Josh Hawley Moves to End Immunity Privileges for Big Tech Monopolies Unless They Protect Free Speech
The freshman Senator from Missouri is taking action to protect digital freedom.
By Shane Trejo
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has emerged as the leading reformer against social media censorship, as he is going after their special immunity privileges under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
As it states right now, Section 230 states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”
Howley’s bill, the Ending Support for Internet Censorship Act, would remove that exemption for Big Tech firms if they act like publishers instead of neutral platforms. Corporations would have to comply with external audits proving their algorithms and content moderation are not biased.
“With Section 230, tech companies get a sweetheart deal that no other industry enjoys: complete exemption from traditional publisher liability in exchange for providing a forum free of political censorship,” Hawley said in a statement. “Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, big tech has failed to hold up its end of the bargain.”
“There’s a growing list of evidence that shows big tech companies making editorial decisions to censor viewpoints they disagree with,” Hawley added. “Even worse, the entire process is shrouded in secrecy because these companies refuse to make their protocols public. This legislation simply states that if the tech giants want to keep their government-granted immunity, they must bring transparency and accountability to their editorial processes and prove that they don’t discriminate.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the left-leaning civil liberties organization, warns against changing the regulations.
“Though there are important exceptions for certain criminal and intellectual property-based claims, CDA 230 creates a broad protection that has allowed innovation and free speech online to flourish,” the EFF added on their website.
“This legal and policy framework has allowed for YouTube and Vimeo users to upload their own videos, Amazon and Yelp to offer countless user reviews, craigslist to host classified ads, and Facebook and Twitter to offer social networking to hundreds of millions of Internet users,” they added.
“Senator Hawley’s misguided legislation sets the table for stricter government control over free expression online,” Americans for Prosperity Policy Analyst Billy Easley said in a statement.
“Eroding the crucial protections that exist under Section 230 creates a scenario where government has the ability to police your speech and determine what you can or cannot say online,” Easley added.
ECommerce trade group NetChoice opposes the legislation because they admit that it would restrict the ability of tech giants to censor.
“This bill prevents social media websites from removing dangerous and hateful content, since that could make them liable for lawsuits over any user’s posting” said Carl Szabo, who works as General Counsel at NetChoice, in a statement. “Sen. Hawley’s bill creates an internet where content from the KKK would display alongside our family photos and cat videos.”
Hawley isn’t phased by the critics, and continues to put Big Tech in his crosshairs.
Full text of the legislation can be seen here.
Michael Moore Asks the Left: ‘Are You Ready’ to Take On Trump’s ‘Insane Base’
By Hannah Bleau
Far-left documentary filmmaker Michael Moore informed his 6 million Twitter followers Wednesday that he watched President Trump’s reelection speech and asked fellow resisters if they are ready to take on Trump’s “fired-up insane base.”
The Fahrenheit 11/9 filmmaker told his followers that he watched Trump’s reelection speech in its entirety in order to get a good look at the “enormity of the fight ahead.” Michael Moore was seemingly incensed by President Trump’s massive crowd of supporters.
“He hasn’t lost one inch of his fired-up insane base,” Moore said.
Moore’s devotion to “plugging in” and paying attention seems to be a recent development. Contrast his newfound position with the warning he issued prior to President Trump’s State of the Union Address in January.
At the time, Moore urged networks to refrain from playing the president’s address.
“You MUST NOT give free air time 2 a known liar,” he warned in a January 8 tweet. “This is a man you have told us lies to us an average of 10 lies a day.”
“If you do go ahead and give Trump this free, prime time airtime tonight, then I implore you to run on the screen a real-time LIVE fact-check for every sentence he utters,” he continued. “You owe this to your viewers.”
The Oscar-winner also warned that Trump’s State of the Union address was “all part of the plan” to start a coup.
In February, Moore urged Democrats to refrain from taking moderate positions and declared “middle ground” as good as gone.
“If you’re being moderate, stop being moderate. Take a position,” Moore said during an appearance on MSNBC. “There’s no middle ground anymore. There’s no halfway point to should somebody be paid a living wage.”
“You know, on the issue of choice, there is no halfway there. You’re either for it or you’re against it,” he continued. “Do you believe in equal rights for women? Do you believe we should have an Equal Rights Amendment? There’s no middle ground. There’s no time for moderation.”
Moore and Avengers star Mark Ruffalo are reportedly planning strategies “for the 2020 blue deluge.”
YOUTUBE DELETES CHANNEL OF SPAIN’S POPULIST VOX PARTY
“Serious attack on freedom of expression”
JUNE 19, 2019
YouTube has deleted the populist Spanish Vox Party’s entire channel in yet another example of the Google-owned platform targeting right of center political content.
“Spain’s far-right Vox party @vox_es has demanded an explanation from @YouTube as to why their account has been closed or suspended ‘without any explanation’,” reported the Spain in English Twitter account.
The party itself then tweeted, “The decision to remove the channel is a serious attack on the freedom of expression and dissemination of a political party.”
It subsequently emerged that the deletion of the channel likely came as a result of simultaneous copyright claims made by leftists.
“YouTube has informed us that the disabling of the VOX channel is due to the complaint made by three people who believe that we have used content of theirs,” the party later tweeted, blaming “left-wing activists” for coordinating the takedown.
The party said that other political parties had used the same audiovisual content without being hit by copyright strikes.
“We call on these platforms, who claim to fight online abuse, to pursue groups of progressive trolls who report in an organized manner and for ideological reasons to all those accounts that do not conform to their unique thinking,” the party tweeted.
The Vox Party has 24 seats in the Spanish parliament having obtained over 10% of the vote in the country’s national election earlier this year. The party also has 3 seats in the European parliament.
As we previously reported, just days before the Spanish election in April, Facebook removed numerous large pro-Vox pages which had a combined reach of millions at the request of Avaaz, a left-wing NGO which is funded by George Soros.
Earlier this month, YouTube caved to a wave of contrived mob outrage (coincidentally led by another “Vox” – the left-wing media outlet) and announced it was imposing a major crackdown on “hate speech”.
DON LEMON INVOKES HITLER WHILE DISCUSSING MEDIA’S ROLE IN COVERING TRUMP
CNN hack’s comments too extreme for Chris Cuomo
JUNE 19, 2019
CNN anchor Don Lemon made what he himself described as a “extreme” comparison between President Trump and Adolf Hitler while arguing that such “bad people” shouldn’t be given a platform.
During their nightly hand-off, his primetime colleague Chris Cuomo began by describing 2020 as the most “definitional” election in his lifetime. Lemon appeared to attempt to shame Trump supporters, and asked them if they will “continue to fall for the o-ke-doke.” But then he questioned the media’s responsibilities in covering Trump’s candidacy.
The “CNN Tonight” anchor urged Cuomo to “think about the most despicable people in history” and warned him that he was going to use an “extreme example.”
Teen Vogue(on ANAL SEX) Gets Woke Again
TEEN VOGUE SAYS, “We’re here to lay it all out for you when it comes to anal sex”.
Published on Jun 19, 2019
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