by Bob Barr | Oct 19, 2020 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily CallerCongress rarely deserves praise for acting swiftly to exercise its oversight responsibility, but the quick response by the Senate Judiciary Committee to Twitter’s outrageous election interference last week in support of Democrat nominee Joe Biden is to be commended.Shortly after the news broke that Twitter blocked users from sharing a New York Post story critical of Biden, Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) scheduled a hearing (to be held tomorrow), at which time the committee will vote on subpoenaing Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to appear before Congress later this week to explain himself.Dorsey has a lot of questions to answer. Over the years, he repeatedly has assured government decision-makers and the general public that his popular social media platform does not discriminate against any political viewpoints. What Twitter did in response to the Post story illustrated the hollowness of those assurances.The Judiciary Committee needs to stand up for the First Amendment and demand answers. But beyond securing the explanation the American people deserve, the Committee also needs to actively consider avenues to address the platform’s continued assaults on free speech, without itself running afoul of the Constitution.To his credit, Dorsey himself has apologized for “straight blocking” the news story. This, coupled with his past vocal support for regulating Big Tech, provides at least a glimmer of hope that Congress can come to terms with Twitter on a solution.Investigations by the Department of Justice and state attorneys general are important, and in some instances appropriate, but they are excruciatingly time-consuming. We have witnessed this tedious, intricate process unfold with the current governmental investigations into Google’s alleged monopoly on search and advertising, which are still not complete despite having been initiated years ago.The...
by Bob Barr | Oct 14, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall Privacy is one of the pillars of a free society. In fact, as renowned philosopher and writer Ayn Rand noted in The Fountainhead more than seven decades ago, privacy is the essential foundation of a civilized society, without which individual freedom cannot be maintained. Yet, when it comes to protecting this essential cornerstone of our society, Congress consistently falls short.Whether controlled by Democrats or the GOP, congressional committees put on great shows. They invite all the big names in Big Tech to a hearing, where members pose eloquent soundbites about “privacy,” “security,” and, of course, “profiting from user data.” Yet, as for doing something meaningful to protect individual privacy rights by legislation or through oversight, Congress is little better than the CEOs they verbally harangue. It is beyond question that private companies, including Big Tech players like Google, Facebook and Twitter, use the vast databases of information they accumulate, to hawk products and develop user “profiles” for commercial benefit. It is also clear that the power they wield can be, and demonstrably has been abused to harm individuals, often because they hold political views at odds with the so-called “Lords of Social Media.” At the end of the day, however, it is only government that can use such databased information to put someone in jail. And it is here – at the intersection between data accumulation and government power – that Congress repeatedly fails to guard against abuse.Ever since the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791, the government has been bound by the Fourth Amendment, which was designed and intended to limit how law enforcement may invade a person’s privacy and gather information that ultimately could put...
by Bob Barr | Oct 13, 2020 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily Caller The arrest late last week of more than a dozen self-styled “Wolverine Watchmen,” and the subsequent war of words between Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the apparent target of their conspiracy, and President Trump, who Whitmer charged was “complicit” in the plot, illustrates once again the truly strange world in which we are living as we approach the November 3 election.The federal criminal complaint that provided the basis for the arrests of the conspirators confirms a rule that became apparent to me shortly after I was sworn in as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia in 1986, and which remains as accurate today, 34 years later. Simply stated, the rule holds that one of the best and most useful tools a prosecutor wields is the stupidity of the criminal element. The affidavit in the Wolverine Watchmen case, executed by an FBI special agent working the investigation, paints a picture of the conspirators as not real bright, to put it most kindly.To be sure, the conspirators’ goal was deadly serious — to kidnap or kill the Michigan Governor, along with other individuals. Thankfully, the strategy they hatched as a roadmap to achieve their goal was about as artless and unsophisticated as a cable TV “reality show.”The conspirators apparently had been planning their deed since at least early this year, when federal law enforcement were alerted to their plans after the disgruntled Brainiacs discussed the “violent overthrow” of the government on not-so-secret “social media.” At some point thereafter, and before a June 6, 2020 meeting of the plotters in Ohio, the FBI was able to do what...
