A self-governing republic cannot operate without a free flow of information. Regrettably, Big Tech is becoming increasingly censorious.
For example, YouTube recently blocked a “Who’s Counting?” podcast at the Election Integrity Network with attorney Cleta Mitchell interviewing former Department of Justice official and President of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, J. Christian Adams.
Why did YouTube do this? It’s because Christian has firsthand experience with the left’s abuse of DOJ’s Voting Rights division, where he used to work, and he exposes it. Fortunately, the interview can still be seen on Rumble.
Alternative sources of information are becoming more and more important. Suppression of conservative views, like the “Who’s Counting?” incident, is rampant on YouTube, Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The transformation of the legacy media, along with most of Big Tech’s platforms, into instruments of propaganda threatens everything from freedom of the press, religion and speech to economic freedom and national security.
How bad is it and what is being done about it?
Kara Frederick
As a Research Fellow in the Center for Technology Policy at The Heritage Foundation, Kara Frederick focuses on Big Tech and emerging technology.
Born and raised in Dansville, N.Y., Kara Frederick received her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Grove City College in 2006. She also holds a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University. In addition to her public policy pursuits, Rachel is an accomplished sommelier, a wine educator, and a diploma candidate in the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.
Prior to joining Heritage, she was a Fellow for the Technology & National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where she concentrated on high-tech illiberalism, data privacy, and digital surveillance.
Before CNAS, Kara helped create and lead Facebook’s Global Security Counterterrorism Analysis Program. She was also the team lead for Facebook Headquarters’ Regional Intelligence Team in Menlo Park, California. Prior to Facebook, she was a Senior Intelligence Analyst for a U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command and spent six years as a counterterrorism analyst at the Department of Defense. While at the Department of Defense, she deployed three times to Afghanistan in support of special operations forces, served as a briefer to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict, and was a liaison to the National Security Agency.
She is a regular guest on Fox News and Fox Business and has been interviewed on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” CNBC, C-SPAN, NPR, BBC, Voice of America, and other national and international programs. She has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, War on the Rocks, Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, and C4ISRNet, and quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Economist, Bloomberg, Axios, POLITICO, The Hill, Defense One, and more.
Kara has testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism and spent two years as a lecturer on technology and international affairs at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington, D.C. She is currently a Fellow with the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
A Marine Corps brat, she received her MA in war studies from King’s College London and her BA in foreign affairs and history from the University of Virginia, where she played Division I soccer.
Rachel Bovard
With over a decade of experience fighting for conservative policies in Washington, Rachel Bovard has served in both the House and Senate in various roles including as legislative director for Sen. Rand Paul.
Rachel went on to serve as policy director for the Senate Steering Committee under the successive chairmanships of Senator Pat Toomey and Senator Mike Lee, where she advised Committee members on strategy related to floor procedure and policy matters. In the House, she worked as senior legislative assistant to Congressman Donald Manzullo and Congressman Ted Poe. She also served as director of policy services for The Heritage Foundation.
In 2013, she was named one of National Journal’s Most Influential Women in Washington under 35. Her policy analysis and punditry appear widely in print and on television. Rachel serves on USA Today’s Board of Contributors, and she is also the senior tech columnist for The Federalist.
She currently serves as Senior Director of Policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute.
Along with CPI’s Chairman, Sen. Jim DeMint, Rachel is the co-author of “Conservative: Knowing What To Keep.” She also serves on the board of the Council for National Policy Action, the advisory board of American Moment, and both the advisory board and board of The American Conservative.
Please join us for this informative and stimulating conversation.
