RUSH: I have a story in The Stack here today, and it is How a Liberal Think Tank Is Driving 2020 Dems to Crack Down on Big Tech. (grumbling) “Well, big deal, Rush.” No, no. This is an object lesson here. What in the world…? What in the world does the American left have problems with Big Tech for? Do they not understand that Big Tech is on their team? Do they not understand that Big Tech is the coach? Do they not understand that Big Tech is the money and the financing? Do they not understand that Big Tech is one of the biggest allies they’ve got?

Yet this story is in Politico: “How a Liberal Think Tank Is Driving 2020 Dems to Crack Down on Big Tech.” There’s a think tank out there thinking that Big Tech needs to be regulated. Do you know what it is? I’ll tell you what it is. They hate Big Tech because Trump won! Their hatred for Trump is so overwhelming, they’re blaming Big Tech for not stopping Trump! Then they got this Cambridge Analytica scandal that happened supposedly at Facebook. So Facebook and the rest of Big Tech need to be punished now, because Trump got elected.

Instead of realizing that Big Tech is dying to help them! Big Tech is dying to beat Donald Trump next. Big Tech is dying to get rid of conservatives and conservatism anywhere they can in their platforms. Instead, we get: “The presidential race and rising anger at Silicon Valley’s power are giving new lift to the Open Markets Institute’s crusade against online monopolies.” I’m wondering if I ought to hope these people succeed! They’re trying to do great damage to Twitter, great damage to Facebook, and they are poisoned.

They have no idea how good they’ve got it with these tech firms being on their team. But because Trump won and the tech firms were unable to stop it, somehow anger is justified at the tech firms. These people believe that the Russians colluded — the Russians did this — and Zuckerberg knew about it, but he didn’t stop it. (impression) “He could have stopped it! He knew about it, but he didn’t stop it — and Jack Dorsey at Twitter let the Russians run rampant. They could have stopped it. Jack Dorsey didn’t stop it.”

(Snort!) This is the most amazing thing.

(laughing)

They think Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey are enemies?

It’s tough to get your arms around.

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RUSH: As I have just recently been reminded, one of the problems that the Drive-Bys have with Big Tech is that they think Big Tech’s overtaking their business. The Facebook news feed is more important than the New York Times website or the Washington Post. That’s legit. That is legit. But they’re still all on the same side.

But the Drive-Bys do think that the big social media — Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of them — are taking dollars away from them and eyeballs.

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RUSH: Jim in Hudson, Wisconsin. You’re next, and great to have you with us, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Mega dittos. I’ve been listening to you since you had your television program. I watched every single television episode.

RUSH: Well, thank you. That’s all the way back to 1992.

CALLER: That’s right. That’s right. I’ve been trying to get in all those years. I finally got in. You were talking about the —

RUSH: That was back the in days when TV shows were worth watching.

CALLER: That’s right. I don’t even have TV anymore.

RUSH: (laughing).

CALLER: (laughing) Anyway, you were talking about the tech companies and how Democrats are now kind of turning on them. I don’t believe the Democrats do anything without a purpose. I think that the Democrats are turning on the tech companies like Facebook and Google and all those because they want to actually regulate them and by regulating those companies they can regulate free speech and therefore those companies will have laws that they can use to keep the conservative voices out.

RUSH: Well, that’s true. There are some people that want to turn ’em into the equivalent of utilities, which will —

CALLER: Yes, that’s right.

RUSH: — then permit what you say is the massive federal regulation. The left loves regulation.

CALLER: Right. And it would stop anything new from coming on. You’ll never have another YouTube. You’ll never have another Facebook —

RUSH: You’re not gonna have another YouTube or Facebook now. I mean, if one pops up they’re just gonna buy them.

CALLER: Well, that’s maybe true, but there are other sources out there that some of us do use. I quit using Facebook and Twitter and all that and I use other sources, and they are smaller. But there are a lot of us conservatives that are looking for other means of doing things.

RUSH: I know. I know. Look. Don’t misunderstand. It’s the nature of the beast.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: It’s why Facebook bought Instagram. It’s why Facebook bought WhatsApp. They didn’t want to compete with them, buy ’em, subsume ’em, essentially incorporate them or put ’em out of business. Eliminate the competition.

CALLER: Yes. I’m not for them regulating because it’s a free market, let the free market decide, and right now the free market is working on small segments of the tech world.

RUSH: Well, depends how you define “working.” I mean, I know a lot of people on our side decided to build their businesses and operations on the Facebook platform and then when Facebook turns on ’em, they feel – it’s the same with, why would you let Stephanopoulos into the freaking Oval Office? Why would you put a business of yours on Facebook knowing who they are?

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: They’re just a lot of things I don’t understand. Of course, I’ve built my business in entirely different ways prior to the existence — I don’t even need those outfits in order for the business model I have to succeed. I am able to be independent because I’m big and famous. A lot of people are not there yet, and course they need these big platforms to have any chance at exposure.

And that’s the lure. It’s tough to build from nothing. It’s much easier to glom onto something that’s already there and then try to get your share of it. I understand. I understand all that. But I just want to warn you that — I know that there are all kinds of little entrepreneurial conservative oriented, not just social media, websites and all kinds of things and they’re constantly springing up, and they’re great. And some of them are run by Millennials and some have great potential.

I just want to warn you that if they get pesky, problematic, if they become too effective then Zuckerberg and Dorsey are gonna come swooping in there and just eat them. They’ll just mount a takeover, hostile or otherwise, or buy them out or what have you. And it’s the nature of the beast. It is a free market now. “No, no, Rush, nothing free. These tech companies have become monopolies.”

And there’s an argument that could be made for that because they don’t have any competition. They’ve bought it all. They have bought the competition. They’ve incorporated the competition. It’s like Walmart buying Costco. It hasn’t happened yet, but that is what’s happening, you know, Facebook — WhatsApp had one and a half billionaire — it’s a messaging app — one and a half billionaire users. Facebook’s got Messenger. They didn’t want to compete with WhatsApp. Just buy it.

Then the people that ran WhatsApp, they entertain ’em for six months and then say, “Get outta here. We don’t want you anymore.” Give ’em a retirement package. The WhatsApp guys are gone. They’re billionaires, but their creation is run by Zuckerberg. And then Zuckerberg can either make it big, let it fade away, turn everything toward Messenger, which is what he’s doing. He’s taking things about WhatsApp that Messenger doesn’t have, incorporating them into Messenger in order to compete with Apple’s iMessage. That’s the message at work.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, we’ve had some calls on this story. I haven’t gotten into this yet. I just read the headline, people have been reacting to it. “How a liberal think tank is driving 2020 Dems to crack down on Big Tech.” I haven’t even weighed in on it. You people, it’s great. Don’t misunderstand. I’m just saying my take, which means the take, is yet to come.