Big Tech is a major threat to our society. I contacted my legislators with the following message. Feel free to use, amend or augment for your own purposes.
———–
I am an American who values my country and its citizens’ right to equal protection under the law.
I am writing to urge you to push for an end to the protection afforded to entities that manipulate Americans access to information. Section 230 protects organizations such as Google, Facebook and Twitter from liability as they are merely “conduits for third party content”. However, when they actively select what is disseminated and what is not, they cease to be mere conduits and take an active role in the material.
“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”
While I agree that these firms should not be held responsible for content generated by third parties, even those who are inextricably linked to these firms via a codependent business relationship, this law, regardless of the purity of its intent, has been mangled so as to afford protection for the active choices the firms make, regarding content, as well as for the intended passive role of conduit for that content.
The firms’ conscious decisions, over the last several years, to stifle some information, while actively promoting other information, based not on reliability, but on expected political outcomes is not only publishing, but editing. As such these firms should be accountable for such choices.
I would support a replacement to this law, however, I am well aware that those on the other side of the aisle will not act on this matter unless the protection for these firms is no longer in place.
COVID, election integrity, and a host of other issues are important, but I believe that this one action will serve to ameliorate our ability as a nation to deal with all other concerns in a more logical, open and dispassionate manner, resulting in better and faster solutions. That being the case, I urge you to actively seek for the repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, without delay.
———–
Thanks, Bill, for making this forum available.