FROM THE DESK OF CHAIRMAN JOE GRUTERS
Big Tech censors are at it again.
Ironically making the case for why there must be guardrails put on Big Tech censorship of political speech, last week YouTube took down a video of a Governor Ron DeSantis’ roundtable in March with premier national doctors and epidemiologists from Harvard and Stanford. These actual experts, not the self-anointed Silicon Valley types, substantiated the unnecessary damage caused by lockdowns and the need for in-person schooling. And YouTube refused to allow such dissenting opinions to stand and deleted the video. So, Governor DeSantis came right back at them Monday and held another roundtable with the same experts discussing the same topics.
“YouTube’s decision to remove the video of our previous roundtable is just another example of unabashed overreach and bias by Big Tech,” the Governor said. “Silicon Valley and the corporate media have drawn a line in the sand: they don’t care about the facts. They only care about pushing their agenda and will do so by whatever means necessary, the truth be damned. That’s why we are taking action here in Florida to hold Big Tech accountable and call out their hypocrisy.”
The three health care experts hit hard on the issue of authoritarian-style censorship and the damage it is causing to honest scientific inquiry. “There's nothing more dangerous than being able to censor what is said in a country, because then you are simply not ever going to even hear the truth,” said Dr. Scott Atlas, Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in health care policy at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. “And you are entering into a phase of countries that we used to criticize severely like the USSR, like communist China.”
“For science to work, you have to have an open exchange of ideas,” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at Stanford University and research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. “If you're going to make an argument that something is misinformation, you should provide an actual argument. You can't just take it down and say, ‘Oh, it's misinformation’ without actually giving a reason…Science works best when we have an open debate.”
“When we do censoring and slandering, even if we are willing to continue to speak out, there are many other scientists that I know, including junior scientists, who do not want to speak out because they see what's happening to us,” said Dr. Martin Kulldorff, biostatistician, epidemiologist, and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “They don't want to have to go through the same thing. So, we really need a debate.”
ATTORNEY GENERAL ASHLEY MOODY
Protecting Florida’s more than 5 million seniors is one of my top priorities as Florida’s Attorney General. An important partner in this mission is the Seniors vs. Crime project.
Seniors vs. Crime is made up of volunteers called Senior Sleuths that work to prevent crime and fraud involving seniors and aid consumers in resolving disputes. Over the past two years, Seniors vs. Crime has helped recover, refund, and save more than $3.4 million for older Floridians.
This week, the 2020 Seniors vs. Crime Annual Report was released, highlighting $1.7 million in total refunds, savings and recoveries for seniors attained this past year. To view the recent report, click here.
As COVID-19 rapidly spread across the world, criminals doubled down on efforts to target seniors—but that did not deter the Seniors vs. Crime volunteers. Not only did they help protect their fellow seniors who had been victimized, they also provided thousands of Floridians with the tools needed to avoid scams—all at no cost to seniors.
While this latest report is promising, our work protecting Florida’s seniors is far from over. I remain as dedicated as ever to protecting older Floridians from exploitation, which is why, during this legislative session, I am working with Sen. Danny Burgess and Rep. Colleen Burton on a bill to strengthen senior protection in Florida.
You can help us protect seniors from fraud and other crimes by reporting instances of scams or non-emergency instances of senior exploitation to 1(866) 9NO-SCAM. In case of an emergency, please call 911.
By reporting senior scams when you see them, you can help build a Stronger, Safer Florida.
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