The United States of America has delivered another peaceful transition of power to the world. While COVID-19 and immigration policy are high on the list of issues for the new administration to address, VPN.com CEO Michael Gargiulo believes censorship in America must also be a top priority. With numerous U.S. government officials and entrepreneurs now being banned, censored and silenced for their speech, Gargiulo sent a letter containing their American Censorship Report to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Started in 2017, VPN.com is a non-partisan privacy research organization with a focus on Internet freedom and privacy recommendations. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, they also provide Internet policy advice and strategy to government officials across the world.
The full letter and report can be found below.
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January 22, 2021
President Joseph R. Biden
Vice President Kamala D. Harris
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500 USA
Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris,
Congratulations on your arrival at the White House, as leaders of the free world. We know your teams worked very hard to ensure your diverse message was heard all across America. I write to you both today to continue sharing our expertise in cybersecurity, Internet access, and censorship with world leaders. As we have done for previous Presidents, Governors, U.S. Senators, and State Legislators, we will advise you both over the coming years to the best of our ability, free of partisanship.
For decades, censorship has waged war on free speech in countries like China, Russia, Venezuela, North Korea, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Vietnam, and many more. The free speech and open Internet access that the world has relentlessly turned to America to protect is in jeopardy of eroding before our very eyes. Thankfully, your focus on diversity and American freedoms gives hope to hundreds of millions of oppressed people.
We have entered a time where “cancel culture” has brought into question the core freedoms that our country was built upon. We now have situations where if someone descends from “politically accepted” normalcy, they are silenced, censored and eliminated. It is becoming increasingly difficult to debate and descent from popular opinion, online and offline.
Unfortunately, social media, mass media and partisan reporters have played their parts in these digital distortions. Rarely is someone innocent before proven guilty anymore. The world must hear from you that libel, slander and character assassinations are the enemies of truth and freedom.
In most oppressed countries, if you so speak a negative word about their dictator, government, laws, or use specific tools like VPNs to protect from censorship, you will be imprisoned and even killed! This is the restricted reality that billions of people have lived in for decades, but Americans are only now discovering the oppression baggage that censorship brings.
We are now segregating ourselves based on political views and silencing those who do not conform. We have seen this play out in history time and time again, and the ending is not good.
There is now a very thin line between the American Republic and developmental communism. You both are the guards against this communism from invading our hearts, minds, and our very souls.
Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press are the most sacred amendments of our Constitution. No one will ever agree with everyone but in this country, we cannot censor and cancel those who have a legal difference of opinions. This censorship will rot our souls and our ability to have civil discourse within this country.
Unfortunately, our research also indicates countless elected officials, entrepreneurs, and even students in our universities have been targeted and censored because of their nonconforming or conservative opinions. We must be very determined to obstruct this creep of communism that will forever knock on America’s door. Censorship is a disaster everywhere it exists on earth.
While there are existing deliberations underway, we cannot create an environment for foreign enemies to digitally invade our ways of life. It does seem contradictory to allow the President of Iran and the President of Russia on Twitter but not the former President of the United States. Foreign leaders with documented human rights violations cannot be held to a different standard of culpability and due process than that of our own elected officials and citizens. This is a double standard that censorship and communism thrive on.
For peace and unity, please ask service providers from all over the world to support free speech and thought diversity. If our leaders do not stand up now, we may be on a course that cannot be turned back from. As you both make clear, lawful diversity is critical, especially online. Please stand up for free speech and fight for those who have completely different views than you. It is what we have done for years to preserve these human rights, as our Founding Fathers and the Framers of the sacred U.S. Constitution desired.
As President Herbert Hoover said, “It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.”
At VPN.com, we look forward to assisting your cyber policies in every way we can, fighting digital extremism and protecting American freedoms with your leadership over the coming years.
Sincerely,
Michael Gargiulo
CEO of VPN.com
[email protected]
Source: VPN.com
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