Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina proposed new legislation that would penalize social media platforms that do not remove terrorist organizations or their supporters.
Platforms will face a $50,000 fine for each violation of the No Publicity for Terrorists Act in order to limit the promotion of extremist ideology online.
The policy would amend a current federal law that requires social media companies to combat the spread of terrorism on their platforms. Companies would be required to remove any users who were found posting extremist rhetoric within 24 hours of their discovery.
The No Publicity for Terrorists Act, endorsed by Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R., N.C.), is a Republican-led effort to restrict the use of social media by terrorist sympathizers, groups, and countries known to promote extremist organizations.
Cawthorn said in a statement to Washington Free Beacon published on March 24:
“Big Tech is scared to death of a MAGA reemergence in America. They know they won’t win the argument on policy or politics, so they have moved to silence, deplatform, and ban prominent conservative voices, including President Donald Trump,”
“It shows their outrageous bias: They claim President Trump is a danger to public discourse, but allow terrorist organizations, hate groups, and dictators to remain on their platforms?”
“My legislation holds them accountable for their assault on conservatives and exposes their outrageous double standard,” Cawthorn added.
Cawthorn introduced the bill on March 3, one day before the United States Supreme Court ruled to reinstate the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber.
Investigators believe Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, became radical Islamists through their online activity.
According to American Military report:
Cawthorn, along with Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), wrote the legislation to amend current federal law to require social media companies to monitor their platforms and bar any account endorsing extremism. In order to avoid the fine, platforms would have to remove an extremist account within 24 hours of being detected.
“There is no excuse or justification for Big Tech to give known terrorists a dangerous platform,” Good said in a statement. “This is especially egregious given Big Tech’s track record of regularly and unjustifiably censoring conservative voices like President Trump, and Members of Congress.”
Apart from deleting extremist users, social media CEOs will be obliged to file quarterly reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission proving their compliance, or risk fines or prison time.
“An email program, email distribution list, or multi-person text message group” are not considered forms of social media. Neither is “a software application (including a mobile application) used solely to communicate with others through instant messages, audio calls, video calls, or any combination thereof.”
This proposal has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. According to data analysis, real-time forecasting, and artificial intelligence, it is unlikely to be implemented. Skopos Lab is a research firm.
Sources: Wnd, Americanmilitarynews, Freebeacon
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