Over the last few months, Big Tech has made it clear that only some voices are allowed to be heard, but Texas isn’t going to stand for it.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Sunday that he is working on a bill with state legislators to prevent Big Tech companies from moderating user content based on political beliefs.
“We are working with Sen. Hughes on legislation to prevent social media providers like Facebook & Twitter from cancelling conservative speech,” Abbott said on Twitter.
This announcement comes shortly after Florida’s move to pass similar legislation that would penalize social media giants that de-platform candidates during an election, the Epoch Times reports. The proposed law would fine companies $100,000 a day until platform access is restored.
Following the Capitol riot, Big Tech honchos like Facebook and Twitter have censored - and even banned - conservative voices. In the wake of the conglomerate-wide blacklist, several states are taking action
Sen. Hughes told Inside Texas Politics that the bill he and Abbott plan to produce will address any unbalanced moderation of user accounts.
“Federal law does allow us to regulate these companies and so the bill we’re getting ready to file will say that if a company discriminates against you, fi the platform blocks or kicks you off based on your viewpoint, based on your politics or religion, based on viewpoint discrimination, it will give you a way to get back online,” Hughes said.
On the same day, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton confirmed the state will take further steps to address Big Tech censorship, adding that the state has begun by filing an anti-trust lawsuit against Google.
“I am so encouraged with what he’s doing in Florida. Thank you Gov. DeSantis for doing that,” Paxton said in a Fox News interview. “We have already started. We have a lawsuit against Google that focuses some of the very issues about their dominance, about how they abuse consumers, about how they take their private information, they don’t pay these consumers and they then use that information to make billions of dollars without the consumer really knowing how their private information is going to be used.”
“So yes, I think you’re going to see more from my state in the coming months and coming years because if we don’t do something now, it’s maybe too late and these companies will have such dominance and so much money,” he added.
Texas and Florida are doing exactly what Human Events Senior news editor and co-publisher Jeff Webb believes should be done.
In a Human Events piece, Webb applauded Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for taking action, encoring other states to join in.
“Right now, there are 27 out of 50 states that have Republican governors. Each one of those governors has the ability to take on Big Tech through legislation similar to what Governor DeSantis is proposing,” he wrote.
“Acting independently, but acting together, these 27 governors have the ability to take down Big Tech’s dominant position, one piece (and one state) at a time,” he urged.
“If 27 different states can all pass laws that limit [Big Tech’s] influence, even those masters of the universe in Silicon Valley will have to take notice,” he continued.
