The bill has turned normal political allegiances on its head, as conservative Republicans move to impose strict regulations on private companies and Democrats defend their right to control what is posted on their platforms.
“As a conservative, I’m frustrated too – I get upset when I see what I think is considered to be acts of bias against conservatives,” said Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel of NetChoice, a free-market tech advocacy group that counts Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon as members. “But as a conservative, I fundamentally believe in a private entity’s right to decide what’s best for its users and its advertisers.”
But for Florida Republicans, the tech firms have become too dominant in determining public discourse.