Senate Bill 5 exists as a reaction to the overreach and excess of social-media firms that have taken it upon themselves to police the public square and stifle ideas and beliefs they disagree with—ideas held by broad swaths of the American public. They do so from a standpoint of exceptional power within our civic space, undergirded by a special favor granted to them, and to no other form of media, by federal legislation: exemption from liability for user-generated content. Unfortunately, what we see time and again is these firms’ unfitness to competently or consistently exercise that power. Individual citizens with unorthodox opinions are deplatformed, and then orthodoxy shifts. Democratically elected representatives are shut down, while dictatorial regimes communicate without hindrance.
Dr. Brent Bennett’s Testimony Before the House State Affairs Committee: Data Centers & 765-kV Transmission Lines
Testimony of Brent Bennett, Ph.D. Policy Director, Life:Powered Texas Public Policy Foundation Before the House State Affairs Committee August 19, 2026 Chairman King and Members of the Committee: Thank you for this opportunity to testify about the important challenges facing the Texas electric grid and specifically the challenges and opportunities being presented by data centers....