LOS ANGELES—Former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard — who has served as a House rep from Hawaii since 2012 — has added yet another piece of legislation to the numerous bills in Congress aimed at rolling back Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, known as “The First Amendment of the Internet.”
In addition to facilitating open communication online by shielding platforms from legal liability over user content, Section 230 is of particular importance to the adult industry, because if repealed it would allow and perhaps even require online platforms to censor any type of controversial content. Multiple bills in the Senate and House have now been introduced attempting to severely limit the freedoms guaranteed under Section 230.
Though Gabbard’s new bill is not aimed specifically at sexual content, her father — Hawaii state Senator Mike Gabbard — has been behind measures to restrict online porn, including a proposal to require users to pay an additional internet surcharge of $20 in order to access porn sites.
Though Gabbard is a Democrat — and is stepping down from Congress after her current term — her bill, titled the “Don’t Push My Buttons Act,” is co-sponsored by Republican Paul Gosar of Arizona, who is so conservative that six of his own family members have appeared in a campaign ad urging Arizonans not to vote for him.
The bill, according to a report by TechDirt, would strip Section 230 protections from sites that do even the most basic user data collection, or use an algorithm to create their news feeds. That would cover any major social media site.
“Anti-social media companies treat us like products, exploiting and dehumanizing us for their own profits, without regard for the consequences. They intentionally create and fuel conflict and hate, causing physical, spiritual and mental suffering and pain. They are tearing us apart and destroying our nation,” Gabbard said in a statement. “Our legislation takes the power out of the hands of anti-social media corporations and puts it into the hands of the people who use their platforms.
Online platforms have annoyed Gabbard for some time. Last year she sued Google claiming the giant search engine company had violated her First Amendment rights by temporarily closing her advertising account, and accusing the firm of “election manipulation.”
But a federal judge quickly dismissed the lawsuit, explaining to Gabbard that the First Amendment applies only to governmental regulation of speech, and that a private company such as Google may not be sued for “First Amendment” violations.
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