Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) have introduced a bipartisan bill that would strip legal immunities from tech companies that censor users without their consent.
The Break Up Big Tech Act would remove Section 230 protections — critical to the business model of the Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe — from platforms that “moderate or censor content without an opt-in from users.”
According to a press release on Rep. Gabbard’s website, the bill would also remove 230 immunities from companies that engage in the following practices:
- Selling and displaying personalized as well as contextual advertising without user’s consent
- Collecting data for commercial purposes other than the direct sale of the interactive computer service, i.e. turning the user into a commodity or otherwise monetizing the transmission of content
- Acting as a marketplace in the digital space by facilitating the placement of items into the stream of commerce
- Employing digital products and designs intended to engage and addict users to the service
“Big Tech monopolies continue to censor and manipulate users without consent or liability. The Break Up Big Tech Act revokes liability protections for bad Samaritans and instead empowers users,” said Rep. Gosar.
“Big tech monopolies like Google and Facebook have made billions of dollars by creating online platforms that monetize our private information, use manipulative and destructive algorithms, and act as publishers choosing what information they want to censor or publish. They undermine our freedom of speech and treat us and our attention as the product, monetizing it to line their pockets with more money without any regard for the damaging consequences,” said Rep. Gabbard.
“This bill removes the legal immunity that service providers have taken advantage of to act with impunity, while maintaining Section 230 protections for those who provide truly neutral social media platforms or search engines without the use of manipulative algorithms.”
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. His new book, #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election, which contains exclusive interviews with sources inside Google, Facebook, and other tech companies, is currently available for purchase.
