Would-Be Congressman Wants A Law Forcing Social Media Platforms To Keep All His Alt-Right Buddies Online

from the GOVERNMENT-CONTROL-IS-FREEDOM dept

Wisconsin businessman Paul Nehlen is running for the other Paul's (Ryan) House seat in next year's midterm elections, and we can only hope this man is never allowed to operate law-making apparati at a federal level. He has big ideas for the nation -- most of them sounding exactly like President Trump's big ideas: A wall! Paid for by Mexico! Killing off Obamacare! Making abortions illegal! Bulk, untargeted deregulation!

Nehlen also has big ideas about the First Amendment. Big ideas and a toddler-like grasp on tricky terms like "censorship." Nehlen hates (HATES!) government regulation but feels the government should step in and, under the color of law, prevent internet companies from monitoring their platforms as they see fit.

The highly-problematic Nehlen wants Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. to stop kicking like-minded people off their platforms. It's undeniable Twitter has been deleting accounts held by far-right persons more often than those veering widely to the left. Some feel Facebook and Google have been doing the same thing, but the complaints of unfair moderation are loudest on Twitter. Nehlen is one of those complaining. But if he gets elected to Congress, he'll be able to do actual damage.

This is Nehlen's grand idea for turning Twitter etc. into alt-right-friendly platforms: heavy-handed regulation. He introduces it by borrowing words from none other than net neutrality-killer Ajit Pai. Why? Because Ajit Pai's anti-regulatory efforts are somehow aligned with Nehlen's plan for regulation of internet services. The following is from his press release [delivered via tweeted images rather than a PDF, because wtf. {makeshift PDF version}]:

"We need a federal law prohibiting censorship of lawful speech on major social media platforms," Nehlen asserts. "It is well-known that Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube discriminate against the right-wing, as evidenced by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's recent comments. While widely heralded for those comments, they rang hollow with no suggested solution. This law is that solution. It will extend Americans' First Amendment free speech protections onto social media platforms."

The Nehlen goes on to create his own definition of censorship, just so he can try to get the government into the business of running social media companies.

"This law will not interfere with the features or functionality, so market forces will remain in play. The problem is their censorship of lawful speech. Hypocritically, the same companies that support net neutrality also want to censor your speech."

Moderation isn't censorship, but whatever. Also: it's a bit rich to call companies hypocritical when you're the one running on a platform that includes heavy deregulation. Much like those "free speech, but" people on the left who think the US should criminalize "hate speech," some people on the alt-right think the government should take a hands-off approach to private corporations but somehow still feel the government should get involved when platform moderation efforts target them and their colleagues.

It takes a new definition of censorship to get the government involved in the, um, "extending" of free speech rights. Nehlen's law would fine companies $500,000 "per instance of wrongful censorship" -- putting the government in the position of "equalizing" free speech by making moderation decisions for private companies.

The new definition of censorship would include suspensions, bans, shadowbans, throttling, memory-holing, trending topic manipulation, demonetization… basically any effort platforms undertake to moderate users and their postings. Notably, only four platforms would be affected by this legislation: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit. Every other platform is free to do all of these things without fear of repercussion. Nothing makes a bad law "better" than inconsistency of both the internal and external varieties. This legislation doesn't even attempt to align itself with the Constitution, much less any logical reading of the term "censorship."

And guess which agency would be handling this internet regulation? That's right: the FCC -- the same entity whose boss just said he's profoundly opposed to regulating internet service providers.

The whole shitty idea closes with Paul Nehlen, possible white nationalist and Roy Moore supporter, bashing his party for failing to introduce suicidal legislation that would do terrible things to both social media platforms and free speech.

"The GOP's voters are being systematically censored off the primary channels of public communication by left-wing tech giants, and [Paul] Ryan -- indeed, the entire GOP Congress -- has sat utterly mute for years and allowed it to happen."

This is the point where I would generally say something flippant like "this guy's actually suggested a border wall with remote-control machine guns to stop immigration so there's no chance in hell he's getting elected" but I said a lot of flippant things about our current president while he was still on the campaign trail and… well, there's an electoral college map out there that shows exactly how these things that will never happen sometimes happen. There's an audience out there eating up this rhetoric -- one that finds zero inconsistency in arguing for wholesale deregulation while demanding the government step in and smack around companies for doing things they don't like.

Let's make something perfectly clear: terrible, inconsistent moderation efforts are not censorship. They feel like censorship to those hit by them, but it's a wholly subjective view that's not backed by any statutory definition or the Constitution itself. You add the government to the mix -- like Nehlen proposes -- and you have actual censorship, in a form that prevents companies that provide platforms for speech from handling their own moderation efforts without government interference. This will do harm to First Amendment-protected speech, not "extend" free speech protections to the internet, as Nehlen claims it will. You tell any platform the government is going to hit it with half-million-per-violation fines for "censorship," and you can bet they'll find any reason at all to prevent new accounts from signing up, and rewrite their policies so end users bear all costs of this government intervention. Telling people speech will be "freer" when it's controlled by men with guns is not just stupid, it's dangerous.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community. Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis. While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: alt-right, free speech, mandatory speech, moderation, paul nehlen, section 230, social media

Companies: facebook, twitter, youtube