Today, NetChoice announced its opposition to the Stop Suppressing Speech Act. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) would, if passed, undermine social media’s ability to remove foreign election disinformation and cyberbullying.
“This bill would effectively thwart social media’s ability to fight foreign election interference and misinformation about crises like COVID-19— the very content Congress is asking social media to remove,” said Carl Szabo, Vice President and General Counsel at NetChoice. “The bill would undermine the removal of harmful content from their sites and instead enable cyberbullying, hate speech, and more to unfortunately thrive.”
“By using Section 230 amendments to strong-arm social media into hosting objectionable content, we could see the use of racial slurs and epithets explode online, something no one, not even the bill’s sponsors, want,” continued Szabo.