Condemning big tech's partisan censorship practices.

[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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