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By Suzanne Blake
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Israeli cybersecurity billionaire Shlomo Kramer's push to limit free speech has sparked outrage among conservatives online.
During an interview New Year's Day on CNBC, Kramer said "it's time to limit the First Amendment. We need to control all the social platforms … and take control of what they are saying."
Why It Matters
The First Amendment—which protects core American values including freedoms of speech, the press, exercise of religion and peaceable assembly—is a cornerstone of democracy. Any effort to impose limits on those rights often faces significant backlash in the U.S.
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What To Know
“I know it’s difficult to hear, but it’s time to limit the First Amendment in order to protect it,” Kramer said during the CNBC interview. He was discussing content moderation and misinformation on tech platforms but alarmed many viewers with the framing of limiting the First Amendment, a core safeguard against government censorship.
The conservative backlash arrived swiftly, with former Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida writing on X: “No. We aren’t going to do this.”
Mehdi Hasan, British-American journalist and editor-in-chief/CEO of new media company Zeteo, responded with concerns over the dangers around foreign involvement in U.S. free speech. “A foreign tech billionaire, who works in cyber security, and used to work for a foreign defense intelligence unit, is openly calling for the limiting of the First Amendment on American television,” Hasan wrote on X. “And we’re all supposed to think this is normal.”
Another account, @WallStreetMav, wrote on the platform: “Foreigners have zero business telling us anything.”
Alex Jones, far-right radio host and conspiracy theorist, said that Israel has “publicly declared war on the American people’s right to free speech.”
“Israel’s leadership has now joined forces with the tyrannical European Union, UK and others to overturn the first amendment effectively establishing a AI digital dictatorship,” Jones said on X.
U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican who announced she's resigning on January 5, wrote in response to the original video: “An Israeli cybersecurity billionaire demanding to take away Americans guaranteed First Amendment Free Speech and President Trump threatening war and sending in troops to Iran is everything we voted against in ‘24.
“Trump voters spent the week threatening a tax revolt because they are so furious about the never ending waste, fraud, and abuse of their hard earned money going to foreigners and foreign wars. The focus should be on tax dollars here at home and defending our God given freedoms and rights.”
Kramer, who has an estimated net worth of $2.2 billion, is known in the cybersecurity world for cofounding Check Point Software Technologies and Imperva.
What People Are Saying
Glenn Greenwald, journalist who hosts System Update, on X: “Genuine thanks to Israeli billionaire Shlomo Kramer for stating so explicitly and unflinchingly what so many other top Israelis and their US loyalists are saying, albeit a bit more subtly: Americans must learn to accept limits on our First Amendment rights.”
Chris Menahan, publisher of independent news site InformationLiberation.com, on X: “Israeli billionaire Shlomo Kramer's New Year's resolution is to eliminate America's First Amendment.”
Jayda Fransen, founder of The Christian Nationalist Party, also on X: “This is the result of supporting Israel, even when they commit genocide. They feel emboldened to say & do anything.”
What Happens Next
The First Amendment protects citizens’ rights to freedom of speech. However, private tech companies like Meta and Twitter can have their own rules around content moderation and misinformation.
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