Crushed: Big Tech's War on Free Speech with a Foreword by Senator Ted Cruz
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AMERICAN DEMOCRACY IS AT RISK
"No one--conservative or liberal--should be comfortable with a few Silicon Valley oligarchs having a monopoly over the marketplace of ideas, and with it, democracy itself." -- Senator Ted Cruz
When the Founding Fathers drafted our Constitution, they had no idea there would be a "Big Tech" - nor any concept of the immense power these companies would wield over our people. But the Fathers did provide mechanisms -- a system of check and balances -- for the people to stop dangerous monopolies like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon from suffocating our business and political life. Few know more about these mechanisms than Rep. Ken Buck, who has been a leader in Congress fighting against the unchecked power of Big Tech.
In CRUSHED: Big Tech's War on Free Speech, Buck exposes the bullying and predatory behavior from the Big Tech giants who have used their technologies and their unbelievable market shares to stifle commerce and censor free speech. He spells out the inside details of how these companies restrict free markets, stop competition, increase prices, and ultimately hurt consumers. Even worse, Big Tech companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook are actively censoring conservative news and views, as they openly manipulate information provided to voters. Ken Buck shows how these tech giants are true monopolies and their concentrated power pose a serious danger for our democracy.
In contrast to the robber barons of the Gilded Age who simply posed a threat to commerce, Big Tech threatens the very core of our political system. They control the flow of information shared with the public for their own financial and political gain. In CRUSHED, Ken Buck argues that while Americans are under siege by Big Tech, we are not destroyed. We can still take on Big tech, fight back and even win. The future of our nation depends on it, he says.
IT IS TIME TO FIGHT BACK!
ISBN-13: 9781630062477
Media Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Humanix Books
Publication Date: 01-17-2023
Pages: 256
Product Dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
KEN BUCK is a Republican Congressman representing Colorado's 4th Congressional District. He was first elected to Congress on November 4, 2014, and is currently serving his fourth term in the United States House of Representatives.Congressman Buck is the Ranking Member on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. He also serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee; the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship; and on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, The Pacific, and Nonproliferation.Buck learned the value of hard work from his grandfather, who opened a shoe repair store in Greeley in the 1930s. One of three brothers, he worked his way through high school, college, and law school as a janitor, truck driver, furniture mover, and ranch hand.After law school, Buck worked for Congressman Dick Cheney (R-WY) on the Iran-Contra Investigation and then became a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1990, he joined the Colorado U.S. Attorney’s Office where he became the Chief of the Criminal Division.In 2002, Buck joined Hensel Phelps Construction Co. in Greeley as a business executive. Starting in 2004, Buck was elected Weld County District Attorney three times. He led a staff of more than sixty people with a strong record of criminal prosecution and crime prevention. Under his leadership, the crime rate in Weld County dropped 50%, one of the best records in the country.Congressman Buck is a Christian and a leader in his profession and community. He has volunteered and served on the boards of many important community groups. As District Attorney, Buck brought together community leaders to create the Juvenile Assessment Center. The Center has helped more than two thousand kids and their families get back on the right path in life.Buck’s son Cody graduated from West Point and served in the U.S. Army and his daughter Kaitlin works as a business executive in Colorado.He lives & works in the Boulder, CO metro area and Washington, D.C.https://buck.house.gov/
Chapter 1: Censoring Political Debate of CRUSHED: Big Tech's War on Free Speech by Ken Buck On the evening of Wednesday, September 22, 2010, I flew into Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. I had three fundraisers to attend the following day. Breakfast in Dallas, lunch in Austin and dinner in Houston. With all that meeting, greeting and eating in the near future, I made it a point to go for a workout. I checked in to my hotel, changed, and headed to the gym for a quick workout. I got on the treadmill. It was one of those high-tech, fufu machines with a TV screen in the middle of the control panel. I didn’t have any headphones, so I just started the machine to do what it was actually built for — working out. There was a younger guy on the machine next to me. He had planned ahead and brought earphones, so he was locked into the screen in front of him. I didn’t mind. I wanted to run, not chat. Running for election is work. Running for myself is not. Then I glanced to my left and got a shock: