On Wednesday, Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, will bring a bill to the Senate floor that will “give consumers grounds to sue companies like Facebook or Twitter over accusations of selective censorship of political speech,” according to Axios.
Hawley’s bill would follow the executive order President Trump signed last month, which targeted big tech’s legal immunity from liability over content posted by users.
Called the Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act, it would prevent big tech companies, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Google for example, would “prevent major online companies from receiving the protections of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act unless they revise their terms of service to include pledges to operate in good faith and details of their content moderation policies,” according to Hawley’s office.
Section 230 is a legal protection that gives these companies immunity from lawsuits over user-generated content. But in recent years, these companies have been censoring non-Leftist speech relentlessly, with the latest example being Google’s apparently threatening to demonetize the mainstream conservative sites ZeroHedge and the Federalist.
Hawley’s bill would enable users who believe a platform is not “operating in good faith” and doesn’t apply its standards fairly could sue for $5,000 and attorneys’ fees. The bill would only apply to websites or mobile apps with more than 30 million US users, or 300 million worldwide,per month. Axios reports that these companies would also need to raise more than $1.5 billion in global revenue.
The bill is also sponsored by Senators Marco Rubio, Mike Braun and recently-cancelled-by-the-woke-New York Times Tom Cotton.
