Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has reintroduced legislation aimed at fighting back against Big Tech censorship of conservatives.
Given the simple name of the Stop the Censorship Act, Rep. Gosar's bill introduces reforms to Section 230 of the 1934 Communications Decency Act, which he claims are used by left-leaning Big Tech companies to censor conservative content on social media.
As the Information, Technology, and Innovation Foundation explained, Section 230 is a law that protects online services from liability for removing or failing to remove third-party content, except "any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable."
The suppression of news stories about Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop during the 2020 Election is considered a prime example of such censorship taking advantage of the exception by conservatives, and Rep. Gosar is not the first to introduce legislation modifying Section 230.
In his press release reintroducing the bill, the Arizona Congressman said, "Big Tech, including social media giant Meta, were caught colluding with the Biden Regime to censor free speech involving explosive information about Hunter Biden's laptop and content related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, under current law, they are not held liable for restricting free speech online."
Gosar noted that suppression of the Biden laptop and COVID-19 news were not the only examples, further adding, "The government cannot censor lawful speech even if done indirectly. This is an illegal deprivation of civil rights."
"Free speech is a bedrock of the United States, but the overwhelmingly left-leaning Big Tech companies have taken that right away from Americans by silencing online speech they disagree with. The Stop the Censorship Act revokes Big Tech's Section 230 protections by providing a much-needed update to the Communications Act of 1934. There should be no more Big Tech immunity for censoring lawful political speech," Gosar concluded.
