Sheffield’s full testimony can be found HERE.


WASHINGTON, D.C.Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) today announced that Carrie Sheffield, senior policy analyst at the Center for Economic Opportunity at IWF, will testify before the U.S. House Committee on Small Business on how small media outlets can be impacted by NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index’s (GDI) bogus reviews, and calling out Lina Khan for the FTC abuses against  online retailers.

The hearing, titled, “Under the Microscope: Examining the Censorship-Industrial Complex and its Impact on American Small Businesses” examines the challenges faced by small businesses as big tech suppresses ad exchanges and creates reputational damage for these companies through biased rating systems. 

Sheffield will share her experience operating a digital news media network called Bold TV.  In her testimony, she highlights how utilizing tech and content distribution partners for monetization tools and ad exchanges was important to growing Bold TV’s audience.

In her testimony, Sheffield writes, in part, that “in some areas the federal government interferes with small businesses, or targets them for censorship, because of their speech. Government interference can occur by forcing the removal or suppression of speech on social media platforms. This impacts businesses’ ability to monetize those platforms in various ways. It can also negatively impact the ability to sell products on online marketplaces, such as Amazon, Etsy or eBay. Evidence suggests that the U.S. State Department gave taxpayer funds to the GDI which then downrated conservative media organizations, including The Daily Wire and The Federalist.”

Sheffield then highlighted marketplace censorship examples, including: 

  • The removal of Parler, a conservative-leaning alternative to Twitter, from Amazon, Apple, and Google;
  • The demonetization of Epoch Times, a conservative-leaning news outlet, by Youtube;
  • Eventbrite’s censorship of Independent Women’s Network “Let Women Speak Austin” event advocating for female safety in sports, prisons, and battered women’s shelters for “perpetuating hate speech.”

Sheffield concludes her testimony with the assertion that “commercial freedom and freedom of expression go hand-in-hand” as “businesses are voices for the people,” and she advocates for Congress to protect the marketplace of ideas from the online assault of censorship.

Details:

WHAT: U.S. House Committee on Small Business “Under the Microscope: Examining the Censorship-Industrial Complex and its Impact on American Small Businesses”

WHEN: Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at 10 a.m. EDT

WHERE: 2360 Rayburn

Media inquiries: [email protected]

Sheffield’s full testimony will be available HERE after the hearing.

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Independent Women’s Forum is dedicated to developing and advancing policies that aren’t just well intended but actually enhance people’s freedom, choices, and opportunities. 

Independent Women’s Forum’s Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) aims to educate the public about how government policies impact people’s opportunities for economic development and upward mobility.