CFFS Condemns Big Tech Censorship of Medical Experts

For Immediate Release

CFFS Condemns Big Tech Censorship of Medical Experts​
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Mesa, AZ – A July 27 press conference in Washington DC hosted by a physicians’ organization called “America’s Frontline Doctors” became a viral sensation when videos of the event were posted across America’s social media platforms. The original “Frontline” video was viewed over 17 million times in the first 8 hours of its posting on Facebook, with over 185,000 viewers concurrently watching the livestream of the event.
Then, without warning, Facebook moderators scrubbed the popular video from their website entirely. Coincidentally—or not—at nearly the same exact time, moderators for Twitter and Google/YouTube made the exact same decision. Citizens for Free Speech (CFFS), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of the First Amendment says this blatant display of online censorship by Silicon Valley technocrats must end,
“It’s rather obvious, what is happening here,” said CFFS Executive Director Patrick Wood. “The far-left CEO’s of these social media monopolies are heavily invested in the national push toward a mandatory vaccine for COVID-19, and any attempt to show that such a vaccine may not be necessary must be quashed.”
The Frontline Doctors group was founded by Dr. Simone Gold, and is comprised of physicians who routinely treat patients diagnosed with the novel Coronavirus. The group wanted to address what they call a “massive disinformation campaign” about the virus, and during the livestreamed event, several of the AMA-certified doctors expressed their belief that alternative treatments for COVID-19 were being ignored by the CDC and other medical policy makers.
“If Americans continue to let so-called experts and media personalities make their decisions,” read the group’s event page, which was also abruptly removed by SquareSpace, “the great American experiment of a Constitutional Republic with Representative Democracy, will cease.”
During their livestream event, the Frontline Doctors argued that appropriate treatment for the Coronavirus should be left to patients and their doctors, free of restrictions imposed over concerns about the effectiveness and safety of drugs already prescribed for myriad other diseases. They are concerned that doctors may not be able to share important information with others treating the virus due to the outsized influence of major pharmaceutical companies who advertise on the social media platforms.
One of the Frontline Doctors, Dr. Stella Immanuel, who received her medical training in Nigeria, claimed to have treated at least 350 COVID patients with the controversial cocktail of hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin, and zinc, with tremendous success and zero fatalities. Despite the corroboration of her work and her medical opinion by the other doctors at the event, even short clips of Dr. Immanuel were removed, and she was immediately ridiculed for her religious and cultural beliefs on the very platforms that denied her the right to express that opinion.
In a July 29 congressional hearing, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg defended his company’s decision to remove the viral video of the doctors’ opinions, because Facebook rules “prohibit content that will lead to imminent risk of harm” and that “stating there’s a proven cure for Covid when there is in fact not, might encourage someone to go take something that could have some adverse effects so we do take that down.”
The tech czar has no business making such decisions, according to Wood.

“Look, I’m not a doctor,” admitted the CFFS director, “but neither is Mark Zuckerberg. And neither is Jack Dorsey nor Tim Cook. So how can they, with precisely zero medical training or expertise, possibly determine that the medical opinions of actual licensed doctors may lead to imminent risk of harm? They are making decisions to suppress the speech of individuals who actually practice medicine for a living. It’s outrageous.”
In addition to removing the videos of the medical professionals, the social media monoliths took the additional step of suspending the accounts of prominent users who shared the video on their own timelines, including President Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr.

“Jake Tapper himself a few weeks ago posted,” Trump Jr. told Tucker Carlson, ‘study finds hydroxychloroquine helped coronavirus patients survive better.’ Now, why is Jake Tapper not spreading misinformation, but I somehow am?”
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan had the answer during Wednesday’s hearing.

“I’ll cut right to the chase: Big tech is out to get conservatives,” Jordan stated flatly. "That’s a fact.”
It’s hard to disagree with that assessment, according to Wood.
“There are countless examples of conservative-minded politicians, pundits and media companies having their accounts suspended for unknown infractions, since the websites are not required to tell users what rules they may have broken.

“At least in the case of the American Frontline Doctors, they were forced to announce their reasoning: They believe they understand pandemics, viruses, and treatments better than actual physicians do.”
For more information about CFFS please visit www.CitizensForFreeSpeech.org.
Contact:
Bob Frantz
National Director of Communications
[email protected]