A new bill calls for users to be able to sue tech companies over political censorship and calls for all users to be treated equally by websites' terms of service, Sen. Josh Hawley, who is presenting the measure, said Thursday.
"If Big Tech violates their terms of service, then it gives the individual the ability to sue," the Missouri Republican said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." If you get treated unfairly by Big Tech, you ought to be able to have your day in court. It's that simple."
For nearly 25 years, federal law has said that large technology companies could not be sued for content, as they were not publishers, but Hawley pointed out that back in 1996, "which seems like an eternity ago," none of the major platforms such as Google, Twitter, or Facebook existed.
"The internet has changed a lot since then," said Hawley. "The other thing that's changed is courts have really rewritten section 230 in all of those intervening years. They have in many ways changed the meaning."
Hawley said his bill gets closer to the original purpose of the legislation, which was to have tech companies act in good faith and treat people fairly.
"Right now, if Google de-platforms a conservative website, or Twitter takes away your platform, you can't do anything about it," said Hawley. "You don't have any recourse. That's wrong. You should be able to go to court."
Twitter has commented that it enforces its rules impartially, noted show co-host Brian Kilmeade, and Hawley responded that he looks forward to the tech giant's support, if they are treating users equally.
"Of course we know that Twitter has been out there censoring the president of the United States while saying nothing about Joe Biden or nothing about all those Chinese Communist Party diplomats who have been lying about COVID-19, so they're not enforcing anything evenly," said Hawley. "If they really are then I think they should welcome this legislation and I look forward to their endorsement."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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