Tech trade organizations on Wednesday lashed back at a newly proposed bill by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that would fundamentally alter the business models of tech companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube.
, would remove the immunity provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that protects major tech companies from liability for the content posted by their users. Under the new bill companies would have to submit to audits every two years to prove their algorithms and content-removal practices are "politically neutral" in order to maintain their immunity.
"This bill forces platforms to make an impossible choice: either host reprehensible, but First Amendment protected speech, or lose legal protections that allow them to moderate illegal content like human trafficking and violent extremism," said Michael Beckerman, president and CEO of the Internet Association, in a statement. "That shouldn't be a tradeoff."
"This bill prevents social media websites from removing dangerous and hateful content, since that could make them liable for lawsuits over any user's posting" said Carl Szabo, general counsel at NetChoice,. "Sen. Hawley's bill creates an internet where content from the KKK would display alongside our family photos and cat videos."
"This bill would punish success in the next generation of innovative startups and prevent them from achieving their full potential," AFP said in its statement. "Lawmakers should reject this legislation."
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