Republican Sen. Josh Hawley's 'canceled' book on The Tyranny of Big Tech becomes a best seller ranked No. 6 in the US
Senator Josh Hawley's book on the power and influence of Big Tech companies has become a best-seller, despite publishing giant Simon & Schuster announcing in January that it would no longer print the book amid Hawley's claims of voter fraud prior to the Capitol riots.
Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, had conservative publishing company Regnery Publishing print his book, 'The Tyranny of Big Tech,' instead, on May 4.
It is now ranked number six in Publishers Weekly’s latest list of hardcover nonfiction titles, and was number 15 on Amazon's Top 20 Most Sold and Most Read Books of the Week.
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, wrote a book on the 'tyranny' of big technology companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple. He is pictured here at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in April
The book was published by Regnery Publishing on May, after Simon & Schuster announced it would no longer publish it, and it has since become a best-seller
In the book, Hawley compares technology giants - like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon - to the robber barons of the mid-19th century, like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt, who used exploitative practices to increase their wealth.
These practices included exerting control over the country's natural resources, influencing politicians, squashing competition and selling stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors.
Hawley claims that the technology companies are engaging in similar practices, with the federal government making it increasingly more difficult to sue them as they engage in spying practices and providing them with subsidies.
'The free market hasn't really worked when it coms to big tech because the federal government has put a big thumb on the scale of these platforms,' Hawley told FOX News host Mark Levin. 'It's government interference that has made big tech big.'
He said it is now 'time to break them up' and 'give power back to the people,' arguing in his book that the government needs to 'build an economy that makes the working class strong, independent and beholden to no one,' according to the Amazon summary.
'The time is ripe to overcome the tyranny of Big Tech by reshaping the business and legal landscape of the digital world,' it reads.
In his book, Hawley (right), compares the big technology companies to the robber barons of the 19th century, claiming they are engaging in similar practices, he told FOX News host Mark Levin recently
The book was originally supposed to be published by Simon & Schuster in June, but in January, the company announced that it had reneged on its contract with the senator, for his alleged role in promoting the January 6 Capitol riots.
'As a publisher, it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints,' Simon & Schuster said in a statement to The New York Times. 'At the same time, we take seriously our larger public responsibility as citizens and cannot support Sen. Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat.'
Hawley had objected to the Electoral College certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, claiming a 2019 Pennsylvania law expanding mail-in voting there violated the state constitution.
He was also photographed before the Capitol invasion raising his fist, seemingly in support of the thousands of people who marched on Washington on January 6 to protest the election results.
He later condemned the violence, NBC reports, and said he was simply representing his constituents in Missouri, a state that Donald Trump won in the 2020 presidential election.
Hawley was pictured raising his fist at a far-right group that had gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to protest the 2020 election results. Just hours later, many of those in the group would storm the Capitol
Simon & Schuster dropped Hawley as a client following the violence, which Hawley claimed was 'Orwellian' and 'a direct assault on the First Amendment'
In a statement on Twitter following Simon & Schuster's announcement that it would no longer publish his book, Hawley said the company was 'canceling my contract because I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition.'
'It's a direct assault on the First Amendment,' he continued. 'Only approved speech can now be published. This is the Left looking to cancel everyone they don't approve of.'
'I will fight this cancel culture with everything I have,' he said. 'We'll see you in court.'
A little over one week later, conservative publishing company Regnery Publishing said they would publish the book, one month earlier than Simon & Schuster was scheduled to publish it.
'It's discouraging to see [Simon & Schuster] cower before the 'woke mob,' as Senator Hawley correctly calls it,' president and publisher Thomas Spence said in a statement at the time.
'Regnery is proud to stand in the breach with him. And the warning in his book about censorship obviously couldn't be more urgent.'
Regnery has previously published books from authors like Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich and Ted Cruz.
