(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) has filed a shareholder resolution seeking information regarding Alphabet, Inc.’s role in censoring its platforms at the government’s request, according to Fox Business.
Alphabet is the parent company of Google and YouTube.
“Shareholders need to know whether the company is cooperating with government officials engaged in unconstitutional censorship, opening the company to liability claims by victims,” the NLPC, which holds shares in Alphabet, wrote in its resolution.
“The shareholders request that Alphabet Inc. . . . provide a report, published on the company’s website . . . that specifies the company’s policy in responding to requests to remove or take down material from its platforms,” the resolution continued.
The resolution was issued, in part, in response to White House press secretary Jen Psaki‘s admission last year that the Biden administration has been pressuring social media companies to censor “misinformation.”
“We are in regular touch with these social media platforms, and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff, but also members of our COVID-19 team,” Psaki said, adding that social media companies “measure and publicly share the impact of misinformation on their platform.”
“The case for this kind of disclosure is double barreled,” NLPC chairman Peter Flaherity told the Washington Free Beacon.
“All citizens should be aware when the government engages in censorship, even if it is through a private-sector company, and shareholders of that company should know when they become a party to it,” Flaherty said.
“The administration keeps labeling certain information about the pandemic ‘disinformation’ . . . only to later embrace the same information,” Flaherty continued. “Alphabet should not be contributing to such a farce.”
Psaki more recently once again called for the media to censor any views that ran counter to the Biden administration’s guidance.
This is such a blatant violation of the First Amendment. A red line has been crossed.https://t.co/Bv0v9Ax885
— Bongino Report (@BonginoReport) February 2, 2022
