Representative Matt Gaetz has announced he is drafting legislation to stopping Big Tech companies from allowing biased “fact-checking” on their platforms.
Trump: “Twitter Is Completely Stifling Free Speech!”
On Monday, President Trump had tweeted about the dangers of fraud relating to voting by mail.
“There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent,” the president said, arguing that “mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed.”
he President added that with this, the election could end up being seriously “rigged.”
….living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
However, Twitter decided to put a little “fact-check” on the bottom of the President’s tweets, linking to biased liberal media outlets that attempted to debunk the President’s words. This rightly infuriated President Trump, who said this was tantamount to election interference by Twitter.
“Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen,” he wrote, threatening greater checks on the Big Tech companies.
….Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
Gaetz: “You Are Not A Platform”
It seems that Matt Gaetz is one step ahead of the President, and is now drafting a bill to crack down on these biased “fact-checks” by Big Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter. These organizations would then face the removal of their immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
“You see Twitter disadvantaging the president, they enjoy liability protections that are not enjoyed by your local newspaper or your local TV station, or Fox News, or CNN, or MSNBC. They have special benefits under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act as digital platforms because they’re not creating content for which they should be liable,” Gaetz explained on his podcast. “They’re not making decisions about content, they’re simply saying come one, come all with your content. And as a consequence of that, they’re getting a bunch of protections.”
The Florida congressman went on to say that he is “currently working with my Republican colleagues on the Judiciary Committee to craft legislation to say that if you’re going to opine as to the truth or falsity of that which is put on your platform, for the sake of its viewers, you don’t get the protection of Section 230.”
“You are not a platform. You are doing something else, you are editorializing,” Gaetz added.
This is exactly right. This incident with the President may hopefully galvanise the legal action that has been needed against Big Tech for a while now – either they are platforms, or publishers, and they need to make up their mind.