Posted on 12/21/2018 9:12:05 AM PST by MNDude
Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement regarding the introduction his bill, H.R.7363, that amends section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934:
“Social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google are now among the largest and most powerful companies in the world. More and more people are turning to a social media platform for news than ever before, arguably making these companies more powerful than traditional media outlets. Yet, social media companies enjoy special legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, protections not shared by other media. Instead of acting like the neutral platforms they claim to be in order obtain their immunity, these companies have turned Section 230 into a license to potentially defraud and defame with impunity.”
“Representatives of social media companies have testified in Congressional hearings that they do not discriminate against or filter out conservative voices on their platforms. But for all their reassurances, the disturbing trend continues unabated. Employees from some of these companies have communicated their disgust for conservatives and discussed ways to use social media platforms and algorithms to silence and prevent income to conservatives.”
(Excerpt) Read more at gohmert.house.gov ...
Sweet. Twitter, et al, are not simple content carriers. They filter it, they own it.
Social media lies to Congress and Congress does nothing.
THIS.
Make them decide, either they stop censoring and editing and continue enjoying their present status, or they will be considered to be publishers and held to the same standard.
This is such a no-brainer I can’t imagine why it has taken this long to do it. Thank you Rep. Gohmert!
Bump.
Great bill, Louie, but there’s almost no chance of it passing at this late hour.
Paul Ryan will not let it come up for a vote before the House ajourns for Christmas.
They will still filter and manipulate it, but call it something else, and go right on doing what they are doing now.
A lot of (deep state) people lie to Congress and Congress does nothing.
Even if this bill does something useful (can't tell until the text is available), it will be unpassable in a few days when the Dems take over the House. One theory I heard yesterday is that since most Republicans don't care about censorship, and since the GOPe is one of the forces that wants censorship, this bill is just a bone that they're throwing us that will go nowhere. We'll see.
I know what you’re saying but things are not always as they seem. Lots of Democrats are pretty fed up with social media companies too, and even the great Zuck is starting to be more of an anchor than a propeller. So that’s one thing, then there’s the art of the deal, Trump could possibly negotiate support for this legislation in return for something else - he’s made it pretty clear he’s open to deals but that means he gets something in return for giving up something.
Lastly there’s the political capital that will accrue for 2020 if thing like this are not fixed. Probably one of the strongest rallying points for conservatives of all stripes right now - we may disagree over foreign or economic policy but no one from the right agrees with the censorship, deplatforming, and shadow-banning that has been going on.
But Robert Epstein, who seems to be the main authority on this matter, thinks the censorship and bias is worth several million votes nationwide for the Dems; and they would die before they give it up. (It's both hilarious and frightening that Epstein's experiments showed that the people who are most easily swayed to the Left by Google bias are moderate Republicans.)
In addition to censorship and influencing public opinion, the third big problem with Big Tech is Surveillance Capitalism (data abuse). This is why you see leftists upset with Big Tech. It is interesting that most of the big activists against this form of abuse are leftists. They want this form of abuse stopped, but have no problem with censorship. The legislation for these various issues is completely different.
Social media lies to Congress and Congress does nothing.
************
FB was just found to be selling private messages to 3rd parties...lying to their users also... remove all protections NOW.
The moment they start filtering/adjusting - then they become producer and director in their own little drama. At that point they are just taking a lot of free content provided to them, performing their editing, and then providing that to users. The point is, it is now their show, they should take responsibility for it.
The quality of an elected government will never exceed the quality of the press.
Great bill. I can hear the giant sucking sound now of all the key Washington power players hoovering up campaign contributions and informational junkets from the tech giants.
Great idea! Won’t happen.
They thoroughly have their cake and eat it too: protected as open platforms but functioning as content publishers.
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