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.
Invited Testimony on HB 4390 Presented to the Texas Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Economic Development
I am Jorge Borrego, postsecondary analyst for Next Generation Texas at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and I am testifying in support of HB 4390. Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments before this estimable body. The Foundation recently conducted research examining the state of career and technical education in Texas public schools. What...