Far-left billionaire George Soros is funding a media group “looking to incorporate global pressure to push Big Tech platforms to juice their censorship operations before the 2024 U.S. presidential election,” according to the Media Research Center (MRC).
Free Press, a Washington, DC-based media advocacy group founded in 2003, promotes “positive social change, racial justice,” and “equitable access to technology” in order to have fair journalism.
Not to be confused with journalist Bari Weiss’s the Free Press, the liberal media group receives money from Soros.
“More Than 200 Groups Urge Leading Tech Platforms to Implement Election-Integrity Policies to Protect Democracy Worldwide,” Free Press said in an April 9 press release reporting on a letter that other liberal media groups co-signed.
The letter, which was sent to executives at social media platforms including Discord, Google, Instagram, Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Rumble, Snap, TikTok, Twitch, X, and YouTube, urges the companies to make “distinct interventions to keep online platforms safe and healthy in 2024.”
The group asked the platforms to instate “election-integrity policies,” “swiftly enforce rules against election lies and hate in political advertising,” “require disclosure of AI-generated political content,” “place greater friction to reduce the visibility and easy distribution of election-related content that has been flagged and is awaiting review,” “hold influencer, public figure and political candidate accounts to the same moderation and enforcement standards as everyone else,” and “improve transparency and enable civil-society oversight of enforcement practices by regularly sharing virality and enforcement reports.”
“The tech industry’s refusal to safeguard their platforms is already having a dangerous impact on democracies around the world,” said Free Press Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights Nora Benavidez.
MRC research revealed that Soros backs at least 45 of the letter’s signatories — with over $80 million spent between 2016 and 2022.
“The document attempted to justify that it was written with reducing ‘real-world harms’ and ‘the rise of extremism and violent attempts to overthrow democratic governments’ in mind,” the conservative watchdog group’s associate editor, Joseph Vazquez, reported.
“One of the wealthiest men in the world is using his vast wealth and power to silence regular Americans ahead of the 2024 election,” Dan Schneider, MRC’s Free Speech America vice president, told Fox Business on Wednesday.
“At a time when defending free speech is key, leftists are trying their best to shut down the voices of half of America, especially those who disagree with the radical agenda promoted by Biden, Soros, and most Big Tech executives,” he added.
What was most “disturbing” about the letter was its “implication that its primary target is interfering in the 2024 U.S. election,” Vazquez stated in his report. “This development is directly in line with Soros’ brand, who has dedicated millions of his ungodly fortune to groups looking to interfere in elections by stifling online speech.”
The Free Press censorship letter signatory that got the most Soros funding was Global Witness, an organization focused on “justice for those disproportionately affected by the climate crisis,” namely “indigenous communities and communities of color.”
Global Witness is “already on record pressuring Facebook and TikTok to increase censorship operations before the 2022 midterm elections,” Vazquez wrote.
“The Soros empire funded the group with a massive $20,338,270 between 2016 and 2022,” he explained. “The group’s ‘digital threats’ campaign, for example, is specifically focused on pressuring governments to regulate speech on social media.”
Another signee, the pro-censorship Institute for Strategic Dialogue, was the recipient of more than $3 million from Soros between 2017 and 2022.
“The leftist group was recently exposed in a House Judiciary Committee investigation for co-authoring a ‘hate groups’ blacklist with the Soros-funded Global Disinformation Index (GDI) targeting ‘conservative’ and faith-based organizations,” MRC reported. “This list was later disseminated by law enforcement to several financial institutions.”
“The fact that Free Press is at the tip of this Soros-tied spear should concern every American,” Vazquez continued. “Free Press’s obsession with censorship and gaining control of the Internet cannot be overstated.”
“Americans beware. The Soros network is coming after your free speech just in time for the U.S. elections — again,” he added.
