Rep. Cawthorn to Newsmax TV: Dems Won't Hold Big Tech Accountable

Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., told Newsmax TV's "The Chris Salcedo Show" big tech companies are overtly attacking Republicans and conservatives and Democrats don’t want to hold them accountable.

“Greg Steube and I are leading a charge to reform that terrible Section 230 that gives them basically this full-on immunity where the American people are unable to go after Big Tech when they assault out First Amendment rights. If our bill passes, and we know the Democrats are not going to allow us to do that because this is one of their greatest weapons, but when our bill passes in the next Congress, you’re going to start seeing Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, all these big tech companies start answering for their crimes.”

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects publishers from being sued over what users post on their sites.

Several GOP voices have been removed from several social media platforms, including former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter banned him while a semi-independent panel is reviewing Facebook’s indefinite suspension of his account and are considering whether to reinstate his access.  

Cawthorn, the youngest member of Congress at 25, in early January said 60,000 conservative accounts on Twitter had been permanently banned, calling it a “very dangerous precedent.”

“It’s something we have to fight against,” he said at the time.  

GOP politicians in nearly two dozen states have introduced bills to battle big tech.  

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis introduced a bill that would force tech platforms to disclose any data they have on Floridians. The law would also ask companies not to sell the data and would create legal avenues to sue for noncompliance.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading multi-state lawsuits against Google and other tech giants, targeting their monopoly power and Gov. Greg Abbott threw his weight behind state Senate Bill 12, which aims to block social media companies like Facebook and Twitter from censoring conservatives.

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