Is a lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center a precursor to action against social media giants like Facebook and Twitter?
Plaintiff Gavin McInnes says yes.
Appearing on “America’s Voice Live” with Amanda Head and yours truly today, McInnes, who just filed suit against the group famous for labeling ideological opponents as “hate” groups, says the relationship between the SPLC and socials and media entities is cause for concern.
Is a day of reckoning coming for social media platforms? Gavin McInnes joined us today on America's Voice Live. pic.twitter.com/K0AwJNhRnd
— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) February 5, 2019
“Can your suit be interpreted as a precursor to action against the social media platforms?” I asked him.
“Yes, I think it can,” McInnes responded, “I think it can.
“The social media platforms are using the SPLC and the (Anti-Defamation League) as reliable sources despite them being debunked. And I don’t know if they’re doing that because they’re dumb, or if they feel some sort of a threat if they’re intimidated by the SPLC and they’ve been told, ‘use us as your authority on all things hate, or else!'” he said.
“Let’s find out because even Twitter a few years ago was much more open and exciting and interesting,” McInnes said, adding groups like the SPLC make platforms like Twitter “depressing and colorless.”
McInnes announced the suit in a press release, which reads in part:
Attorney Ron Coleman emphasized the significance of the case in relation to the growing partisan divide and practice of censorship by stating, “[t]his lawsuit has implications beyond Gavin McInnes because we’re challenging the use of deplatforming and defunding to privately censor speech. If we can’t stop this phenomenon now, the First Amendment will be rendered meaningless as dissent is silenced through private actors such as SPLC and its allies.”
Montgomery-based attorney Baron Coleman noting, “I wasn’t familiar with Gavin or his work prior to beginning work on this case. But there is absolutely zero excuse in America for systematically targeting someone for complete personal and financial destruction because they support a different politician or different set of political beliefs. I wouldn’t represent a racist or an anti-semite. And Gavin is neither. And the most horrific part of this entire ordeal is that the SPLC knows Gavin isn’t a racist or anti-semite or anything else they’ve labeled him. Rather, he supports a different slate of politicians with his satire and wit, and the SPLC would rather destroy him than have him out there convincing other people to see politics his way.”
“I am doing this, not just to protect my reputation and my family but to protect everyone else’s,” McInnes says in the statement.
“The SPLC has gone from a noble institution genuinely dedicated to eradicating hate to a hate group in and of itself that pretends this country is frothing with bigots desperate to foment WW3. They purposely lie about their enemies in an attempt to “destroy” them (their words) and it’s become a very effective way to make money,” he says, pointing out the SPLC has “garnered hundreds of millions including untold millions in the Cayman Islands.”
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