On Thursday former President Donald Trump released a video announcing his Free Speech Policy Proposal to "shatter the censorship regime" and "reclaim the right to free speech."
The video is reportedly the first in a series in support of Trump's 2024 Presidential bid, according to Human Events' Jack Posobiec, who exclusively posted the proposal.
"If we don't have free speech then we just don't have a free country. It's as simple as that," said the former President. "If this most fundamental right is allowed to perish then the rest of our rights and liberties will topple just like dominoes — one by one they'll go down."
"Today I'm announcing my plan to shatter the left-wing censorship regime and to reclaim the right to free speech for all Americans."
Trump referenced recent Twitter Files revelations reported by journalists Matt Taibbi, Michael Schellenberger, and former New York Times editor Bari Weiss saying a sinister group of unelected officials along with Silicon Valley and progressive activists "collaborated to suppress vital information on everything from elections to public health."
The former President referred to the group as a "censorship cartel" calling for them to be "dismantled and destroyed immediately."
Trump detailed his plan to secure reelection: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 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, Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI, the DOJ, no matter who they are. I will order the Department of Justice to investigate all parties involved in the new online censorship regime ... and to prosecute any and all crimes identified. [Including] possible violations of federal civil rights law, campaign finance laws, federal election law, securities law, and anti-trust laws, the Hatch Act and a host of other potential criminal civil regulatory and constitutional offenses.
The former President further urged House Republicans to send preservation letters demanding the Biden administration, campaign, and Silicon Valley corporations to not destroy evidence of censorship: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.We need to break up the entire toxic censorship industry that has arisen under the false guise of tackling so called "mis" and "disinformation."
Trump also proposed a five-year end to federal funding and federal student loan support for non-profits and academic programs, including universities in the United States if it was discovered the entity previously engaged in censorship activities or election interference like blacklisting social media content.
"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," said Trump, proposing a seven-year "cooling off" period for former employees of the FBI, CIA, NSA, DNI, DHS, or DOD before assuming employment in a company possessing “vast quantities of U.S. data."
Trump further urged Congress to pass a "Digital Bill of Rights" that secures the right to "digital due process.” This proposal would require government officials to obtain a court order to remove content online. Users should have the right to be informed of being shadow-banned, content throttled, or restricted regardless of online identity by platforms along with a specific reason for the platform's decision and "the right to a timely appeal."
Users over the age of 18 should be granted the right to opt-out of content moderation and algorithm curation in favor of an "unmanipulated stream of information."
"The fight for free speech is a matter of victory or death for America and a fight for survival of western civilization itself," Trump concluded.
