Sen. Marco Rubio says five companies can ‘wipe anybody out’

Describing big tech firms as “the new gatekeepers of the public square in American politics,” Sen. Marco Rubio is calling for limits to the power of the companies who run social media, saying they have silenced valid opinions and free speech.

The Florida lawmaker was on Sean Hannity’s FOX News show on June 3, as reported at DailyMail.com, and described the dangers posed by “unelected, unaccountable anonymous people deciding what we are allowed to say to one another and what we are allowed to share.”

Rubio has been an on-again, off-again ally of President Donald Trump, ousted from the White House in January. On FOX he slammed social media companies who censored coverage of the origins of the coronavirus as well as stories about the corruption of Joe Biden’s son Hunter before the 2020 election.

“Five companies in America now have the power to basically wipe anybody out and silence them,” said Rubio. “Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple — they all get together and decide: We are going to wipe somebody out.”

Trump has been banned since January from all the big social media platforms in an attempt to isolate and silence his supporters. Other right-wing figures such as Steve Bannon, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, and lawyer Sidney Powell, who blamed Trump’s 2020 loss on election fraud, have also been silenced by companies like Twitter and Facebook.

Rubio said the impact of being kicked off social media was dramatic, and that, beyond silencing people, social media companies also determine what can even be reported. Trump has agreed and said he plans to launch his own social media network.