It was recently revealed that Ben Ray Luján, who is the senator for New Mexico, co-sponsored a bill with failed 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) to censor social media posts about “health care” via removal of Section 230 status for platforms hosting said “misinformation.” Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 states that owners of an internet platform “shall not be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information” posted on their platform, protecting them from libel laws.
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube did little while COVID-19 related misinformation spread on their platforms – fueling distrust in public health officials, promoting conspiracy theories, and putting lives at risk. Online platforms must stop the spread of deadly misinformation, and I’m proud to introduce this legislation with Senator Klobuchar to hold these companies accountable,” said Luján.
Luján chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband.
“For far too long, online platforms have not done enough to protect the health of Americans,” said Klobuchar. “These are some of the biggest, richest companies in the world and they must do more to prevent the spread of deadly vaccine misinformation. Earlier this year, I called on Facebook and Twitter to remove accounts that are responsible for producing the majority of misinformation about the coronavirus, but we need a long term solution. This legislation will hold online platforms accountable for the spread of health-related misinformation. The coronavirus pandemic has shown us how lethal misinformation can be and it is our responsibility to take action.”
The bill would put more power in the hands of unelected bureaucrats in the U.S. Health and Human Services Department by creating “an exception to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act’s liability shield for platforms with algorithms that promote health-related misinformation related to an existing public health emergency, as declared by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). The legislation directs HHS to issue guidelines as to what constitutes health misinformation.” This means that politically appointed, unelected HHS personnel would be who determines what constitutes “misinformation” regarding health care.
As some have rightly noted, such as Walt Rubel of KRWG, “The politicization of virtually every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly exasperated that problem. … [W]e’ll never be able to stop people from spreading lies and rumors.”
If Klobuchar and Luján get their way, it will lead to more censorship of conservatives due to the power given to the politically appointed HHS. It would ultimately create more division in the country.
Information is just that…information. Misinformation is simply the word for information the Government does not agree with (at the moment). Fauci said no mask, then mask, then 2 mask, then no mask for vax, then mask for all….sounds pretty misinformed to me!
let us look at it….
from the party that gave us a list of doom day predictions…none came true…..the polar bears are becoming extinct…more numbers and growing
..chloriquine is bad….now they are eating crow…..masks work for virus….never been proven…..and other misinformation….Are they going to censor themselves?…..didnt think so.
Flawed projections, flawed modeling, flawed testing, flawed test results, flawed data, flawed treatments, flawed reporting all led to seriously flawed policy. And they’re worried about “misinformation”. Truly #TheHypocrisyThatOverwhelms
One thing that was omitted was flawed politicians! Lujan is a total fraud who did nothing for the majority of New Mexicans during his tenure as a congressman.. the only time we hear about him is when he’s doing something to further erode our constitutional rights and supporting statism/communism like he’s doing now supporting censorship by the new “fact checkers “ aka new stasi. .
Wake up, New Mexico! Send this idiot and Heinrich packing. Enough is enough of these socialists.
Running scared. Interesting.
Strange how history repeats ! Tha NASDAP ( aka NAZIS ) also supresed opositional points of view ! the declared political oposition terrorist , extreamist too ! they used the same argument ( for the GOOD of the people ) Bla , bla , bla you get the Ideal ! the whole reason for the first Amendments clauses on freedom of speach, the press, & asembly was to prevent domination of the flow of information ! PEOPLE : I sugest you look here {www.dhs.gov/national-terrorism-advisory-system } for what they actually are doing ! it is Official the Democrats have officially labeled ANYONE not supporting their Agenda as Terrorist / extreamist !
The Party that believes men can get pregnant, wants to control “misinformation” on the internet. LOL. Ben Ray Lujan, aka Miss Information…his partisan panties are showing again.
On the other hand, the Republican Party is almost totally useless, giving zero pushback against the Democrat-Communists, only concerned about constant fund-raising.