FEE’s Brad Polumbo writes, “I spoke with Senator Rand Paul, a libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican, about why this alarming uptick in Big Tech censorship is so concerning—and why the free market, not Big Government, is the best response.

‘I think they have the right as private property owners to ban me, censor me, do whatever they want,’ the senator said. ‘But I don’t agree with it ideologically; I don’t like the idea of associating with small-minded people who are so close-minded that they want to censor what I have to say.’

Everybody on the Right is complaining about #BigTech but nobodys doing anything about it. They just complain, complain, complain. Their next response is oh the government should break up Big Tech or regulate it. I don’t want to do any of that @SenRandPaul
https://t.co/DS6P3HNt8G

— XIMENA (@RepublicanChick) January 5, 2022

Paul explained why the idea of banning ‘misinformation’ is actually antithetical to the scientific method properly understood.

‘We only arrive at the truth through disputation, by hearing [more] voices,’ he said. ‘It’s easy enough to say something is ‘misinformation.’ But really, a lot of things are debatable…’

‘The impulse to censor people’s speech is actually illiberal.’

‘They’re coming to this Platonic idea that, basically, it’s too dangerous to let the rabble know things, we need to protect them from certain ideas that might be unsettling,’ he continued. ‘But that’s not a step forward; I think that’s a couple-thousand-year-old step backwards.”

Read the entire column.

The post Rand Paul: ‘The impulse to censor people’s speech is actually illiberal’ appeared first on Liberty Tree.

The Daily Wire reports, “Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) published an op-ed on Monday, announcing that he is beginning his ‘exodus from Big Tech,’ starting with the ‘worst censor of all, YouTube.’

‘They Just Want My Silence’: @SenRandPaul quits YouTube as his New Year’s Resolution.

My latest for @realDailyWire.https://t.co/39ZGjnBjGq

— Ian Haworth (@ighaworth) January 3, 2022

‘As a libertarian leaning Senator, I think private companies have the right to ban me if they want to, however, those of us who believe that truth comes from disputation and that the marketplace of ideas is a prerequisite for innovation should shun the close-minded censors and take our ideas elsewhere, which is exactly what I’m doing,’ announced Dr. Paul in a press release.”

Read the entire story.

The post ‘They just want my silence’: Why Rand Paul quit YouTube appeared first on Liberty Tree.