My face was on his TV. I looked a little harder and saw a caption below my face. It said: World’s Worst American. Of course, I couldn’t hear what was being said about me. But I knew it wasn’t anything good with a caption like that. So I just kept running. My neighbor took a glance at me that turned into a double-take. I could see him looking back and forth as he compared me to the World’s Worst American on his mini TV. Then my image was replaced by liberal bloviator Keith Olberman, a man who’s made a career passing judgment on everyone but himself. My neighbor hit the stop button on his treadmill and continued watching the show as his machine slowed. He ripped his headphone from the machine while shaking his head. Finally, he looked in my direction and made eye contact, rewarding me with a nasty sneer before leaving the gym. I continued running. Now I was the one shaking my head in disbelief. I still had no idea what Olberman said about me or why I was pictured beside such a damning phrase. And the irritated jogger hadn’t asked me if any of what Olberman said was true. He just assumed it was and stomped off. I upped the speed on the treadmill, and I consoled myself with a positive thought: This is what makes America great. I don’t mind what happened in Dallas, or in MSNBC’s New York studio. I think it’s worth celebrating — and not just because I view getting insulted by a knee-jerk liberal on MSNBC as a badge of honor. No, while I always advocate for dialogue, civility, analysis and understanding over spite and condemnation, I’m okay with people who don’t like what I say. That’s called supporting free speech. I’m happy to be insulted on a reality-challenged liberal TV network because I believe in the absolute right to the uncensored exchange of ideas and information. Olberman has every right to say what he believes — as long as it isn’t libelous or inciting violence. And I have the right to do the same. Meanwhile, our fellow citizens have the right to judge the ideas we espouse and make their own determinations. Unfortunately, free speech and the exchange of ideas — often conservative ideas — are under attack in America. These assaults, often perpetuated by all-powerful Big Tech companies and liberal activists who should know better, are indirect attacks on the two things that lie at the core of America’s strength: our democracy and our economy. We need to fix this to protect our present and to ensure our future. Or as the preamble of the Constitution puts it, to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” The Marketplace of Ideas In 1859, political economist John Stuart Mill wrote a book called On Liberty. Chapter 2 focused on the importance of the free flow of ideas. Mill believed that ideas should compete against each other for the good of all. In his view, every idea —from theories and policy to inventions and products — should be evaluated by society to determine their “truth” or “effectiveness.” For Mill, ensuring an unimpeded flow was a way to protect individual independence and prevent social control by a government or an oppressive popular idea. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, built on Mill’s ideas while writing a dissenting opinion in 1919, “The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas — that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.” Over time, MIll and Holmes’ views have become encapsulated by a single, vital phrase: the marketplace of ideas. This marketplace has no physical location, of course. It is an abstract but very real term for something that exists or should exist in free, open societies — where ideas gain acceptance by competing with one another, without the threat of censorship, to prove their value. Competition in the marketplace of ideas is based on quality, on evaluation, on free and unfettered exchange with whatever communication methods are available. Recently,, however, as Big Tech companies consolidate power and influence our leaders, America is now a place where too often opinions are stifled or labeled dangerous. Public and private figures are silenced and even banned from digital platforms. Giant corporations use their market share power and technology to squash competitors, stealing rival technology, or simply buying an innovative rival and shutting it down. This behavior stops the flow of ideas. It shrinks and even shutters both the marketplace of ideas and the marketplace of commerce. In doing so, it destroys competition, which, in turn, destroys our social and economic growth. A Storm of Quieting Most Americans probably don’t think of censorship occurring within our borders. They think it happens in other places — China, Saudi Arabia, Russia. North Korea, Iran, Myanmar. These repressive countries limit and monitor speech to frightening degrees. The Chinese Communist Party has thwarted any talk of democratic reform for decades, most recently crushing protest and dissent in Hong Kong. It has created a giant firewall to prevent its citizens from reading foreign websites criticizing its leaders or policies. As I was finishing this book, Russian leader Vladimir Putin signed a law that would punish anyone publishing “fake news” with up to 15 years in jail — a move with a chilling effect on Russian citizens, and foreign journalists reporting in Russia. Communist