Tucker: Censorship now defines America's public conversation
Fox News host examines why authorities are afraid of free speech on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
The president of a political movement that is pushing for Texas to secede from the union warned of Big Tech censorship after his organization was allegedly suspended from the platform without explanation.
Daniel Miller, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, told Fox News Digital that his group had decided to start a TikTok account to post videos related to their movement, which is calling for Texas to revert to the sovereign republic it had been when it broke from Mexico in 1836 until it was annexed by the U.S. in 1845.
Miller said the response to TNM's TikTok videos has been "pretty incredible," with the group's first video alone racking up around 1.5 million views.
On Jan. 27, Miller said TNM was notified that its TikTok account had been banned. On the same day Fox News Digital reached out to the company, which did not respond for comment, TNM was informed their account had been reinstated.
"It was getting a lot of traction, and then suddenly out of the blue — no warning, no strikes, nothing — TikTok pulls the plug," he said of the initial suspension. He said his attorney was preparing their case against the platform and had contacted them to inform them the ban was "unacceptable."
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Daniel Miller, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, said all Americans should be concerned by Big Tech censorship regardless of their political views. (Daniel Miller)
Miller said that administrators have yet to explain why they were denied access to the account, and TikTok did not respond to Fox News Digital's multiple requests for comment.
TNM's brush-up with TikTok comes amid a class action lawsuit the group filed against Facebook's parent company, Meta, in November after users were allegedly prevented from posting links to its page, which TNM alleges was in violation of HB 20, a Texas state law passed in 2021 that prohibits social media censorship.
"I am fairly certain that they are pretty well aware of our lawsuit against Facebook, and they probably guessed — rightly so — that if they did not correct course, they were going to be the next defendants in our next suit," Miller said.
The Texas State Legislature defined censorship in the bill as any attempt "to block, ban, remove, deplatform, demonetize, de-boost, restrict, deny equal access or visibility to, or otherwise discriminate against expression."
Texas National Movement was informed its account had been pulled from TikTok on Jan. 27, despite racking up millions of viewers. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)
"It says if you're going to start engaging in viewpoint discrimination, you can no longer be considered a platform, you're a publisher," Miller explained.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a brief against Meta's efforts to move the lawsuit from Jefferson County, Texas, to California. "Texas takes no view on the merits of this suit or Plaintiffs’ underlying speech," the state wrote. "It is instead submitting this amicus brief to ensure that defendant Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) does not undermine HB 20’s protections."
Laying aside the secession debate, Miller said that everyone should be concerned about censorship on social media and the power that government actors exert through it.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a brief on behalf of Texas in a suit by the group against Facebook. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
"I think the thing that ‘The Twitter Files’ did is made it very clear that you had state actors who were essentially contracting out censorship, picking and choosing what opinions and dissent were acceptable and what were not," he said.
"At the moment that you have these large social media platforms that are so pervasive picking and choosing which speech is acceptable, all the while lining their pockets with taxpayer money through these fat federal contracts, then we all should be worried," he continued. "Regardless of what your viewpoint is on politics or the news of the day, I think we should all be extremely, extremely concerned."
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According to a Defend Texas Liberty PAC poll of randomly selected Texas GOP primary voters last October, 59% of respondents said they believe that Texans have a right to hold a secession referendum, with only 25% responding against such a measure.
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