Sen. Bill Hagerty Aims to Make Big Tech Platforms Common Carriers

Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) has introduced a bill that takes aim at a key vulnerability of Big Tech — their increasing resemblance to common carriers.

The bill, called the 21st Century FREE Speech Act, follows a legal opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas arguing that censorship of Americans on tech platforms could be ended if they were regulated as common carriers or places of public accommodation.

For tech companies with more than 100 million monthly active users, the bill would abolish Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the bill that tech companies rely on to censor their users with impunity.