Mike Davis: Twitter Advertisers Should Support Free Speech, Not The Woke Mob

Newsweek

Leftist activist groups recently signed an open letter calling for Twitter‘s major advertisers to pull down their ads from the social media website unless the activists’ demands were met. This attempt to shake down new Twitter CEO Elon Musk and his team is the latest shameless ploy by the Left to shut down opinions with which they disagree.

Musk’s commitment to free speech on Twitter is not only admirable, but necessary. For far too long, leftist ideology has dominated the social media landscape. Conservatives are regularly censored, while liberals and repressive foreign regimes can spew hate and falsehoods without any fear of repercussions.

The 40 organizations that signed the letter simply do not speak for the majority of Americans, or for the consumers of the businesses to which the letter was sent. They include Free Press, which has previously led boycotts of conservative media, the left-wing Center for American Progress, and Media Matters. These groups are beholden to their radical leftist donor base.

The radicals who put this letter together argue that Twitter isn’t brand-safe for major advertisers. Yet all of these groups regularly use Twitter to communicate their messages. If the site is safe enough for them to use and promote themselves, then why is it unsafe for organizations that advertise on it?

Over the past several years, so-called “content moderators” cheered on by leftist activist groups have flexed their muscle and exceeded every boundary imaginable. They made it their mission to censor the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story that the New York Post ran shortly before the 2020 presidential election. Before that, they shut down claims that COVID-19 may have originated in a lab, a theory that continues to gain traction and has never been disproven. To round it all out, conservative satire website The Babylon Bee lost its account for making jokes about a liberal government official.

Even after all of these massive missteps, leftist organizations are still arguing to keep this flawed system in place. And of course, because they deem themselves champions of truth and equity, they refuse to apologize for or even acknowledge their wrongdoing on any of these issues.

No more.

The reality is that no one party or ideology owns the truth. The track records of these leftist organizations are hardly something of which to be proud, and we should all take lessons from their dramatic failings. When you declare yourself the ultimate and absolute arbiter of truth, eventually you’ll head down a road littered with warning signs from George Orwell.

For far too long, Twitter has been an echo chamber for the far Left, spouting off talking points approved by career Washington politicians and the activists who enable them. Musk’s purchase of Twitter marks the first of many breaks in the wall blockading free speech online. Free speech is our ultimate tool against authoritarianism, preserving liberty and freedom in America and worldwide.

Musk has rightly said he doesn’t want to turn Twitter into a “free-for-all hellscape,” but there exists a path forward for the platform to respect free speech and maintain user experience without falling into anarchy. Companies should embrace free speech and refuse to give in to leftist dogma that fears free and open debate. Studies even show that companies that virtue signal to progressive activists lose credibility with the broader public, as their displays are seen as inauthentic.

Twitter is the online public square. It’s where everyone can share ideas, engage in debate, and shape public opinion. Twitter is where the conversation happens, so of course it’s a smart place for any company to advertise. Corporate America shouldn’t be bullied into withdrawing from a site where tens of millions of people spend hours every day. Twitter can now live up to the promise of being that dynamic place for exchanging ideas that so many long for in this time of hyperpartisanship.

Mike Davis is the founder and president of Unsilenced Majority, an organization dedicated to opposing cancel culture and fighting back against the woke mob and their enablers. Davis has served in all three branches of the federal government, including most recently as chief nominations counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee.