The president of a political movement that is pushing for Texas to break away from the union has warned against censorship of Big Tech after his organization was allegedly suspended from the platform without explanation.
Daniel Miller, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, told Fox News Digital that his group had decided to open a TikTok account to post videos related to his movement, which calls for Texas to return to the sovereign republic it had been when it broke away. . Mexico in 1836 until it was annexed by the United States in 1845.
Miller said the response to TNM’s TikTok videos has been “pretty incredible” with the group’s first video alone racking up around 1.5 million views.
On Jan. 27, Miller said TNM was notified that his TikTok account had been banned. The same day, the company was contacted by Fox News Digital, which did not respond for comment, TNM having been informed that its account had been reinstated.
“It was getting a lot of traction and all of a sudden, out of the blue, with no warning, no strike, nothing, TikTok goes offline,” he said of the initial suspension. He said his lawyer was preparing her case against the platform and had contacted them to inform them that the ban was “unacceptable.”
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Daniel Miller, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, said all Americans should be concerned about big-tech censorship, regardless of their political views.
(Daniel Miller)
Miller said administrators have yet to explain why they were denied access to the account, and TikTok did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
TNM’s takeover with TikTok comes amid a class action lawsuit the group filed against Facebook parent company Meta in November after users were allegedly prevented from posting links to its page, which TNM said violated HB 20. , a Texas state law. approved in 2021 that prohibits censorship on social networks.
“I’m pretty sure they are very well aware of our lawsuit against Facebook, and they probably assumed, rightly so, that if they didn’t correct course, they would be the next defendants in our next lawsuit,” Miller said.
The Texas State Legislature defined censorship in the bill as any attempt to “block, ban, remove, de-platform, demonetize, discourage, restrict, deny equal access or visibility, or otherwise discriminate against speech.” .
The Texas National Movement was informed that his account had been removed from TikTok on January 27, despite racking up millions of viewers.
(REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File photo)
“It says if you’re going to start engaging in viewpoint discrimination, you can’t be considered a platform anymore, you’re a publisher,” Miller explained.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a brief against Meta’s efforts to move the lawsuit from Jefferson County, Texas, to California. “Texas has no opinion on the merits of this lawsuit or the underlying discourse of the plaintiffs,” the state wrote. “Instead, you are filing this amicus brief to ensure that defendant Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) does not undermine the protections of HB 20.”
The secession debate aside, Miller said everyone should be concerned about censorship on social media and the power that government actors wield through it.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a brief on behalf of Texas in the group’s lawsuit against Facebook.
(Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
“I think what ‘The Twitter Files’ did was make it very clear that there were state actors essentially contracting out censorship, picking and choosing which opinions and dissent were acceptable and which were not,” he said.
“The moment you have these big social media platforms that are so ubiquitous choosing what speech is acceptable, while lining their pockets with taxpayer money through these big federal contracts, then we should all be worried,” he continued. “Regardless of your point of view on politics or the news of the day, I think we should all be extremely, extremely concerned.”
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according to a Defend Texas Liberty PAC Survey Of randomly selected Texas Republican Party primary voters last October, 59% of those surveyed said they believe Texans have the right to hold a secession referendum, with only 25% responding against such a measure.
