Jack Crowe, National Review, June 19, 2019

Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) plans to introduce legislation that would make it easier for consumers to sue big tech companies that display overt political bias, his office announced Wednesday.

The bill would make firms like Facebook, Youtube, and Google legally liable for user-generated content, unless and until they can demonstrate that their content moderation processes are unaffected by political bias.

“This legislation simply states that if the tech giants want to keep their government-granted immunity, they must bring transparency and accountability to their editorial processes and prove that they don’t discriminate,” Hawley said in a news release.

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The proposed legislation would only apply to sites that have more than 30 million active users in the U.S., 50 million active users worldwide or more than $500 million in annual revenue. Companies that exceed those benchmarks would be required to demonstrate every two years “by clear and convincing evidence” that they do not “negatively affect a political party, political candidate, or political viewpoint” through their content curation.

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