WASHINGTON—The Heritage Foundation this week launched a new petition to give voice to any American concerned with Big Tech’s growing influence and censorship of First Amendment rights.  

In this pledge to fight back against Big Tech, Heritage makes clear that we understand the threat, and will work tirelessly to fight it: “It is time for aggressive reforms to ensure Big Tech is held accountable. As Big Tech’s influence over every day American life continues to grow, often hand-in-glove with the government, we cannot let these companies reshape our society.” 

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts released the following statement on the petition: 

“I’ve said from day one here at Heritage—and long before—Big Tech is an enemy of the people. These companies use their considerable influence and power to shape public opinion and debate, control the modern public square, cancel conservatives, and even sway election outcomes. It’s time for every American citizen concerned by Big Tech’s growing influence over our lives to send a clear message that their days of unfettered control are at an end. I look forward to continuing to work with our partners across the conservative movement to provide legislators at the federal and state level with policy solutions that hold Big Tech accountable. We welcome anyone who wants to come alongside us in doing so.” 

Sign the petition here. 

Heritage is committed to ending Big Tech’s influence over American society as we know it. In March, Heritage announced it would join the Free Speech Alliance, a coalition of more than 90 conservative organizations working together to protect conservatives’ right to free speech online, and to hold tech companies accountable when they violate that right. 

Earlier this year, Heritage’s Tech Policy Center, led by Kara Frederick, released a comprehensive roadmap on how lawmakers should hold Big Tech accountable for its documented track record of censorship, violations of antitrust law, and troubling influence over all aspects of the modern public square. 

Read the report: Combating Big Tech’s Totalitarianism: A Road Map  

Heritage and The Daily Signal, the media outlet of The Heritage Foundation, are no strangers to Big Tech censorship and overreach.    

• In February, YouTube censored a video posted to The Daily Signal’s YouTube channel in which Virginia parent Merianne Jensen criticized unscientific and harmful school mask mandates, claiming it “violated” the platform’s “COVID-19 medical misinformation policy.” 

• Last year, Amazon removed paid ads promoting a book by Heritage senior fellow Mike Gonzalez titled, “BLM: The Making of a New Marxist Revolution,” because content that “revolves around controversial or highly debated social topics is not permitted.” After a public pressure campaign, Amazon reversed itself and restored the ads.    

• In 2020, one of Heritage’s YouTube videos on gender dysphoria was censored by the company, while in 2019, The Daily Signal reported that YouTube had also removed a similar video on its YouTube channel.    

• And in early 2019, then-Heritage President Kay C. James was invited to be a member of Google’s new AI board, only for Google to dissolve the board after an outcry from company employees that James, a conservative, was asked to be on the board.