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House Judiciary Republicans Have Had Enough, Jim Jordan Announces Plan to Break up Big Tech


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President Donald Trump is not alone in his fight against Big Tech.

On the same day that President Trump announced class action lawsuits against Facebook and Twitter, Jim Jordan announced that republicans have their own legislative plans to help breakup the Big Tech juggernauts.

Jordan announced that republicans have had enough of Big Tech singling them out, and then revealed plans to hold them accountable for unfair censorship, as well as increasing transparency around content moderation.

In the coming weeks, the proposals in the agenda will be released as legislation.

House Judiciary republicans are set to consult with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy before moving forward.

The Washington Examiner has more on Jordan's plan:

Under pressure to come up with a conservative approach to holding Big Tech companies accountable, House Republicans announced on Wednesday an agenda that would make it easier to break up tech companies in court and challenge unfair censorship.

House Judiciary Committee Republicans, led by ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio, said their agenda would speed up and strengthen antitrust enforcement, hold Big Tech accountable for censorship, and increase transparency around tech companies' content moderation decisions.

The proposals in the agenda will be introduced as legislation in the coming weeks by House Judiciary Republicans after they consult House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and other top Republicans.

“Big Tech has targeted conservatives for far too long. House Judiciary Republicans have had enough," Jordan told the Washington Examiner.

"We believe that this agenda will serve as the Republican platform to take on Big Tech going forward and unite our party to reject Big Tech’s ‘cancel culture’ practices," he added.

The Republican agenda is meant to provide an alternative to the six bipartisan anti-Big Tech bills passed in June by the Judiciary Committee that many Republicans, including Jordan and McCarthy, oppose.

President Trump announced on the same day class action lawsuits against the Big Tech companies.

The Daily Caller with more on the plans to hold Big Tech accountable:

“The laws currently on the books can and should be used to break up Big Tech. The problem has been, however, that these actions take too long and they allow companies years of legal maneuvering,” the agenda read.

The plans would overhaul Section 230 liability shields, which offer companies protection from lawsuits over content on their platforms. To keep these protections, companies would be required to moderate political content in “good faith” and according to “objectively reasonable criteria,” and would also be required to publicly list their content moderation and censorship decisions.

The agenda also proposes consolidating antitrust enforcement power in the Department of Justice and away from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a move which is intended to make antitrust enforcement “more effective and accountable.”

Jordan has challenged Big Tech on several occasions, introducing a bill in April that would remove Section 230 liability protection from companies that moderate content in certain ways. Jordan has also argued that Microsoft should be subject to antitrust regulation.



 

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