No freedom of speech allowed at Lyft!

The new dark age of silencing: A driver has been fired by Lyft because a passenger complained that he was listening to a racist on the radio, when in fact his radio was tuned to a black conservative.

Ryan Alexander, who had been a Lyft driver for years, tells “The Dan O’Donnell Show” that a Lyft representative told him during a phone call Saturday that his account was suspended because he had been listening to “racist talk radio programming,” a violation of the app’s terms of service.

Alexander says he was listening to former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke fill in for Mark Belling during the “Mark Belling Late Afternoon Show” Thursday evening when a passenger took exception to the discussion Clarke was having about Black Lives Matter and abortion rates in the African-American community.

“She called Clarke trash, slammed the door to my car when she got out, and specifically referenced abortion which Clarke did talk about briefly while she was in the car,” Alexander says.

During the portion of the program that the passenger heard, Clarke, who is Black, expressed the opinion that the Black Lives Matter organization did not truly care about Black lives because it was not upset about the rate of abortions among Black mothers.

Essentially, Alexander has been blackballed by the heckler’s veto. He was given no chance to defend himself, the accuser was allowed to make any accusation she chose, without substantiation. Nor was Alexander permitted to face his accuser or appeal the ruling.

The article also notes that a review of Lyft’s terms of service shows no rules dictating what a driver can play on his or her radio. I reviewed those terms as well and could find nothing.

Alexander was thus fired because the customer he picked up was a vindictive leftist or BLM supporter who could not tolerate hearing any criticism of that organization, and was further determined that no one else should either. That Clarke’s statements about BLM are 100% factual and accurate was irrelevant. All opposition must be crushed, without mercy.

And yes, I know that Lyft is a private company that has the right to protect itself from bad publicity. This however is not the way to do it. If anything, it has generated lots of bad publicity for the company, but all the wrong kind. To bow to one disgruntled customer because she didn’t like what was on the radio is not only stupid, it exhibits incredible cowardice.

There are other taxi-type services available. Keep this story in mind when next you need one.