The only entity more tyrannical than Big Tech is Big Government, and a new bill in California’s General Assembly could create an unholy union of the two.
California Assembly Bill 587, introduced by Assembly Member Jesse Gabriel (D) and cosponsored by six other Democrats, may encourage Big Tech companies to censor more content.
The bill would require social media companies to submit a content moderation report to the state’s attorney general every six months. The report would include information on how social media platforms deal with “[h]ate speech or racism” and “[e]xtremism or radicalization, including, but not limited to, threats of violence against government entities.”
These reports would also include information on how platforms handle “[d]isinformation or misinformation,” popular terms now with the left and the media to silence opposition. The bill defined “[d]isinformation or misinformation” as “false or misleading information regarding medicine or vaccinations, false or misleading information regarding elections, and conspiracy theories.”
Gabriel’s bill is unnecessary at best and dangerous at worst. After all, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress on March 25 that the platform “labeled over 180 million posts [as misinformation]” during the 2020 election cycle. The platform also removed 12 million posts about COVID-19 and vaccines. Twitter censored former President Donald Trump 625 times between May 2018 and January 2021, including his comments about mail-in voting and COVID-19, before it permanently banned Trump on January 8. YouTube and Google also removed more than 300 Trump ads by December 2019 alone.
However, Gabriel has still defended his bill. “Californians are becoming increasingly alarmed about the role of social media in promoting hate, disinformation, conspiracy theories and extreme political polarization,” Gabriel said in a statement to The San Francisco Chronicle. “It's long past time for these companies to provide real transparency into their content moderation practices.”
Fortunately, other states recognize the dangers of Big Tech tyranny. Twenty-eight states have introduced or passed legislation to take on Big Tech in some capacity, and 20 of the bills would prohibit or discourage censorship.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
