Is online censorship going too far?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Trump has moved out of the White House, he’s been banned from Twitter and suspended from Snapchat, Facebook and YouTube. Parler, a twitter alternative for conservatives, went offline after Amazon stopped hosting it. Amazon say this is because they found dozens of posts on the service which encouraged violence. All of this has raised questions about the power of tech companies and who should decide who’s voice is heard on social media. So this week Charmaine Cozier asks, has big tech gone too far in limiting free speech?
Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Producers: Sharon Hemans and Bob Howard Editor: Richard Vadon
(Twitter suspended Donald Trump's account for violating app rules, January 2021. Credit: Jakub Porzycki/ Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the inquiry. I'm Charmin Cozier. Each week one Apple and Cheryl Sandberg from Facebook share a long shiny boardroom |
| 0:27.2 | table with other executives including from Amazon and Google. The biggest names in Tecker there to discuss ways of working |
| 0:35.4 | together with their host, the US President-elect. This is a truly amazing group of people, he says. |
| 0:44.8 | I'm here to help you folks do well, he adds. |
| 0:47.7 | A lot's happened since that gathering on the 25th floor of Trump Tower four years ago. |
| 0:56.0 | Donald Trump's moved in and out of the White House, been banned from Twitter and suspended from other social media, including Facebook and YouTube, which is owned by Google. |
| 1:07.0 | Then Parla, a Twitter alternative for Conservatives, went offline after Amazon stopped web hosting. |
| 1:14.0 | Twitter suspended 70,000 accounts linked to Q on on conspiracy theories. |
| 1:21.0 | It's raising serious questions about who should allow voices to be heard or silenced on social media. |
| 1:30.0 | So this week we're asking, has Big Tech gone too far in limiting free speech? Part 1. Your post goes against our community guidelines. Basically it is shutting down people on the right side of the spectrum. |
| 2:00.8 | I am Rachel Alexander. the spectrum. |
| 2:03.0 | I am Rachel Alexander. |
| 2:04.4 | I am a recovering lawyer and a columnist for several political sites including Town Hall, |
| 2:11.9 | W&D and the Christian Post. |
| 2:16.0 | Rachel says conservative voices like hers have been vanishing from social media for a while, |
| 2:21.0 | including people she knows offline. |
| 2:24.0 | Oh my gosh, too many to count. |
| 2:27.0 | My friend's son got kicked off of Facebook, |
| 2:30.0 | and that's just the ones I know in person. |
| 2:32.0 | Just hundreds and hundreds of people I hear all the time |
| 2:36.0 | are being kicked off of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, |
| 2:40.0 | you know, YouTube, you name it. She's been noticing it for years and thinks she's next. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

