ privacy.

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The letter was signed by Heritage Foundation Director of Tech Policy Kara Frederick, Internet Accountability Project President Mike Davis, American Principles Project Policy Director Jon Schweppe and Bull Moose Project President Aiden Buzzetti.

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Read the full article HERE.

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