governments and centralized monarchies like Saudi Arabia are threatened by dissent. By new ideas. With power and wealth consolidated at the top, most citizens of these countries cannot rise socially and economically. These systems — which artificially control financial markets — cannot allow a marketplace of ideas to flourish because that marketplace is too threatening; it challenges governmental authority. The same goes for freedom of speech. The opposite of freedom is control or enslavement. This is why authoritarian and totalitarian, non-democratic governments rely on censorship. Freedom is a threat to power. I’m not grandstanding here. The American Dream — a phrase the whole world understands — is a dream of freedom, of fair play and financial potential. Is there a similar expression for authoritarian countries? I don’t recall ever hearing anyone pining for the Russian, Chinese or Saudi Dream. When it comes to turning a dream into reality, the cornerstone of American growth and prosperity is the First Amendment. It’s worth emphasizing these guarantees were listed first for a reason: our founders believed in guaranteeing freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly and the right to petition for change were hugely important. You could say they provide a secure, positive foundation for the marketplace to thrive. Big Tech seems to feel differently. Silencing In Plain Sight Ironically, this subtle censorship of speech and restrictions on the marketplace of ideas is spearheaded by four companies that most people think of as promoting speech. These Big Tech players rank among the most highly valued corporations in the world: Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon. There is a fifth major player that belongs in this group: Twitter, a giant messaging, marketing and amplification platform. It doesn’t have the profits or valuation of its Big Tech buddies, it is part of their ideologically-driven cartel that claims to be open to all, but selectively flexes its muscles as thought police. On the surface, these companies facilitate communication. Apple and Google own the world’s two dominant cellphone platforms: iOS and Android. Social media behemoth Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and a less entrenched telecom system, What’s App, is, along with Google, the world’s biggest disseminator of information — news, ideas, opinions. It facilitates sharing of information (posts, photos, news articles, music, videos) in order to gather vast troves of personal user data about their users and then sell that information to advertisers. Amazon dominates American retail, capturing two-thirds of online shopping traffic in the U.S., and provides the backbone of the web for millions of businesses via Amazon Web Services. I’m describing this Big Tech foursome in very broad strokes here — I’ll zero in on specific abuses later — but the takeaway should be clear. Through market share, technology, and policy, Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon have acquired control over the essential infrastructure of America’s commerce and communications. They are monopolies. Their concentrated power and foundational technologies make them the gatekeepers to the marketplace of ideas. They make the rules about what society sees: what information is added to a news feed, what apps are sold on their phones, what products are listed in their search results. In other words, their power and their business models result in the selective dissemination of information and infringe on the free flow of ideas. This power should concern all citizens , regardless of party. Silencing a conservative is just as dangerous and damaging as silencing a liberal. l. Old Story, New Dangers America has weathered enormous monopolies before. The wealthy robber barons of the late 19th century and early 20th century controlled energy, finance, steel, and commercial transportation. Those captains of commerce — John D. Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt — could only influence our democracy through bribes, newspaper ownership, union-busting and other political peddling schemes to ensure market control and profits. Yes, they also created foundations and charities that have rehabilitated their names. And in the same vein, it is important to bear in mind the Big Four have done immense good, creating platforms and services that have fueled enormous growth and often life-changing progress. But that doesn’t mean that they haven’t engaged in nefarious conduct. Far from it. Some economists believe we have now entered a second Gilded Age, with Big Tech as the new Robber Barons. They make a compelling case. Today’s big tech monopolies threaten the core of our economic system by engaging in predatory pricing, exclusionary fees, anti-competitive take-overs, and more. They also threaten the core of the political system by controlling what information is distributed to the public and disseminating or impeding that information to benefit their own commercial interests and political views. The huge troves of personal data these monopolies gather influence that distribution — to spur more engagement, sales, and, often ideological reinforcement, all of which is designed to create a compelling, convenient, seemingly harmless user experience that keeps unwitting consumers