NASHVILLE, TN—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today released the following statement on Facebook’s decision to suspend the 45th President Donald J. Trump from their digital platform for two years:
“Unless Congress acts, Big Tech is going to continue to censor Americans and trample on our foundational principles of free speech and open exchange of ideas in an effort to control what Americans say, hear, and think. Despite recently being exposed for wrongly banning and suppressing information regarding the origins of COVID-19, Facebook is now doubling down on its censorship playbook, which is why I will continue to push to pass my 21st Century FREE Speech Act to put the American people back in charge.”
In April, Hagerty introduced the 21st Century FREE Speech Act, which would: (1) abolish Section 230’s license to censor; (2) treat the largest Big Tech platforms like a common carrier that must provide reasonable, nondiscriminatory access to all consumers to prevent political, religious, or other censorship; and (3) require Big Tech platforms to disclose their content management and moderation practices to users, so that consumers can better understand and assess the information they receive.