Resurfaced Video of Walz’s Comments on Free Speech Sparks Concerns about Democrats’ Policy

Discourse on censorship and the protection of free speech has dominated political and social media spaces in the past few years, but the conversation has gained momentum recently as the country heads for one of the most rousing presidential elections.

Accusations of censorship and lack of free speech protection have risen as social media accounts are shadow-banned or outright banned for political expression. Liberals have claimed that these actions are aimed at curbing misinformation, but this has not been proven to be true.

Minnesota Governor and Democratic presidential running mate, Tim Walz, made controversial statements in his DNC speech, leading fact checkers and the media to even probe into the details of his service in the Army National Guard.

However, this is far from Gov. Tim Walz’s first rodeo with controversial statements. In a recently resurfaced video of MSNBC’s ReidOut segment, Gov. Walz tooted his horn on Minnesota’s high voting turnout several times as he spoke about the need to expand voting eligibility for all, including convicts. He spoke about The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2023, maintaining that its passing would guarantee better voting in the country.

In the segment, Gov. Walz was asked to comment on how he would ensure that there are penalties to disinformation, which the MSNBC host called “ominous.”

In response, the Minnesota Democrat claimed that “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy.”

This comment sparked backlash, as many called out the governor for undermining the First Amendment, with social media commenters pointing out that as a lawmaker, Gov. Walz should be more attuned to the details of the citizens’ constitutional protections. Ironically, Walz also claimed that voters spent hours in queues in order to vote, which many commenters questioned, as many expressed that they rarely spent an hour in the polling stations.

The comments made by Walz come at a time when free speech is in jeopardy across the globe. In the UK, two individuals were sentenced to prison for Facebook posts that the police and prosecution claimed incited riots in various cities. The police and prosecutors claimed that the anti-immigrant sentiments expressed by the two men, Jordan Parlour, 28, and Tyler Kay, 26, sparked the wave of anti-immigrant riots across the country.

Parlour’s “inciteful” post stated, “Every man and their dog should be smashing [the] fu** out [of] Britannia hotel.” The hotel was hosting over 200 asylum seekers at the time. The prosecution and sentencing of the two men are predicted to pave the way for other arrests and prosecutions, calling into question the role of the courts and law enforcement in protecting the constitution.

The threat to free speech seems to be a universal issue, as the DNC 2024 has been slammed for speech censorship by both Republicans and Liberals. It is unclear how the plan to criminalize “disinformation” will pan out, but the Kamala/Walz campaign need to uphold the First Amendment.