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.
Testimony in Support of HB 4914, with Ammon Blair in House Committee on State Affairs
Chairman King, Vice Chairwoman Hernandez, and distinguished members of the committee, My name is Ammon Blair, and I am a Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. I am honored to appear before you today in strong support of House Bill 4914. I bring 22 years of military experience, including service in the United...