Irvine, CA (PinionNewswire) — California Congressional Candidate Eric Troutman is focusing the remaining days of his campaign to raising awareness of threats to the First Amendment both in broadcast and social media.
“I have dedicated my legal career to fighting threats to the First Amendment and constitutional rights.” Troutman says. “It only makes sense I should dedicate my Congressional campaign to helping defend freedom for all Americans.”
Troutman is reportedly deeply concerned over recent revelations from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr that the Biden-era Commission pressured cable providers to drop right-wing networks OAN and Newsmax and even threatened Fox broadcast licenses over Fox News content.
“Chairman Car’s claims are absolutely stunning to me.” Troutman says. “If the FCC was secretly working behind the scenes to silence news sources trusted by millions of people this is one of the biggest news stories of our time. This is a direct assault on our First Amendment and the sort of mind-control operation I never would have expected from the U.S. government.”
Carr has been under heat himself for pressuring content changes on some networks and threatening ABC’s license renewal over jokes made by late-night comedians.
“I’m not too happy with some of Carr’s recent actions either. There’s no way the FCC should be threatening to pull licenses over some comedian’s bad jokes. That’s the sort of thing that leads to dystopia folks. Haven’t you seen V for Vendetta?” Troutman says. “But at least Carr is operating in the light of day. At least he is brave enough to explain what he is doing and why. Still it needs to stop.”
But Troutman is also concerned about ongoing censorship on social media platforms.
“We all remember when the Biden administration tried to seize control over social media platforms with a ‘Truth Czar’ who would dictate what people were allowed to say and what they aren’t. That was insane.” Troutman says. “Well the social media platforms continue to exercise extreme viewpoint censorship to this day and it needs to stop.”
Troutman cites his own experience with Reddit as an example.
“Everybody says Reddit is a terribly unfair platform and people say cowardly little things on Reddit because it is anonymous. I’m fine with people saying what they want– free speech!– and nobody takes the trolls too seriously.” Troutman says. “The issue is that Reddit only allows certain speech and not others– and my supporters have found that out first hand.”
For instance a Reddit moderator “KoreanTerran” knowingly allowed a Reddit sub attacking Troutman on r/Irvine despite the mod’s own admission he “do[es]n’t usually allow one word titles or general complaints (about politics especially).” When accounts supporting Troutman attempted to share their views on the thread they were permanently banned. Content supportive of Troutman was deleted.
Notably Troutman’s primary opponent–Dave Min– is Korean.
“This is a very serious thing. Reddit needs to understand they have lost their Communications Act Section 230 protections because of the way this guy has behaved. That means I could easily sue Reddit for all the negative little comments they’ve allowed trying to influence the election.” Troutman says. “I’m probably not going to sue them because I believe in free speech and I am such a nice guy, but they really should be careful. Not everyone is as nice and positive as I am.”
Troutman views the online chatter as a natural response to his campaign’s success.
“The recent polling shows Troutman in the lead right now. No surprise the political parties are getting desperate.” Troutman says. “I’m a huge threat to the status quo and they’re going to throw everything they can at me-biased social media pages are just the beginning. No problem. I knew what to expect when I decided to run. I am doing it for the people and there’s no way I’m going to back down. So do and say your worst. I’ll still be standing right here ready to help when you’re done–and hopefully you’ll come to respect me as a result.”
More broadly Troutman has pledged he will fiercely defend all Constitutional rights– including the First Amendment– if elected.
“Nobody has more experience protecting First Amendment rights from a legal perspective than I do and nobody is more committed to protecting American freedom than Troutman.” Troutman says. “I will never act in a way to undermine any of your Constitutionally-protected rights. Your freedom is safe with Troutman!”
Last modified: May 19, 2026
