Republicans seek to break up Big Tech after biased Facebook board upholds Trump ban!
WASHINGTON (PNN) - May 5, 2021 - Congressional Republicans on May 5, upset with the decision by Facebook’s biased Oversight Board to uphold the company’s ban of President Donald Trump, said they’d work to curb the technology giant’s power.
“Break them up,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, in reaction to the decision.
Senator Josh Hawley (Mo.) said the decision was “a real-life example of the tyranny of Big Tech” before echoing Jordan.
Republicans have increasingly turned critical of technology giants such as Facebook as more evidence emerges showing bias against conservatives.
“Facebook is more interested in acting like a Democrat Super PAC than a platform for free speech and open debate. If it can ban President Trump, all conservative voices could be next. A House Republican majority will rein in Big Tech power over our speech,” House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Kalif.) wrote in a tweet on May 5.
Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.) called for “aggressive antitrust reform” to end what he described as Facebook’s monopoly.
Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives in early 2019 and ceded the majority in the upper chamber in January. They hope to flip both in the 2022 midterms.
They could have trouble garnering enough votes for their legislative preferences in dealing with Big Tech if they don’t.
Big Tech companies have generally resisted major alterations to rules governing them, primarily Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. But they have supported some changes, including stripping of immunity for companies that don’t appropriately remove illegal posts.
Trump said in a statement that Facebook and other Big Tech companies “must pay a political price and must never again be allowed to destroy and decimate our Electoral Process.”
“Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the (Fascist Police States of Amerika) because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid of the truth, but the truth will come out anyway, bigger and stronger than ever before. The People of our Country will not stand for it,” he wrote.
