Why We Must Fight Big Tech to Protect Free Speech on Social Media

Heartland Institute President James Taylor explains why we must all must fight to protect free speech on the internet. State legislators, too, have a role in protecting the right of their constituents to speak freely on line. As he said in a recent live Heartland Webinar, Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act does not address or preclude state action to protect political free speech on the Internet.

"Section 230 does not give the tech giants, the tech cartel, the right to censor political free speech. Again, this Section 230 explicitly says the purpose is to maximize user control -- not Facebook control, not Google control, not platform control," Taylor said.

"[Online speech] must be sexually obscene or excessively violent, otherwise you do not have blanket authority to play God in terms of what you do or don't allow on the Internet. Yes, we do have the right to insist that we can speak freely, especially on political topics and cultural topics, on the Internet," he said.