NRB Calls for Internet Giants to Respect Free Speech

New media companies, such as Facebook, Google and Apple, should “err on the side of free speech” in developing rules for what can and cannot be posted on their Internet communications platforms, according to a proposal released last week by the National Religious Broadcasters.

The NRB’s Free Speech Charter is described as a “solution to the current and potential clash between free speech on the Internet, and the free market power of new media giants like Apple, Google and Facebook to block viewpoints with which they don’t agree.”

The NRB charter begins by documenting “a dangerous trend…. by some new media ‘gatekeepers’ providing Internet communications platforms, of viewpoint censorship levied against otherwise lawful content, much of it religious, and often Christian and conservative in nature.”