The last few days have been significant for the movement to protect political speech and stop corporate data collection on the American people.
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey’s AM for Every Vehicle Act recently crossed the critical milestone of accruing 200 unique cosponsors in the House of Representatives, with 45 others in the Senate. Few bills receive such significant bipartisan support, but this one has because members of Congress of all stripes and ideologies recognize the importance of these fundamental American priorities and values.
As everyone from the hard-right Sean Hannity to more moderate and center-left talk radio hosts have made clear, AM radio is one of the only platforms left that gives the American people hard-hitting, uncensored news and an open platform to tell the world what is on their minds. Unlike almost every other form of news medium today, broadcast radio is also free and remains the most listened-to audio platform in the country. Allowing highly subsidized automakers that have amassed billions of our hard-earned dollars from the government in the form of subsidies and tax breaks over the years to remove AM radio from our vehicles would represent a massive gift to Big Tech and the old-guard mainstream media networks, but at what cost to our Republic?
It’s obvious that many car companies can’t wait to remove AM radio because they want to replace it with new music streaming services that will give Big Auto and its partner companies new ways to spy on us and collect our data.
Offering new services is fine — it’s even encouraged. But they should come in addition to, not in place of, the technology that protects public safety and free speech.
Doesn’t Big Auto already make enough money off our backs?
As Breitbart News reported in September:
The world’s most popular car brands are a data “privacy nightmare,” collecting and selling personal information in an age when driving is going increasingly digital…
The California-based Mozilla Foundation reviewed 25 car brands and said none of them fully satisfied its standards on privacy and that no other product category had ever received as poor a review, including makers of sex toys or mental health apps.
These car companies are already squeezing taxpayers dry. They don’t need to limit consumer choice even further just to make a few more quick bucks. If they succeed in this effort, taxpayers and our national security can suffer the consequences.
For starters, it could empower the Chinese Communist Party.
China watchdogs like Citizen Power Initiative for China have made it clear that Chinese automakers, like Geely, the parent company of Volvo, “must comply with the same Military-Civil Fusion laws that TikTok and other problem Chinese apps must follow. That means the same data TikTok security concerns apply but with even more in-depth personal information in play, from when they leave the house to their driving patterns and histories.”
They have also pointed out that U.S. automakers have become increasingly vulnerable to China’s cyberattacks. Why, then, should Congress allow Big Auto to make the technology that’s connected to its vulnerable data collection nets the only game in town?
As if that’s not enough reason for concern, automakers’ removal of AM radio could also jeopardize the integrity of America’s own public safety infrastructure.
Longtime taxpayer advocates know that the government has invested millions of dollars into creating, refining, and maintaining the National Public Warning System and Emergency Alert System (which rely on AM radio) because in times of emergency — when our computers and phones are dead and there’s no power to charge them — the public still needs to be informed.
Dozens of law enforcement and emergency management professionals have said that protecting AM radio is vital for this purpose. They have also said that it is the only way they have managed to connect with the public during some of the worst public safety scares this country has seen and that the tried-and-true technology has saved countless lives. If our local law enforcement and emergency response officials all perceive AM radio’s removal as a problem, we should too.
Fortunately, with nearly the entire public safety community and Congress — including Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson — supporting Cruz and Markey’s bill, the issue over AM radio removal appears poised to become a non-issue soon. This broad bipartisan coalition isn’t going to let Big Auto kill the AM radio star, and we should all be thankful for that.
Andrew Surabian is a Republican strategist and an adviser and spokesman for Donald Trump Jr. He served previously as a special assistant to President Trump and deputy strategist in the White House.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.