TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: Good evening and welcome to Tucker Carlson Tonight. As Washington fusses over the Russia hoax for the third year in a row, the big tech companies have launched their fiercest attack yet on your right as an American to follow your conscience and say what you believe. Unlike earlier generations of authoritarians, the tech moguls don’t say any of this out loud. They’re not honorable enough to state their intentions clearly. Instead they drape censorship in the soothing banality of HR-department cliches. Listen here to Mark Zuckerberg explain that the death of free speech in America is actually a really positive thing we all need to get behind:



ZUCKERBERG: We’re taking a more proactive role in making sure our partners and developers use our services for good... We’re very focused on making sure our recommendations and discovery services aren't highlighting groups where people are repeatedly sharing misinformation or harmful content. We're working hard to remove groups if they exist primarily to violate our policies or do things that are dangerous.



“Groups that do things that are dangerous.” What exactly does that mean? “Dangerous,” like hurting other people? Or “dangerous,” as in saying things that Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t like or considers bad for business? Two days later, we found out. Facebook released its latest enemies list. Alex Jones, Milo Yiannpoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Louis Farrakhan, and Laura Loomer were all designated “dangerous individuals” and banned from Facebook and from its subsidiary, Instagram. Alex Jones’s company, Infowars, was banned as well, and described as a “dangerous organization.” How dangerous is Infowars? So dangerous that you can be banned from Facebook just for sharing its content, unless you also denounce it. Think about that for a moment. Mark Zuckerberg isn't just censoring opinions. He is prescribing which political opinions you're allowed to hold, which conversations Americans can have about their country. Keep in mind, nobody voted for Mark Zuckerberg. He’s 34 years old. He is completely cut off from reality. He is worth 72 billion dollars. He can single handedly make our first amendment irrelevant.



Remarkably, our media think that’s great. Journalists are supposed to defend free speech. But when corporate America issues an order, they reflexively obey. Listen to them celebrate Mark Zuckerberg and sell you out completely:



KASIE HUNT: Why are they doing this now?



NBC REPORTER BEN COLLINS: it’s a good question as to why they waited this long.





KASIE HUNT: Exactly.



NBC REPORTER BEN COLLINS: Yeah. (laughs) Alex Jones has been banned for some time but now they banned his little underling, Paul Joseph Watson.



DEREK THOMPSON, THE ATLANTIC: Now that they kicked them off the platform, that’s great for now but it doesn’t roll back the clock.



JOY BEHAR: Well you have excesses in the first amendment and the second amendment right now. I don’t think the forefathers said you can say all sorts of hateful things and spread it around the world through the internet.



ANA NAVARO ON THE VIEW: I have no issue with it at all. I want them shut down. I want them silenced. I want them muted. I think they are horrible for our society.



“I want them shut down. I want them silenced.” Don’t worry. These people aren’t terrifying or anything. Don’t kid yourself. It’s not just Alex Jones they want silenced. Recently, the Poynter Institute put out a list of what they called “Unreliable” news outlets. Poynter crafted the list with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center, so you can imagine who was on it: The Washington Free Beacon, the Daily Caller, the Daily Signal, the Washington Examiner, and just about everyone else who is not CNN or MSNBC. Poynter called for advertisers to blacklist and bankrupt these news outlets. Their fellow progressives applauded. As far as they’re concerned, this is total war. We are watching in real time as this country becomes unfree. Who’s defending us here? Where are our leaders in Congress? Where is the White House? As long as big tech isn’t hassling them personally — as long as their accounts remain open — they don’t seem to care. They are fools. Will any of these people get re-elected if leftwing tech companies can control the terms of political debate? Can you really win a presidential election if Google opposes you? No way. Not a chance. Not right now. Without freedom of speech, there can be no democracy. It’s time to stop lying about that.