Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald appeared before Congress to provide insights on the “free and diverse press.” He said that mainstream media fuels the censorship by big tech platforms.
Greenwald founded The Intercept, but was forced out for his criticism of the outlet’s creeping censorship of criticism of President Biden.
He explained to Congress how mainstream media is against free speech, and how it actually encourages Big Tech platforms to suppress speech.
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“The one point I’d like to emphasize, Congressman, about that is Big Media, the largest media corporations in the United States, are not opposed to the censorious behavior of Big Tech. Quite the contrary, they’re the ones who have agitated for it most aggressively,” Greenwald said.
“If you ask people in Silicon Valley, they would all other things being equal prefer to be out of the business of content moderation and have been pressured by Big Media companies for both ideological and competitive reasons to silence others who might compete with these large outlets in the name of diversity,” he added.
He concluded by urging Congress to protect the free press.
“What I think everyone is saying is very valid in this concern for the viability of local media outlets. So if that’s the case, the focus ought to be on empowering these local media outlets to sustain themselves and to grow and flourish and not empower the actors who are causing so many of the problems which we are all talking about, which are big media outlets either acting in concert with Big Tech or in many cases co-opting the power that they wield.”