coming back for more. Indeed, most users regard the Big Four and Twitter as platforms that provide useful, positive services, not censorious, digital gatekeepers. They are, unfortunately, both. Power Over Freedom Big Tech is aware of its power and its profits. Hyper aware. There are a number of bills circulating through Congress that are concerned with safeguarding the marketplace of ideas. Big Tech is heavily invested in maintaining the status quo of enormous profits and valuations. They are fully engaged in political patronage — hiring the family members of elected leaders, making political donations to campaigns. Meta, the company that owns Facebook, spent $20 million on lobbying in 2021. Amazon spent more than $19 million. The only public company that spent more on lobbying was Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Why spend this money and make these hires? It’s a gigantic effort to create a feedback loop of influence in Washington in an effort to stop any challenges to their massive power. That power — and the responsible wielding of that power — should concern Americans on both sides of the aisle. If Big Tech remains unchecked, its power threatens the foundational ideas of America. For those who might think this is alarmist, let me be clear: I believe in free, unregulated markets. When I began to examine the evils perpetrated by Big Tech, I thought the market would correct itself. Now I understand that Big Tech is so powerful it can and does control many aspects of the commercial marketplace and the marketplace of ideas in our society in a way that defies oversight by the market, courts, or government regulators. We have seen dissenting voices thrown off Twitter and Facebook. We have seen anti-establishment views about Covid-19 silenced. We have seen posts censored. We have seen news articles buried in search results. We have seen proprietorial data and intellectual property brazenly stolen in broad daylight and utilized by Big Tech. The marketplace of ideas is now a gated community with the digital sphere. For 200 hundred years, that marketplace was, by and large, self-regulated. Not anymore. Rather than regulate these monopolies, we need laws that foster competition, letting the free market flourish. We need to make sure monopolies do not use their market dominance to stifle innovation and competition. Allowing that may harm our society as a whole, reducing consumer choices and raising prices. Some might suggest this is a form of big government regulation. However, that is a case of missing the forest for the trees. These monopolies already regulate what is said and what is seen, read, and digested. They determine what is sold and promoted on their platforms. Their algorithms determine what we see and what we don’t see because they place relevance values on content. If an article, book, video, photograph is given a low relevance rank, you may never learn of its existence. That kind of control can be leveraged to curry favor with or actively harm a person, politician or party. Influence In Action During the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, both Facebook and Twitter actively prevented potentially damaging New York Post reports about Joe Biden’s son Hunter from reaching the public. Reacting to reports about contents of Hunter Biden’s discarded laptop computer, including emails that show he introduced his father to a Ukrainian energy executive (something that the elder Biden had denied), Facebook rep Andy Stone said “we are reducing [the Post's] distribution on our platform.” Twitter was even more censorious: it blocked users from posting links to the Post’s story and shut the paper’s Twitter account for two weeks. Interestingly, a year later — after the election was over and Biden was in the Oval Office — Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted the so-called hacking offense was non-existent and silencing the Post was a “mistake.” This was a clear case of Big Tech suppressing information that might have changed the outcome of the 2020 election. They were gatekeepers, selectively determining which stories made it into the marketplace of the news. Similarly, Google’s search is an incredible product. But its proprietary algorithmic relevance logic is, by definition, intrinsically exclusionary. Some results appear prominently at the top of the page, others are buried far below. While the powers that be at Google insist there is no political bias in its search engine, one 2018 report found that a news search on the term “Trump” returned an overwhelming number of articles from left of center outlets. The first page included two links to CNN, CBS, The Atlantic, CNBC, The New Yorker, and Politico. There were no right-leaning sites listed. Similarly, Google’s popular Chrome browser allows users to receive news links on the Google homepage. These links feed users’ articles based on previous searches and browser history. This type of personalization is impressive; it also runs the risk of creating a silo of information — creating closed mini-marketplaces of ideas based only on what you’ve read previously. Every day it provides new links to keep individualized news and information hamster wheels spinning. The number of instances when Big Tech uses its monopoly to suppress opinions keeps growing, frequently targeting conservative politicians. Rand Paul has found himself locked out of his Facebook page for “repeatedly going against our community standards;” suspended from Twitter for questioning the effectiveness of masks; and had video removed from YouTube, which is owned by Google. 