Nashville, Tenn.–State Representative Bruce Griffey, R-Paris, has filed House Bill 2458 – the Stop Social Media Censorship Act – which proposes to crack down on social media censorship by making companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram liable for damages in civil lawsuits if they delete or censure religious speech or political speech, or use an algorithm to disfavor or censure such speech.
Griffey said, “This Act was written in response to social media websites, such as Facebook, censoring Christian conservatives, who tend to vote Republican for religious and political reasons. The bill creates a private right of action for Tennesseans who have been victimized by social media websites for having a different religious and political worldview than the employees of the social media companies. The Act states that if there is a social media website that is open to the public and was never affiliated with a religious or political organization from its inception, and, if it has more than 75 million users, and markets itself as being open to the public, then those websites can be sued by users who are censored for religious and/or political reasons. Victims will be permitted to sue the social media websites and seek statutory damages, attorney fees and costs.”
In his press release, Griffey continued: “The problem has been that there has been a huge amount of censoring by social media websites, but when victims approach attorneys about representing them against the social media giants, the lawyers tend to turn them away because the social media websites have limitless funds and they will not settle and it’s just too expensive to litigate. However, the Stop Social Media Censorship Act cures that problem because it will incentivize local attorneys to represent victims because the prevailing party will be entitled to attorney fees. There are exceptions carved out such as speech that calls for immediate acts of violence or speech that is X-rated in nature. However, censoring users for speech that offends the delicate sensibilities of the employees working at the social media companies based on their arbitrary private moral code is unacceptable. Inasmuch as social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter are natural monopolies with so much power, the Stop Social Media Censorship Act levels the playing field and sends a message that they better knock it off and stop censoring users for their religious and political speech.”
Griffey concludes, “The bottom line is that a growing number of conservatives are being targeted for censorship on social media platforms such as Facebook. Conservatives grounded in Christian values have had posts unpublished or have been banned from the platforms altogether. Too often, friends on Facebook disappear, only to reappear later stating that they were in “Facebook Jail” or send messages requesting that they be shared before Facebook takes the post down. As the 2020 Presidential election approaches, the importance of being able to engage in free, unencumbered speech is highlighted, and, this is true irrespective of which side of the political aisle you sit.”