|
 The legislation introduced by Amy Klobuchar and Ben Ray Lujan
requires internet platforms such as Facebook to take down health and
vaccine-related misinformation during public health emergencies or
be held liable for that failure.
It also directs the Department of Health & Human Services to issue
guidelines on what constitutes health misinformation.
"These are some of the biggest, richest companies in the world and
they must do more to prevent the spread of deadly vaccine
misinformation," Klobuchar said.
The bill quotes a study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate
that found social media platforms failed to act on 95% of
coronavirus-related disinformation reported to them.
Kevin Martin, a vice president of public policy at Facebook, said
the company supports reforming Section 230.
"We believe clarification on the difficult and urgent questions
about health related misinformation would be helpful and look
forward to working with Congress and the industry as we consider
options for reform."
The Health Misinformation Act is not the first bill targeting tech
firms' liability shield from Senator Klobuchar, who chairs the
Senate antitrust subcommittee.
Earlier this year, she co-sponsored another bill called the Safe
Tech Act with two fellow Democrats. It aims to make social media
companies more accountable for enabling cyber-stalking, targeted
harassment and discrimination on their platforms.
[to top of second column] |
The chief executives of Google, Twitter and
Facebook have said Section 230 is crucial to
free expression on the internet.
They said it gives them the tools to strike a
balance between preserving free speech and moderating content, even
as they appeared open to suggestions that law needs moderate
changes.
Several Republican lawmakers have separately pushed to scrap the law
entirely over decisions by tech platforms to moderate content
critical of former President Donald Trump and his supporters.
There are several other pieces of legislation aimed at changing the
law that have been making the rounds for over a year, including a
bipartisan bill from Democrat Brian Schatz and Republican John
Thune.
Trump repeatedly pushed for the legal protection to be stripped away
over what he alleged was censorship against conservatives.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Dan Grebler and
Sam Holmes)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content
 |