2021 also saw a host of other suspensions. Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson was temporarily blocked from YouTube for comments about Covid treatments. And Indiana representative Jim Banks was suspended for two weeks after mocking Time Magazine for giving the Woman of the Year award to a transgender woman. Meanwhile, the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, has been suspended from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. The man who received nearly 47 percent of the vote — over 74 million ballots — has been suspended from America's most popular internet platforms. Twitter decided his presence was a “risk of further incitement of violence.” Ironically, Trump is a victim of Big Tech discovering and honing its own power. Social media platforms were credited with substantially assisting Obama’s victory in the 2008 Presidential Election. Silicon Valley celebrated its ability to elect a young liberal upstart and defeat the entrenched Democratic Clinton machine. The lessons of 2008 were not lost on Donald Trump. He used the same social media platforms in 2016 to bypass the mainstream media and speak directly to the people. Trump’s victory shook Big Tech. They realized that they had created a pathway for conservatives to bypass the liberal media organizations that traditionally blistered conservative candidates. Now that pathway is being selectively monitored. Speaking Out For Democracy For 25 years, I was a federal prosecutor and district attorney. I woke up every day with a passion for doing the right thing. Now that I serve in Congress, that passion has only increased. As a free-market advocate, I have no problem when businesses seek to monetize human interaction. As an American, however, I have a huge problem when those businesses divide and censor my fellow citizens and seek to control the marketplace of ideas for their own profit. This book is for all Americans who believe in the democratic ideals of free speech and free markets, and adhere to our nation-defining concept that all men are created equal and deserve equal opportunity and a level playing field. Thomas Jefferson, who famously created this template of equality, was not a big believer in big government. “Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap,” he wrote in his autobiography, “we should soon want bread.” But Jefferson was also wary of unfair competition and pushed against any impulse to give Congress the power to allow monopolies. Patents and copyright are as close as the government has ever come to empowering exclusive commercial endeavors. Freedom of speech is an issue that concerns all Americans. The current and looming crisis posed by Big Tech should bridge any conservative-liberal divide. Suppressing or controlling speech — other than incitement, like screaming fire in a crowded movie theater when there isn’t one — should concern everyone: Civil rights advocates, people of all faiths, republicans and democrats, Tea Party members and socialists — everyone on the political spectrum. With big tech’s massive financial resources and command of critical digital media, these companies are positioned to dominate and distort the marketplace of ideas. This threat to free speech is a risk that America can’t afford. In the upcoming chapters, I want to delve into how we got to this precarious point. To do that, I want to examine the history of free speech, anti-monopoly law, how competition prevents collusion of Big government and Big Business. I’ll also detail the endless stream of outrageous abuses perpetrated by the Big Four. Cataloging these abuses is disturbing and enraging. But only by exploring the misdeeds and the vulnerability of our current power structure can we take steps to protect it. Unlike the current Big Tech philosophy, my goal in these pages is not to divide us, but to point our nation toward a more stable, thriving future that is richer and fairer. For allRead an Excerpt
FOREWORD Chapter 1 Censoring Political Debate: Conservative Ideas Under Attack Chapter 2 America’s Heritage: Free Markets and Free Speech Chapter 3 Repeat Until True: How and Why Big Tech Fans the Flames that Divide Us Chapter 4 A Patented Disgrace: Big Tech Invents the Destruction of Innovation Chapter 5 The Puppet Show: How Big Tech Censors and Devalues the Press Chapter 6 A Poisoned Apple : Self-Preferencing and the App Store’s Restrictive Power Chapter 7 INSTA-GRAB: Mergers & Acquisitions (& Deceptions) at Facebook Chapter 8 GOOGLE’s AD-VANTAGE : Collusion, Privacy, and Portability Chapter 9 JUNGLE PREDATOR: How Amazon’s Monopoly Abuses Destroy Competition, Innovation, and Free Speech Chapter 10 DOUBLE TALKING DOUBLE STANDARDS: Hypocrisy of Big Tech on Free speech Chapter 11 THE SWAMP: All of the Above Chapter 12 OBLIGATION OF DEMOCRACY: A Citizens Guide to Reigning in Big Tech EPILOGUE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INDEX ABOUT THE AUTHORTable of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS to CRUSHED: Big Tech's War on Free Speech by Ken Buck