Title: Condemning big tech's partisan censorship practices.
Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications

Summary:
This resolution condemns the banning and censorship of former President Donald Trump by specified social media platforms and technology companies, denounces censorship of conservative media accounts, and demands that these platforms and companies end their discriminatory practices and protect the principles of free speech.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 142 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






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 
following 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'';
Whereas Twitter and Facebook have banned the former President of the United 
        States and various other conservative figures from their social media 
        platforms;
Whereas Apple, Amazon, and Google blocked conservative social media platform 
        Parler from their systems;
Whereas Twitter and Facebook had previously agreed to provide 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 continued their historic 
        lack of transparency in their implementation 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 platform for stating the biological sex of 
        Rachel Levine;
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 Constitution 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-checking and flagging his tweets;
Whereas Facebook and Twitter censored over 260 comments deemed critical of then-
        candidate Joe Biden on their platforms;
Whereas Google and YouTube removed over 300 Trump campaign ads in 2019 without 
        explanation of which policies were allegedly violated;
Whereas these actions constitute a case of blatant election interference 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 discrimination'', while 
        Twitter acts as a public forum for public officials and private 
        individuals and arbitrarily censors conservative individuals and 
        organizations for tweeting information deemed controversial: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) unequivocally condemns Twitter's, Facebook's, Google's, 
        Apple's, and Amazon's biased and unwarranted ban and censorship 
        of the former President of the United States;
            (2) strongly denounces unwarranted censorship of 
        conservative media accounts; and
            (3) demands that Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple, and 
        Amazon end their discriminatory practices and consistently 
        protect the principles of free speech enumerated in the 
        Constitution for all Americans.
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