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A US Senator is proposing a new bill to pressure Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube into proving that their content removal practices are "politically neutral."

The bill from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) calls for the top internet companies to undergo external audits to vet whether their content moderation systems are free of political bias.

Hawley's legislation proposes overhauling a key legal protection US internet services currently enjoy. Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, websites can be shielded from lawsuits regarding any objectionable user-generated content they host. The website simply has to make a "good faith" effort to pull the content down.

According to Hawley, it's time to strip away the legal protection with a new approach: The major US internet companies can still receive the immunity, but only if they submit and pass an audit proving that their content moderations are indeed politically neutral.

Today I've introduced legislation to end Big Tech's biggest sweetheart deal from government. No more government protection for Big Tech's political censorship https://t.co/QPaxYqFmFr — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) June 19, 2019

"With Section 230, tech companies get a sweetheart deal that no other industry enjoys: complete exemption from traditional publisher liability in exchange for providing a forum free of political censorship," he said in a statement. "Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, big tech has failed to hold up its end of the bargain."

Hawley's legislation arrives as US social media platforms are facing a political tug-of-war over how to moderate their content. Republicans and President Trump have been claiming the major internet companies are out to censor political conservative views. Democrats, on the other hand, have accused the same companies of doing too little to stop misinformation and hate speech.

In response, the major social media platforms have all repeatedly denied that any political censorship is taking place. But this hasn't stopped lawmakers from threatening to regulate them.

"There's a growing list of evidence that shows big tech companies making editorial decisions to censor viewpoints they disagree with," Hawley claims. "Even worse, the entire process is shrouded in secrecy because these companies refuse to make their protocols public."

His legislation, the "Ending Support for Internet Censorship Act," proposes letting the US Federal Trade Commission certify whether a tech company's content moderation systems are politically neutral. To determine this, the FTC would look at whether the company is removing content with the intention of "negatively" affecting a political party, candidate, or political viewpoint.

However, the bill would only apply to large internet companies with more than 30 million active monthly users in the US or that make more than $500 million in global annual revenue. Affected companies would need to submit to the audits every two years to renew their certification.

Hawley's proposal isn't sitting well with everyone. US Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) claims the legislation risks turning the federal government into the "Speech Police" while also preventing the tech companies from cleaning up their content.

"This bill would force every platform to become 4chan or 8chan rather than maintain some basic level of decency," he added in a tweet thread.

A former FTC commissioner and conservative Joshua Wright said he also opposed the legislation. "The bill quite literally injects a board of bureaucrats into millions of decisions about internet content. This is central planning. Full stop," he said in a tweet.

Last week, the House Intelligence Committee discussed a similar update to the Communications Decency Act, which would hold internet and social media companies responsible for hosting harmful deepfake videos.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated with comments from Democratic US Senator Ron Wyden and former FTC commissioner Joshua Wright.

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