Name: White House in talks to reel in Big Tech
Uploaded: 2021-02-20T21:50:04.000Z
Duration: 2 min 20 s
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Congressional Democrats have begun discussions with the White House on ways to crack down on big tech, their focus holding social media companies accountable for the spread of disinformation, particularly in the wake of the January 6 U.

Democratic representative Tom Malinowski, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, told Reuters he'd spoken to the White House about how to hold social media platforms accountable for amplifying radicalizing messages that trigger violence.

It's a contentious topic surrounding a measure called Section 2 30 part of the 1996 law that shields social media platforms from lawsuits over content posted by users and big tech desperately wants to keep.

Section 2 30 in place without 2 30 platforms could potentially be held liable for everything that people say.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey both told congressional panels last year that Section 2 30 was essential not just to their businesses but to free expression.

Section 2 30 is the most important law protecting Internet speech.

Removing Section 2 30 will remove speech from the Internet, but with the rapid rise of political misinformation from baseless conspiracy theories to Russian political meddling to falsehoods tweeted from the Oval Office.

Democrats are looking for ways to pressure big tech to throttle back on fake news.

Change is on way, and I intend to bring aggressive and targeted reform dissection to 30.

Democrats want to clamp down on falsehoods without playing sensor.

There is some Republican support for reforming Section 2 30 but for somewhat different reasons.

Previous social media clampdowns on political misinformation have angered conservatives when their own accounts get slapped with warnings for sharing fake news.

President Donald Trump raged when Twitter put fact checked labels on some of his tweets, removed others and after the capital right suspended his account.

Republicans such as representative Jim Jordan accused social media companies of unfairly censoring conservative viewpoints.

Big checks out To get conservatives Trump and other Republicans have seized on Section 2 30 is a way of stripping protections from companies they say aren't playing fair.

 The conversations between lawmakers and Biden AIDS represent the first sign that the White House has begun actively getting involved in considering how to take on big tech. 