The House and Senate introduced more than 10 bills to reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in 2020, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) may finally have had enough.
Graham has issued an ultimatum in his new bill: Section 230 must be “reformed or eliminated” unless Congress can pass some type of reform legislation.
Graham’s bill would “repeal Section 230 on January 1, 2023, unless Congress acts sooner,” he said in a statement. “Congress will have two years to find an acceptable alternative or allow the legal liability protections to go away,” concluded Graham. “I’m hopeful that there will be bipartisan support for this approach.” Section 230 allows internet platforms to avoid legal liability, including civil tort law.
In addition to potentially abolishing Section 230 in 2023, the bill would also strike mentions of Section 230 from other laws.
“The time has come for these largely unregulated Big Tech giants to either be broken up, regulated, or subject to litigation for their actions,” said Graham. “It’s time we put the Section 230 protections these companies enjoy on the clock.”
The Hill pointed out: “The bipartisan chorus of voices against the tech protection has grown in recent weeks, but lawmakers in both chambers and both parties have said repealing the law should be separate from the NDAA and that including it in a defense bill would be inappropriate.”
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump threatened to veto the defense bill unless Section 230 is repealed. Section 230 stampeded into public view in October, after Facebook and Twitter censored a New York Post article that detailed purported emails from former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and reportedly exposed the alleged scandalous dealings of both father and son in the Russia-bordering state of Ukraine.
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.
