Red States take lead in reining in Big Tech

 Washington Examiner:

States are taking the lead on regulating Big Tech platforms such as Facebook and Google, advancing rules regarding censorship, data privacy, algorithms, and advertisements.

Social media censorship and content moderation has been a particularly heated area of tension between Democrats and Republicans nationwide. Members of Congress have challenged top social media executives from companies, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, regarding their rules for moderating content and potential bias in their algorithms.

Congress is debating multiple bills to beef up data privacy and to overhaul Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a provision that protects social media companies from liability for content posted by their users.

As states such as Texas, Florida, Utah, and North Dakota push for laws to reduce censorship and states like California and Virginia implement laws to protect consumer data privacy, pressure is increasing to create national standards for both issues rather than a patchwork of state regulations.

Texas

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican state senators announced a bill on Friday that will "help prohibit social media companies from censoring Texans based on the viewpoints they express."

According to the Texas Legislature, Senate Bill 12 would allow Texans to get back online if a social media platform suspends or blocks their account based on their political or religious views.

Abbott said the bill would "prevent social media platforms from canceling conservative speech," a complaint lodged by many conservatives after former President Donald Trump was banned from most major social media platforms for his role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack.

"Too many social media sites silence conservative speech and ideas and trample free speech. It's un-American, Un-Texan, and soon to be illegal," Abbott wrote in a tweet Thursday night.

...

There is much more on what individual states are doing to loosen the reins on free speech.  One obvious line of contention is the 2020 election results where the tech giants censored those who disagreed with the stated results.  There should be nothing wrong with challenging the way votes were handled and the final results.  It looks like big tech was so determined to get Biden elected they put their big thumbs on the scale of the debate. 

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