Big tech and social media are biased. They are, and they should admit it. Honesty matters. But they don’t. They let the Muslim Brotherhood tweet while GraniteGrok gets banned for sharing real news. Texas doesn’t like it, and they’ve proposed a legislative ‘solution.’
Related: Worried About Social Media Shadow Banning – Our One-Step Simple Solution
To be clear, Texas is not doing this for us but for those like GraniteGrok who get blocked, banned, or de-platformed over ideological differences. I also want to be clear about my thoughts on legisaltive remedies. I’m not an enthusiastic supporter. Private companies are free to pursue their own interests and suffer whatever consequences come from that.
The first amendment does not restrict them.
So, what does Texas have in mind?
Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola … said the bill applies to social media platforms that advertise themselves as unbiased but still censor users. … “Senate Bill 2373 tries to prevent those companies that control these new public spaces, this new public square, from picking winners and losers based on content,” Hughes said in the committee hearing. “Basically if the company represents, ‘We’re an open forum and we don’t discriminate based on content,’ then they shouldn’t be able to discriminate based on content.”
Like I said, honesty matters. So, in this context, I can’t say I disagree with the premise. And this legislation is tied to consumer protection from deceptive trade practices. Which, if you think that should even be a thing would allow you to give it the green light.
Related: UNH Institutes Anti-Free Speech ‘Social Media Policy’
Hurdles
But before it gets anywhere, it would have to find a way past federal law that the Texas Tribune notes allow Social Media platforms to decide what is offensive. Private business, code of conduct, community standards. It all sounds wonderful.
In a world without snowflakes and liberal bias, this would work fine. But when GraniteGrok gets blocked for reporting on a legisaltive vote in New Zealand while abettors of global terror “speak” freely, I think we’ve got a problem.
Ideally, it should be Twitter’s problem or Facebooks, but I get why some feel that these new “public spaces” even though they are for-profit spaces, need to be reminded that viewpoint discrimination is a thing especially when it comes to paid traffic like issue advocacy or political ads.
The legislation is through the State Senate. The Texas Tribune reports that California (if it matters), is considering similar legislation.
| Texas Tribune
| NaturalNews
