Meta announced on Wednesday that Donald Trump‘s Facebook and Instagram accounts will be restored, causing a great panic in the mainstream media. But one Democrat appearing on MSNBC defended the decision on the principle of freedom of speech.

Speaking with MSNBC’s Alex Wagner on Wednesday, California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna said that he is a classical liberal who believes in the concept of free speech. Like the ACLU, Khanna believes Meta restoring those accounts is an exercise in support of those American principles.

“I’m a classical liberal and I do believe very strongly in free speech,” said Khanna.

His response followed an opening monologue from Wagner that trashed Meta’s decision as a threat to public safety.

“It’s a very difficult situation, where you have someone who is leading the Republican nomination for president, to say that they should not have a forum on essentially a modern public square,” said the congressman. “So I guess where I come out is if they’re going to lift the ban but take action to ban him again if he has any post that incites violence, that seems like a reasonable compromise.”

Khanna said that Big Tech should be informed by American jurisprudence, but expressed concern whether they have the “independent jurists” available to act in the public trust, especially on censorship of speech.

When Wagner suggested that Meta might be acting out of a desire to prove they aren’t left-wing, Khanna shot that down, too, saying he does not agree.

“My candid assessment is I think they looked at it and Donald Trump is a leading candidate for president for the Republican Party,” he said. “Like it or not, he may be the Republican nominee. And they didn’t think that they wanted him off modern public squares in that position.”

Khanna has been fairly unique among Democrats on the issue of freedom of speech, not just defending Meta’s reinstatement but criticizing the actions of his party and the government in their massive censorship efforts that were revealed in the release of the Twitter Files.

RO KHANNA: Alex, I’m a classical liberal and I do believe very strongly in free speech and in getting different viewpoints. And it’s a very difficult situation, where you have someone who is leading the Republican nomination for president, to say that they should not have a forum on essentially a modern public square. So I guess where I come out is if they’re going to lift the ban but take action to ban him again if he has any post that incites violence, that seems like a reasonable compromise.

ALEX WAGNER: So you sound confident that the new guardrails that Meta has rolled out will be sufficient to keep Trump in check?

RO KHANNA: Well, I don’t know if it’ll be sufficient to keep him in check, but it seems to me that it is reasonable as long as Facebook follows through. So under Brandenburg — our First Amendment law, which I think should inform Facebook because it’s one of the greatest decisions, along with New York Times-Sullivan — if someone is posting or saying something that incites violence, that actually is not protected speech. And if Donald Trump does that again, like he was doing on January 6, there should be a clear consequence for that and he should be removed. So I guess the question is, are they going to enforce those guardrails?

ALEX WAGNER: I mean, I guess that the question of what is inciting violence and what is just tough talk, I mean, is suggesting the election was stolen and directing supporters to target election officials in an unspecified manner. Is is that tough talk? Is that inciting violence? I mean, how do you how do you draw the line? And are you confident that internally Meta has the systems and the personnel to to sort of make those very tough calls?

RO KHANNA: Alex I think it’s a great point. And that’s why I think they should look to First Amendment jurisprudence. I mean those calls are made all the time by our judges. And it has to be imminent, the threat. It has to actually be leading to violence. Just tough talk, words are not enough. And that was actually New York Times versus Sullivan often to protect, frankly, the Civil Rights Movement or anti-Vietnam protesters, saying you can’t just censor speech if it is provocative.

This First Amendment jurisprudence protects not just conservatives, but liberals. But my concern is that a private corporation like Meta, do they really have the independent jurists to be making those kind of decisions in a way that has the public trust? And I guess that’s my broader criticism of some of the social media companies: that you have a few people who are multibillionaires making these decisions about speech in society. I understand why the Supreme Court or judges are making it, but now you’ve got private companies making it.

ALEX WAGNER: Let me just ask you one question about why Meta is making this decision right now. Yes, the suspension was up. It had been two years since Trump was officially taken off of Facebook and Instagram. But we also know that House Republicans have been very clear about targeting, if you will, Big Tech and calling calling some of those CEOs up to the Hill and and effectively asking them some very tough questions, if not more, about a perceived left-wing bias. Do you think that this is an effort to curry favor the re-platforming of Trump? Do you think this is an effort to curry favor with House Republicans now that they’re running the show?

RO KHANNA: I don’t. I think they are sensitive, tech, to criticism from lawmakers on both sides. I mean, we were in the majority. We were very critical and of the antitrust issues with Big Tech and the lack of privacy issues. I think here there are concerns on censorship. But Alex, the censorship is often against the left more than the right. I mean, the top ten most popular sites on Facebook, nine out of ten of them are conservative sites. They are not liberal sites. So I don’t think there’s some conservative bias. My candid assessment is I think they looked at it and Donald Trump is a leading candidate for president for the Republican Party. Like it or not, he may be the Republican nominee. And they didn’t think that they wanted him off modern public squares in that position.

Watch the clip above, via Alex Wagner Tonight on MSNBC.

The post Democrat Congressman on MSNBC Defends Trump Facebook Reinstatement as ‘Reasonable’: I ‘Believe Very Strongly In Free Speech’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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