Loeffler: Big Tech ‘Exploiting’ Section 230 Loophole — ‘Absolutely Wrong, ‘Abuse of Their Platform’

Loeffler
(Jeff Poor/Breitbart News)

MCDONOUGH, Georgia — With the November elections looming, many are focused on so-called Big Tech and what role it could play in the democratic process, including Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA).

Loeffler, who is running in an election for the U.S. Senate seat she was appointed to late last year by Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA), spoke to Breitbart News after a campaign event on Friday about Big Tech and what she viewed to be an abuse of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

“We’ve seen Big Tech exploiting a loophole in the 1996 Communications Decency Act called Section 230,” she said. “Section 230 limits liability for companies that serve as platforms. Well, when they start censoring conservative speech, they become publishers and should not have the liability limitations that they benefit from right now. In fact, 1996 was a year before any of those companies were created. They weren’t even formed yet. So, they are benefitting from this loophole.”

The Georgia Republican lawmaker dinged her election opponent, Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), who she claimed was impeding a congressional antitrust investigation and alleged his motivations had to do with campaign contributions.

“My race, my opponent Doug Collins has actually used his official office to slow down an antitrust investigation into these very companies because he is receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations,” Loeffler said. “And I have spoken out. I have said enough. I have introduced legislation that limits liability, turns them into publishers, and makes them liable for limiting conservative speech.”

Loeffler reference an apparent double standard with social media company Twitter’s handling of President Donald Trump’s tweets and that of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s tweets.

“Let me give you one example: They’re blocking President Trump’s tweets,” she added. “They’re not blocking the Iranian leader’s extremist comments about destroying Israel,” Loeffler said. “That’s just absolutely wrong. And it is an abuse of their platform.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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