WATCH: Sen. Eric Schmitt Slams ‘Direct, Blatant, and Brazen’ Big Tech Censorship at CPAC

“We have to be the guardians of free speech.” Former Missouri Attorney General and new senator Eric Schmitt slammed Big Tech censorship and issued a call to protect free speech at CPAC 2023 Thursday.

Schmitt emphasized in his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that Big Tech censorship and collusion with the government are  severe threats. “They want to coordinate with social media companies to censor your speech because it doesn’t fit the ‘narrative,’ or the ‘Science,’” Schmitt said. “And that, ladies and gentlemen, should scare the hell out of everybody in this room.”

He said that as Missouri’s attorney general —before he was elected senator — “I never shied away from the fight.” He mentioned his “landmark lawsuit” against the Biden administration to uncover the “vast censorship enterprise,” as Schmitt previously called it, between Big Tech and the federal government.

The senator noted later that if social media can ban even the then-sitting president of the United States Donald Trump, “imagine what they could do to you.” He asked the crowd how many of them had been censored, and after a show of hands, added that, “We, conservatives, the people in this room — we have to be the guardians of free speech.“