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.
Ammon Blair’s Testimony Before the Texas House Committee on Homeland Security, Public Safety & Veterans’ Affairs | Foreign Adversary Influence and Transparency Enforcement
Foreign Adversary Influence and Transparency Enforcement Testimony of Ammon Blair Senior Fellow, Secure and Sovereign Nation Texas Public Policy Foundation Chairman Hefner, Vice Chairman Lopez, and distinguished members of the Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Ammon Blair. I am a Senior Fellow with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. I...