Former President Barack Obama on Thursday night gave a major speech on technology at Stanford University. In it, he blasted tech companies for failing to curb this "disinformation problem" that he and other key figures on the Left have warned about.
Obama himself used pretty interesting language to discuss how those spewing disinformation go about doing so, even comparing Steve Bannon, a former advisor to former President Donald Trump, to Russia's Vladimir Putin. Such has been another tactic of the Left, to compare those they deemed problematic to Putin.
As our friends at Twitchy highlighted, people were quick to jump on Obama's calling out of "disinformation."
Obama: “People like Putin, and Steve Bannon for that matter, understand it’s not necessary for people to believe disinformation... You just have to flood a country’s public square with enough raw sewage.” pic.twitter.com/5XGXgfEQtA
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 21, 2022
Obama, as the post also reminded, was awarded PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" award in 2013 for his false promise that if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor when it comes to ObamaCare.
Speaking of ObamaCare and the former president's own contributions to disinformation, Matt had strong words for remarks Obama made earlier this month about his signature legislation, which is certainly not as affordable as it's chalked up to be.
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While the Left is fond of harping on Russigate, Democrats did their own meddling with Trump, including when it comes to the Steele Dossier and spying from the Obama White House. Though John Durham sure seems to be taking his time with his investigation, findings are being put out there, and they do appear to be vindicating Trump.
In addition to highlighting concerns of "disinformation," Obama repeated another narrative from his party, which is that "people are dying" from disinformation and how "democracies [are] more vulnerable."
Obama tweeted such talking points as well.
In recent years, we've seen how quickly disinformation spreads, especially on social media. This has created real challenges for our democracy.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 19, 2022
Tomorrow, I'm heading to Stanford to deliver a speech about changes in the way we create and consume information, and the very real threat it poses to democracy.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 20, 2022
Further, when it comes to influencing elections, social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter censored coverage from The New York Post that pointed to how the content of Hunter Biden's laptop revealed that his father, now President Joe Biden, was involved in some pretty shady business dealings.
This story was ultimately vindicated by mainstream media outlets that affirmed what the rest of us already knew, though not before it was too late. Polls show, as I've highlighted in previous VIP articles, how censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story affected voters and could very well have been the deciding factor in the 2020 presidential election that saw President Joe Biden defeat his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
On the topic of censorship, though, Obama boldly referred to himself as being "pretty close to a First Amendment absolutist."
Many mainstream outlets covering Obama's speech did not make reference to this part, though CNBC's Lauren Feiner did with her coverage:
Many conservative lawmakers have accused social media companies of censoring on the basis of ideology, though the platforms have denied this and said they simply enforce their community guidelines. Obama indicated that free speech arguments have severe limitations.
“I’m pretty close to a First Amendment absolutist,” Obama said. “The First Amendment is a check on the power of the state. It doesn’t apply to private companies like Facebook or Twitter, any more than it applies to editorial decisions made by the New York Times or Fox News. Never has. Social media companies already make choices about what is or is not allowed on their platforms and how that content appears. Both explicitly through content moderation and implicitly through algorithms. The problem is we often don’t know what principles govern those decisions.”
It appears that if Obama had his way, the situation would be worse, as he called for more "value judgments" when it comes to moderation and censorship. "While content moderation can limit the distribution of clearly dangerous content, it doesn’t go far enough," he chillingly said.
In contrast to the mainstream media, Breitbart's Charlie Spiering made Obama's points on censorship the focal point of his article.
Chuck Ross of The Washington Free Beacon also pointed out that the disinformation conference was full of disgraced figures when it comes to that very subject:
Obama will give the keynote speech at the symposium as part of his personal crusade to fight disinformation in the digital domain. He announced this week that the Obama Foundation will work with experts to combat disinformation, which he said poses "real challenges" for democracy. Obama reportedly joined the fight after discussions with Apple heiress Laurene Powell Jobs, who has funded a network of fake local news sites that push Democratic talking points.
...
...[Ben] Rhodes, a national security adviser to Obama, admitted in 2016 that he manipulated journalists in order to push favorable but misleading stories in the media. Rhodes bragged about creating an "echo chamber" of reporters who amplified White House spin. Rhodes also said he "largely manufactured" a narrative about the timeline by which the Obama administration began negotiating with the Iranian government about its nuclear energy program.
Two lesser-known panelists have been at the center of disinformation firestorms. Rashad Robinson, the president of the civil rights group Color of Change, repeatedly pushed the false claim that actor Jussie Smollett was the victim of an anti-gay, anti-black hate crime in Chicago in 2019. Robinson pushed the hoax even after evidence emerged that Smollett lied to police about the attack. Renee DiResta, a Stanford researcher moderating a session with Obama, advised a technology company that created fake Russian bots in order to influence Republican voters in the 2017 Alabama special election. DiResta told the Washington Post she knew the tech company was involved in the Alabama race, but she denied knowing about its deceptive tactics.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) had a telling reminder when sharing the article from his campaign account, as he did in a subsequent tweet.
The President who told Americans "if you like your plan, you can keep your plan" is lecturing us about disinformation. https://t.co/YlEvMzhpse
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) April 21, 2022
To the media, "disinformation" includes any facts that are damaging to Democrats.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) April 21, 2022
When they talk about "fighting disinformation," they really mean censoring conservative viewpoints.
A glowing report from The New York Times last updated earlier on Thursday mentioned Rhodes, but not the concerns laid out by Ross above.
The report did, however, did cite Kyle Plotkin, the former chief of staff to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). Plotkin offered "I don’t think he will move the ball forward. If anything, he moves the ball backward."
