Posted on 05/27/2020 12:22:09 PM PDT by RandFan
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) will announce today that he is working with Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee to craft legislation that would strip social media giants of their Section 230 legal immunity if they fact check content on their platforms, according to a copy of his podcast which Breitbart News exclusively obtained.
On the Florida conservative’s podcast, Hot Takes with Matt Gaetz, he said that he is working on a bill that would prevent social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google from fact-checking content on their platforms. Gaetz’s announcement follows as Twitter decided to fact check President Donald Trump’s tweet on Tuesday.
Twitter tried to fact check the president over Trump’s tweet, claiming that mail-in ballot would lead to increased voter fraud.
After Twitter fact-checked Trump’s post, the president threatened to regulate or shut down social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
We need to stop beating our heads against the Twitter, Google, and Facebooks in our country.
The legislation is not needed or required. It is a slippery slope. If we can regulate those companies by fiat (sic?) then what is to say that OAN and Rush Limbaugh cannot regulate as well?
Conservatives need to come up with a viable competitive product.
I’m thinking the democrats will block it.
But what about a court challenge? Private platform ruling?
Zero chance the dem controlled house passes this.
Once a social network provides “fact checking,” they are providing editorial content. And if they are providing editorial content, they can be held accountable for the content they provide.
If a social network provides no editorial content, no fact checking, then they’re only a platform, and not a publisher, and can’t really be entirely responsible for what appears there ...
The social platforms are the news form of a telecom carrier. A telecom carrier that is like the town bulletin board where anybody can post something no matter how ridiculous. Also like the “free speech” area in Hyde Park where you can give a speech no matter how ridiculous.
They’re a channel nothing more. If they want to be more then the channel, the nanny! Then as you say they need to be held accountable.
Newspaper and book publishers can be sued if what they print is untrue. Because it would be impossible for online sites to vet millions of postings by random people, Congress gave them an exemption from libel laws. IMO, either they don’t vet postings, or if they do, they lose their exemption.
The courts have ruled they have immunity so no hope unless a law is passed..
There is a legal difference between a platform and a publisher. A platform is simply a method of distribution. Anyone who uses it is solely responsible for the content. A publisher, on the other hand, is taking responsibility for the content they publish and makes editorial decisions accordingly.
The difference is important: platforms are immune from lawsuits for defamation because they hold no responsibility for the content on their platform. Publishers are not immune because they are the ones deciding what gets published.
This is not new legislation, it's recognition of a decision that firms like Twitter have made: they decided to become publishers. Remove the legal protections they had as platforms and put them into the same legal category as newspapers and networks.
@RepMattGaetz
If you are going to opine as to the truth or falsity of that which is put on your platform for the sake of its viewers, you should not get the protections of Section 230.
You are not a platform, you are editorializing.
This is it exactly. They can either be an open platform with no contribution or control of content, or they can contribute or control content, and then be subject to regulation. By inserting their own "Fact Check", they're creating content. I'd also argue that by controlling what is posted and what is not (by banning, deleting, shadow-banning, etc.), they are also taking control of content.
What Trump and the Republicans can't do is allow themselves to be painted as stifling or strong-arming a "free press". They aren't. They're just enforcing the rules that are already in place. And they better take it seriously overall - whether Twitter, Google, Facebook, YouTube, or others - they ARE out to affect the outcome in November in favor of the Dems.
(Hmmm - come to think of it, this sure looks and smells like in-kind contributions to the DNC in general, and Biden specifically. I wonder if the FEC would want to look into that?)
“Agencies have discretion, for better or worse.”
You are correct.
100% the correct response.
Nothing will pass except for spending $$$$ while the house is dem controlled
Nope.. never happen and like 99% of all the bills like this they’re BS to begin with with a known outcome.
Much like all the resolutions they do that mean nothing.
Congress should go back to part time (real part time not the full time pay with 30 weeks vacation they have now).
The country’s work could get done in a couple weeks easily.
So we can sue for libel now.
Why can’t somebody in the SENATE hold a hearing, invite the Twitter censor, and shame the heck out of him/her?
Because Big Tech owns the senators.
Good idea, but Nasty Peelousy will never let it go through.
Pass? It won't even make it out of committee. Pelosi runs that show.
This type of censorship has gone on forever. Decades ago, a candidate running against Senator Mark Hatfield in Oregon wanted to buy a full page ad in the Oregonian. The ad would show Hatfield’s voting record. The Oregonian refused to run the ad.
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