Transcript of Trump's December 15 Announcement about Censorship, and Free Speech
If we donโt have free speech, we donโt have a free country. Itโs as simple as that. If this most fundamental right is allowed to perish, the rest of our rights and liberties will topple, like dominoes.
Thatโs why today Iโm announcing my plan to shatter the leftwing censorship regime, and to reclaim the right to free speech for all Americans. And reclaim is a very important word in this case, because theyโve taken it away.
In recent weeks, bombshell reports have confirmed a sinister group of deep state bureaucrats, Silicon Valley tyrants, left wing activists, and depraved corporate news media, have been conspiring to manipulate and silence the American people. They have collaborated to suppress vital information on everything from elections to public health. The censorship cartel must be dismantled and destroyed, and it must happen immediately.
Here is my plan.
First, within hours of my inauguration, I will sign an executive order, banning any federal department or agency from colluding with any organization, business, or person to censor, limit, categorize or impede the lawful speech of American citizens. I will then ban federal money from being used to label domestic speech to be labeled as mis or disinformation. And I will begin the process of identifying and firing every federal bureaucrat who has engaged in domestic censorship, directly or indirectly, whether they are the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI, the DOJ, no matter who they are.
Second, I will order the DOJ to investigate all parties involved in the new online censorship regime, which is absolutely destructive and terrible, and to aggressively prosecute any and all crimes identified. These crimes include possible violations of federal civil rights law, camp finance laws, federal election laws, securities laws, anti-trust laws, the Hatch Act, and a host of other potential criminal, civil, regulatory and Constitutional offenses.
To assist in these efforts, I am urging House Republicans to immediately send preservation letters. We have to do this right now. To the Biden administration, the Biden campaign, and every Silicon Valley tech giant, ordering them not to destroy evidence of censorship.
Third, upon my inauguration as president, I will ask Congress to send a bill to my desk revising Section 230. To get big online platforms out of censorship business. From now on, digital platforms should only qualify for immunity protection under Section 230 if they meet high standards of neutrality, transparency, fairness, and non-discrimination. We should require these platforms to increase their efforts to take down unlawful content such as child exploitation, and promoting terrorism while dramatically curtailing their power to arbitrarily restrict lawful speech.
Fourth, we need to break up the entire toxic censorship industry that has arisen under the false guise of tackling so called mis and disinformation. The federal government should immediately stop funding all nonprofits and academic programs that support this authoritarian project.
If any US university is discovered to have engaged in censorship activities, or election interference in the past, such as flagging social media content for removal, or blacklisting, those universities should lose federal research dollars, and federal student loan support for a period of five years, and maybe more.
We should also enact new laws laying out clear criminal penalties for federal bureaucrats who partner with private entities to do an end run around the Constitution, and deprive Americans of their First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights. In other words, deprive them of their vote. And once you lose your elections, and once you lose your borders like we have, you no longer have a country.
Furthermore, to confront the problems of major platforms being infiltrated by legions of former deep-staters and intelligence officials, there should be a seven year cooling-off period before any employee of the FBI, CIA, NSA, DNI, DHS, or DOD is allowed to take a job at a company possessing vast quantities of US user data.
Fifth, the time has finally come for Congress to pass a digital bill of rights. This should include a right to digital due process. In other words, government offs should need a court order to take down online content; not send information requests such as the FBI was sending to twitter.
Furthermore, when users of big online platforms have their content or accounts removed, throttled, shadow-banned, or otherwise restricted, no matter what name they use, they should have the right to be informed that itโs happening; the right to a specific explanation of the reason why, and the right to a timely appeal. In addition, all users over the age of 18 should have the right to opt out of content moderation and curation entirely, and receive an unmanipulated stream of information, if they so choose.
The fight for free speech is a matter of victory or death for American, and for the survival of western civilization itself. When I am president, this whole rotten system of censorship and information control will be ripped out of the system at large. There wonโt be anything left.
By restoring free speech, we will begin to reclaim our democracy and save our nation. Thank you, and God bless America