President Donald Trump slammed “certain Republican senators” for their “cold feet” on reforming Section 230, the law that allows Big Tech platforms to censor their users while suffering little in the way of legal consequences.
“Looks like certain Republican Senators are getting cold feet with respect to the termination of Big Tech’s Section 230, a National Security and Election Integrity MUST,” said President Trump.
“For years, all talk, no action. Termination must be put in Defense Bill!!!”
Looks like certain Republican Senators are getting cold feet with respect to the termination of Big Tech’s Section 230, a National Security and Election Integrity MUST. For years, all talk, no action. Termination must be put in Defense Bill!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2020
Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), who is facing a critical battle in the January runoff elections in Georgia, is a staunch critic of Big Tech and has introduced a bill to eliminate Big Tech’s immunity for censoring “objectionable” material.
Loeffler appeared to support the President’s attack on her wavering colleagues in the Senate, retweeting his message to her 181,000 followers.
HOLD BIG TECH ACCOUNTABLE! https://t.co/Y5rVS2PEXw
— Kelly Loeffler (@KLoeffler) December 3, 2020
Section 230 provides blanket legal immunity for tech companies to censor anything they consider “objectionable.” Tech companies have used this power wantonly in the past four years, banning and blacklisting large numbers of Americans.
In addition to the effect this has on elections (the Trump movement, including the President himself, bore the brunt of this trend towards censorship), tech companies can erase years of work and investment into accounts on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other platforms, causing users significant economic harm in the process.
Despite this, Section 230 in its current form ensures that users have little in the way of redress for this damage in the courts.
President Trump has demanded that Section 230 be abolished in its entirety, and has threatened to veto an upcoming defense spending bill if this is not included, calling tech censorship a national security concern.
The White House press secretary confirmed that the President is serious about vetoing the bill. As Breitbart News’ Charlie Spiering reported:
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany confirmed Wednesday that President Donald Trump was serious about vetoing the defense funding bill if it did not terminate Section 230 of the Community Decency Act.
“Yes, the president is serious about it,” McEnany replied when asked by a reporter if Trump would actually refuse to fund the military over the issue.
“There are real grave concerns here and the president stands by that,” McEnany said.
Breitbart News will continue to report on Section 230.
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.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.