Sen. Grassley Blasts Big Tech Censorship Under ‘Sweeping’ Section 230 Immunity: ‘The System Is Rigged’

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa took to the Senate floor on Monday to condemn Big Tech companies for using their “sweeping immunity” under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to justify political censorship and de-platforming

While Grassley said “the goal of Section 230 was laudable” at a time when the internet was just starting, the “interactive computer services are no longer struggling companies but some of the largest corporations in the world today.”

“When Section 230 was signed into law, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube did not exist. Today they’re dominant tech giants,” Grassley noted. “Many argue that these private companies have their own terms of service and are able to enforce them as they wish, that they’re not covered under the First Amendment. Yet these platforms are now the new public square where it’s important that all voices and viewpoints are able to be heard. With the immunities that these companies have and the importance of dialogue on their platforms, arguably they are in effect state actors and therefore First Amendment protections should apply to user-generated content.”