TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): The only thing that could make what happened in Charlottesville worse is if we allowed a small number of people in power to make America less tolerant and less free in its aftermath. Let's be honest, we've seen it before. It happened after 9/11. Almost nobody wanted to say so at the time for fear of seeming sympathetic to terrorists, but it did. Secret lists, massive government spying on citizens, the Feds rooting around in people's bank accounts for no good reason. We allowed that to happen because we were upset and afraid.



Well, this morning there were signs that it could be happening again. The Wall Street Journal reported that big tech companies are using their power to silence certain political views. Both Google and web hosting service GoDaddy stopped providing hosting support for Daily Stormer, it's a white supremacist website. Meanwhile, the hotel website AirBnB announced it will permanently ban white supremacists from using its service to book rooms. PayPal says it won't let white supremacists use its payment platform.



Now, nobody on this show is weeping for the Daily Stormer, even mentioning their name probably just got us written up by the Southern Poverty Law Center as dangerous “alt-right” subversives or something. We don't care. There's a principle at stake here, and is worth defending regardless. We should be very concerned by the prospect of big companies using their power to enforce ideological conformity, even when it seems to only effect people we don't like as it does now.



[...]



It's The Daily Stormer today, fine. But who is it going to be next week, or next year?



The national Right To Life? Foxnews.com? Catholic charities? Why wouldn't it be? And why wouldn't AirBnB ban public supporters of Trump from getting rooms? They support terrorism. Why wouldn't Facebook eliminate all references to, I don't know, pro-life positions?



Today's political opponents could very easily become tomorrow's designated Nazis or terrorists. Definitions change. Principles do not change, and that's why it's crucial to keep fighting for them, to keep fighting for an open society, even if people call you names when you do it.



[...]

Now, tech companies aren't the government and they're not bound by the same rules as a consequence of that. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't push back and do it loudly. The biggest tech firms are more powerful than any monopolies in the Gilded Age, and they're far less restrained, and far less trustworthy. In some ways, they're more dangerous even than overreaching government, because they're less accountable.



They could make this country a place you would not want to live, and they could probably do it quickly, and they probably will do it, unless they're brought to heel.

Related:



Gizmodo: Cloudflare CEO on Terminating Service to Neo-Nazi Site: 'The Daily Stormer Are Assholes'



Gizmodo: Airbnb Won’t Put a Roof Over the Heads of Nazis [Updated]



Washington Post: PayPal escalates the tech industry’s war on white supremacy



Previously:



Fox News' new prime-time host Tucker Carlson is beloved by neo-Nazis and misogynists

Tucker Carlson sympathizes with “wacko” “alt-right” figure Baked Alaska



Tucker Carlson says it's unfair to call the Portland attacker a white supremacist