The Supreme Court will hear arguments this week on two potentially landmark cases involving Big Tech and Section 230, the federal law which essentially shields tech platforms from being liable on what its users post.
However, there's no guarantee the nation's highest court will definitively rule on either lawsuit — one against Google, one against Twitter. It might simply let things play out over time.
"For over 100 years, Congress has left it to the courts to interpret the Sherman Act, and the Clayton Act — which are the prime antitrust legislation that was passed by Congress," Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., told Newsmax Tuesday afternoon, while appearing on "John Bachman Now."
Consequently, "Congress has not fulfilled its responsibility under Article I, that being making laws. We're clearly seeing an evolution of the economy, into e-commerce, and social media, and Congress should be passing laws," said Buck.
There are instances of Section 230 that "clearly save lives," explained Buck. "ISIS was able to recruit terrorists on the Internet. Now, Section 230 protects these companies if they take down speech ... but this speech was allowed to stay up."
"And these companies are trying to seek immunity. It's going to be very interesting to see what the court does" this week, added Buck.
The above response prompted a Newsmax question on whether the components of Section 230 are too archaic or narrow for today's internet.
However, Buck offered a different take on the matter.
"Congress wanted to make sure these tech companies could take down child porn, or [videos of] recruiting terrorists, selling drugs, or other dangerous material from the internet; and gave them immunity for taking that material down," said Buck.
"Obviously, we want to protect these social media companies from allowing speech with regular people, engaging in regular discussion," continued Buck, author of "Crushed: Big Tech's War on Free Speech."
But "these tech companies have gone further, and they're taking down speech of individuals they don't like. They disagree with their opinion; and now, they leave up an ISIS recruiting material — which is incredibly dangerous," Buck added. "So, I think the court is well-positioned to make a ruling in this case."
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