Condemning big tech's partisan censorship practices.

IV 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. RES. 142 Condemning big tech’s partisan censorship practices. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 22, 2021 Mr. LAMBORN (for himself, Mr. BANKS, and Ms. HERRELL) submitted the fol- lowing resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce RESOLUTION Condemning big tech’s partisan censorship practices. Whereas the United States is founded upon the free exchange of ideas and the ability of all Americans to speak freely; Whereas renowned Founding Father and printer Benjamin Franklin stated, ‘‘If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed’’; Whereas there have been egregious instances of left-wing bias in Twitter, Facebook, and other California technology companies; Whereas the CEO of Facebook publicly noted that privately owned social media platforms should not act as ‘‘arbiter[s] of truth’’; VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:06 Feb 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR142.IH HR142 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 142 IH Whereas Twitter and Facebook have banned the former President of the United States and various other conserv- ative figures from their social media platforms; Whereas Apple, Amazon, and Google blocked conservative so- cial media platform Parler from their systems; Whereas Twitter and Facebook had previously agreed to pro- vide public social media platforms free of censorship, but have not upheld their commitments; Whereas Twitter has improperly applied its ‘‘civic integrity policy’’, which protects the free speech of its users; Whereas social media platforms such as Twitter have contin- ued their historic lack of transparency in their implemen- tation of their civic integrity policy; Whereas Twitter suspended the account of news outlet the New York Post for disseminating information detailing the corrupt and unethical dealings of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s son, Hunter; Whereas Twitter permanently banned Mike Lindell, American businessman and conservative voice, arbitrarily from its platform; Whereas Twitter permanently banned Michael Flynn, a former United States Army Lieutenant General and former National Security Advisor; Whereas Twitter and other platforms are setting a dangerous precedent in their trend toward censorship of faith-based organizations with sincerely held religious beliefs that others may disagree with; Whereas Twitter banned conservative group Focus on the Family’s news website, The Daily Citizen, from its plat- form for stating the biological sex of Rachel Levine; VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:57 Feb 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR142.IH HR142 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 142 IH Whereas Twitter suspended Catholic World Report’s account for stating the biological sex of Rachel Levine; Whereas Twitter permanently banned the @RealDonaldTrump Twitter handle and the @TeamTrump Twitter handle arbitrarily in an egregious abuse of principles of free speech enumerated in the Con- stitution against the then-President of the United States; Whereas Twitter chooses to keep tweets from terrorists and Antifa members on its platform but arbitrarily bans the former President of the United States; Whereas government officeholders use their Twitter accounts to communicate with the American people and bypass the biased and discriminating reporting of many outlets in the news media; Whereas Twitter arbitrarily began censoring President Trump’s social media reach in early 2020 by fact-check- ing and flagging his tweets; Whereas Facebook and Twitter censored over 260 comments deemed critical of then-candidate Joe Biden on their plat- forms; Whereas Google and YouTube removed over 300 Trump cam- paign ads in 2019 without explanation of which policies were allegedly violated; Whereas these actions constitute a case of blatant election in- terference by big tech social media companies; and Whereas, in July 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that President Trump could not block critics from his Twitter account because ‘‘the account is a public forum and that the exclusion from that space was unconstitutional viewpoint discrimina- tion’’, while Twitter acts as a public forum for public of- VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:57 Feb 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR142.IH HR142 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HRES 142 IH ficials and private individuals and arbitrarily censors con- servative individuals and organizations for tweeting infor- mation deemed controversial: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1 (1) unequivocally condemns Twitter’s, 2 Facebook’s, Google’s, Apple’s, and Amazon’s biased 3 and unwarranted ban and censorship of the former 4 President of the United States; 5 (2) strongly denounces unwarranted censorship 6 of conservative media accounts; and 7 (3) demands that Twitter, Facebook, Google, 8 Apple, and Amazon end their discriminatory prac- 9 tices and consistently protect the principles of free 10 speech enumerated in the Constitution for all Ameri- 11 cans. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:06 Feb 22, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR142.IH HR142 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS