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Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday invited tech mogul Elon Musk to Capitol Hill for a roundtable discussion on freedom of speech and to meet prominent people who were “unjustly banned” from Twitter.
Ms Greene, whose personal account was shut down by Twitter, said she was optimistic that Twitter would become a fairer platform as Mr Musk would take over.
“I don’t know Mr. Musk, but I invite him to Washington DC to speak to me, and I’d be happy to hold a roundtable of all the brightest people unjustly banned from Twitter.” Greene, a Georgia Republican, told reporters at a press conference.
“Since he has stated that he believes in freedom of speech, he can see for himself the urgent necessity of getting these things right, as we hope we all will do,” he said.
Ms Greene said she did not speak to Mr Musk, the absolutist for free speech who bought the social media site for $44 billion.
Although Ms. Greene has access to her congressional account to tweet legislative information, she cannot use it for fundraising or campaign purposes, putting her at a disadvantage in the re-election race.
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Ms. Greene also introduced legislation accompanying a Senate bill drafted by Tennessee Republican Senator Bill Hagerty aimed at expanding freedom of expression on social media. The bill, titled the 21st Century Free Speech Act, will repeal Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Ethics Act, which protects internet platforms from lawsuits.
Section 230 provides comprehensive legal liability protections for “interactive computer services” such as Facebook and Twitter for hosting violent, abusive or “otherwise objectionable” content on their platforms.
“There are some common sense safeguards for people using railroads, airlines, and even FedEx. It is sometimes referred to as ‘common transport’. That’s what I want to do for the internet. And that’s been a long time. Rather than just messing with section 230, reforming it, changing it, possibly causing more. More free speech violations,” said Ms. Greene. “Honestly, I want to provide a comprehensive set of protections and guarantees for every single American.”
The legislation will also treat Big Tech companies as “common carriers” who must provide reasonable, non-discriminatory access to consumers and outlaw political censorship by dominant tech social media platforms. According to Ms. Greene, the bill will establish a minimum standard that all major tech companies must adhere to in order to protect users and freedom of speech.
“This means no discrimination on the basis of political affiliation, race or gender. There is no longer a shadow banning popular influencers, because no matter where they are in California or New York or whatever, they don’t like their ideas,” he said.
The legislation will also ensure that firms have the authority and responsibility to remove videos of child abuse, harassment, self-harm, human trafficking and other illegal activities.
Ms. Greene noted that tech firms cannot remove videos “by their own weird and ever-changing definition, but defined by American law.”
Finally, the bill allows users and state attorneys to sue tech firms when users’ free speech protections are violated. Penalties start at $500 per offense.
“It will quickly become clear that they can’t ban half a million people from Facebook or YouTube or whoever it is. Who knows? Maybe even more than that without potentially putting themselves out of business,” said Mrs. Greene. “And companies will have to make their terms of service public in a more accessible and understandable way. And stick to them.”
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