A Democrat who helped prosecute January 6 participants is running for election to Congress against an incumbent Republican in a southern California seat, on a platform promising more tech censorship.
Will Rollins, former assistant U.S. attorney in California, promises that if elected, he will tackle big tech platforms and media outlets that are “profiting by spreading division based on lies” and “erode our democracy.” Rollins is running for California’s 41st congressional district, currently held by incumbent Republican Ken Calvert.
The Democrat prosecutor’s policy platform promises “accountability” for tech platforms that “spread conspiracy theories.” among other vaguely defined promises:
Extremists, Big Tech, and media outlets are profiting by spreading division based on lies, even as they erode our democracy and make it easier for adversaries like China and Russia to exploit us. But I have a specific plan to hold these actors accountable:
- Update regulations to break down information bubbles and propaganda networks to protect the public’s right to be informed.
- Require more transparency in advertising, so that we know whether what we’re consuming online was written by a human or a Russian bot.
- Create accountability for harmful lies and conspiracy theories amplified by Big Tech.
Rollins’ platforms demonstrates the continued willingness of Democrats to resort to long-debunked media boogeyman like “Russian bots” in order to scare voters. At the height of the panic about “Russian interference,” in 2017, even Twitter’s censorship team was shocked at how casually government-backed NGOs were labeling conservative American commentators as Russian agents.
“Virtually any conclusion drawn from it will take conversations in conservative circles on Twitter and accuse them of being Russian,” wrote Twitter’s former censorship lieutenant Yoel Roth of one such project.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.