Jonathan Turley went after Oliver Darcy for the CNN media reporter’s suggestion that Twitter should further warn users about the president’s tweets.
The George Washington University law professor and political commentator posted on his blog Monday that Darcy had “ratcheted up his call for de-platforming opposing views.” At question was a passage Darcy wrote in the outlet’s media newsletter.
“Nearly every tweet from the president at this point is labeled for misinfo. Which had me thinking,” Darcy wrote, according to Fox News. “Why doesn’t Twitter just take the step of labeling his entire account as a known source of election disinfo? And why stop there? Why not label accounts that repeatedly spread claims the platform has to fact-check?”
“Like many anti-free speech advocates, Darcy simply labels those with opposing views as spreading ‘disinformation’ and demands that they be labeled or barred from social media,” Turley wrote. Referring to the newsletter, the lawyer added, “Darcy calls for every tweet by Trump to be labeled as disinformation while asking ‘and why stop there?’ Precisely. Once you cross the Rubicon of speech regulation, there is little reason or inclination to stop.”
“So put me down as preferring free speech without the helpful guards and content modification,” he said. “Instead, I hold a novel idea that people can reach their own conclusions on such is disinformation just as Darcy does.”
Tweets from President Trump about election fraud have repeatedly been labeled by Twitter as disputed. Critics of the platform say that this amounts to censorship.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Darcy for comment on the matter but did not immediately hear back.
