Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Meta’s newly announced opposition to censorship content could go beyond supporting free speech, a proposition raised by Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan.
Khan shared her assessment during an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, indicating that companies such as Meta and Amazon could be seeking “some type of sweetheart deal” during litigation with the FTC. Upon being asked about Khan’s suggestion, Paul said Meta’s decision to eliminate fact-checkers is “probably a little bit of both” seeking a deal and wanting to support free speech going into President-elect Donald Trump‘s administration.
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“What I really don’t like is the government talking with Big Tech and talking with social media and saying, ‘Hey, we want you to take down this person’s opinion on COVID, this person’s opinion on vaccines, this person’s opinion on Hunter Biden’s laptop,’” Paul explained on Fox News’s Fox & Friends. “That’s not a role of government, that’s censorship. And Google can do whatever they want on their own, but the government should not be meeting with them with the FBI and others to pressure them, cajole them, coerce them into restricting speech.”
Paul also said that the government pressuring social media and technology companies to take certain actions is a violation of the First Amendment, adding that he has a bill that would stop that. Paul introduced the bill in question, the Standing to Challenge Government Censorship Act, with Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) and former Rep. Dan Bishop last year.
On Tuesday, the Kentucky senator took a victory lap on social media about Meta’s decision to axe its fact-checkers, describing it as “a great birthday present to wake up to” and a major victory for free speech in the nation.
.@Meta finally admits to censoring speech…what a great birthday present to wake up to and a huge win for free speech. https://t.co/LeTdJESdcJ
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 7, 2025
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in a new video that its fact-checkers had become “too politically biased,” which damaged the trust Meta once had with the public. As such, the platform is adopting a community notes feature similar to the one used by X, allowing users “to provide their own commentary to something that they’ve read” rather than leaving it up to fact-checkers.
Zuckerberg has also announced that Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White, an ally and friend of Trump, would join Meta’s board of directors. White was one of several speakers at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in October 2024 and was also featured in the first TikTok video Trump posted to the social media site.
