GETTR Chief Executive Officer Jason Miller took the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to task on Saturday with a speech at CPAC Japan, blasting China’s communist leaders and Big Tech social media platforms for squashing the free speech protests in China and across the globe.

Miller also offered a strong defense of free speech in Japan and throughout Asia, as well as support for Japanese sovereignty at a time of great global unrest.

“For the CCP, it’s all about control. That is why they have to stop free speech because by stopping free speech, they stop the peaceful protest for people who want to express their God-given rights,” he said.

The “Blank Paper” protests began after a horrific apartment fire in far western Urumqi, China, that killed at least 10 local residents because the tenants could not flee the building due to “Zero COVID” restrictions. While the “blank paper” theme harkens back to the 2020 student protests in Hong Kong, the CCP continues to break-up or stifle any online or in-person dissent following the tragedy in Urumqi.

Miller continued on, “In recent weeks, we’ve seen the greatest free speech movement in a generation in China. In pushback to Xi Jinping, a simple piece of white paper, the ‘Blank Paper’ protest, is a symbol of the ‘Big Silence’ that is happening in China where free speech and legal dissent is not allowed. The ‘Blank Paper’ protests have popped up all over the world, not just in China. We’ve seen them in the States, we’ve seen them in Europe, and other places in Asia.”

“We’ve seen the CCP crack down on any aspect of dissent. It all comes back to free speech. It isn’t just something we say as a tagline with GETTR. It’s something that we truly believe in. It’s something that we are passionate about. We stand with the people of 6/4, the people of Tiananmen Square, we stand with the ‘Blank Paper’ protests. You have to understand the control the CCP wants to install on people to understand their aggression. It’s not just China, we’ve seen their aggression in Taiwan, Japan, and around the world. The CCP is incapable of change, they will always fight to stop any aspect of free speech.”

“For the people who want to be free in China: this is our moment. On GETTR, free speech will always be held tightly to our hearts. The difference between fascism and freedom is free speech, and once it’s gone, as we’ve seen with the people of China, it is so hard to get back. This is our God-given right to have free speech. The CCP is never going to change, but we can make sure that freedom persists all around the world.”

[Watch the full speech here]

GETTR today hosts over 7 million users worldwide. With a presence in 192 different countries, there have been over 300 million livestreaming views since the release of the feature in October of 2021, and over 40 million Vision views since Spring 2022. In recent months, GETTR has defied market trends, doubling its unique users in the first year of existence, with plans to unveil broader monetization in the coming weeks.