Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., called for Big Tech to be held accountable for stifling conservative viewpoints, while allowing authoritarian “thugs,” such as Vladimir Putin to continue using their platforms.
Scott, who is the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spoke with Fox News Digital on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
The Florida senator slammed Big Tech, calling the silencing of conservative viewpoints the “latest book burning.”
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“Canceling and silencing people is the latest book burning. That’s what they’re doing. They’re canceling and silencing people on the internet, and it’s book burning,” Scott told Fox News Digital.
“That’s exactly what we’ve seen with socialism, they always supposedly have to get rid of everybody’s IDs, and that’s what they’re doing. So we got to stand up, we got to hold Big Tech accountable if they’re going to be publishers, if they’re going to pick and choose what they want on their sites. And then they’ve got to be held accountable,” the senator continued.
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Scott then referred to how Twitter has allowed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to tweet, while permanently banning former President Donald Trump from the platform and other conservatives, including pro-Trump attorneys Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, as well as former National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn.
Khamenei has emerged as one of the most powerful Iranian leaders of the last century and wields control over all aspects of the country’s government, military and media.
However, the leader has repeatedly tweeted inciting violence towards both the U.S. and Israel and has not been banned from the social media platform.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will never forget the martyrdom of Hajj Qasem [sic] Soleimani and will definitely strike a reciprocal blow to the US [sic],” Khamenei wrote in a tweet, that is still up on the social media platform.
Scott slammed this double standard for authoritarian “thugs” versus conservative Americans and politicians by the Big Tech companies.
“You can’t allow thugs like Maduro in Venezuela and the Ayatollah on a site and then not let a conservative in America on a site,” Scott said.
“It doesn’t make any sense. But people are being canceled all over this country because they have a different view than what some of the Big Tech companies want.”
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Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
