While the rest of Big Tech openly uses its power to censor, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has stood out. Unlike his peers, he's had the refreshing sanity to reinforce free speech -- a position that hasn't exactly endeared him to the intolerant Left. Now, months into his First Amendment experiment, one of the lone holdouts on open debate is considering a policy that would silence the voices keeping some users alive.
Everyone is entitled to information, Facebook has argued. Except, maybe, people struggling with their sexuality. According to European sources, Zuckerberg's platform, along with its subsidiary Instagram, may be trying to keep those hurting users from getting the information they're looking for. On the table, CNN says, is a proposal to block positive reviews or testimonials about sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE), including counselors who specialize in the field. One British group, Core Issues Trust, has already been affected -- at least temporarily -- and executives warn that U.S. advocates may be next.
Other platforms have been more proactive. "A Twitter spokesman said their platform already enforces against content that promotes conversion therapy under their 'no harm' rule," which is ironic, FRC's Peter Sprigg points out, since the whole point of SOCE is to help people from being harmed by their lifestyle choices.
Like others beholden to the far-Left, social media moguls don't want to admit that change is possible because it undermines the whole linchpin of their LGBT activist friends: that being gay or transgender isn't a choice. So, they ratchet up their misinformation machines, insisting that all counseling is torture. But, as survivors like Walt Heyer would tell you, the real torture is telling people who want help they can't have it.
If these bans "were in place back in the 1990s, most likely I would have died from suicide," he's said of his life when he identified as a woman. Were it not for the access he had to two Christian psychotherapists who helped him walk away from his identity as Laura Jensen, he might not be here today. And while SOCE therapy isn't a "magic switch," by any means, people have had tremendous success freeing themselves from the sexual bondage and attractions that gripped their lives. To rip that hope out of their hands isn't "tolerance," it's cruelty.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) who's seen this kind of censorship take hold at Amazon and in other corporate board rooms, has warned:
"We don't want to start having a society where, on controversial issues, people will only have access to one viewpoint... That's what's made America different than others. [SOCE may be] an emotional topic, but we need to have more information out there for people so they can make decisions... We have to remember these are individuals... And if people are struggling with something so personal, and they want more information, they should have access potential help... To just to have one group say, 'No, our way is the only way, and we're not going to let any other American hear about another alternative way to think about a condition or a subject' -- that's what we've seen in other countries in the past, and that's a scary place to go."
There's also a great irony in the fact that Facebook, the place where you can choose from more than 50 gender identities, doesn't embrace people's same autonomy when it comes to sexual orientation. "It's outrageous," Peter insisted, that companies would even be considering silencing the viewpoints of people who only want to "help people reach the goals they voluntarily choose for themselves when it comes to their sexuality. Media organizations should resist the increasingly totalitarian demands of LGBT activists that they censor all opposing viewpoints. Neither democracy nor science can thrive without a free exchange of ideas."
