State rep. raises free speech questions in new House bill

Over the last month, conversation erupted again over concern social media organizations censor or suppress content posted on their websites — particularly conservative opinions.

A bill, filed last week in the Missouri House of Representatives by Rep. Hardy Billington, hopes to keep this from happening.

House Bill 932 would allow users of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to file a civil suit against the platform for alleged restriction, censorship or suppression of content. If the court agrees there was censorship, the company would owe damages to the poster of the content and to “any person who reasonably otherwise would have received the content.”

“This bill would allow citizens to sue social media companies who violate their freedom of expression,” Billington said.

A private business that blocks someone or deletes comments either on the business’ website or social media profiles would not fall under the bill, he explained. The bill applies to “interactive computer services,” which is a platform that meets the criteria under subsection 2 of the bill.

The bill has a way to go before it could be signed into law.

Billington filed it Jan. 27. It does not have any co-sponsors as of Wednesday and has not been sent to a committee.

In order for the House as a whole to hear a bill, it needs to go through and pass at least one committee.

If approved by the House as a whole, the state Senate would also need to pass a similar bill. The two chambers would have to agree on any differences before it is sent to Gov. Mike Parson’s desk.

As of Wednesday, the Senate does not have a similar bill filed.

Billington said he plans to request the bill go to the General Laws Committee and he’s heard support from “numerous colleagues.”

While Billington has not been blocked from any social media sites, he said, he knows of “a number of conservatives who have, including former President Donald Trump.”

In a statement released Jan. 8, Twitter stated it was permanently suspending Trump’s account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” after a review of the account and how tweets were being “received and interpreted on and off Twitter.”

Trump’s accounts were also removed from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitch and Shopify.

Billington said he’s heard of the issue impacting people other than politicians.

“I have heard from numerous individuals who have been blocked or banned for sharing Bible scriptures and conservative political opinions,” he said. “One person was banned from Twitter for applying accepted mathematical laws to election results.”

According to Newsweek, a British YouTuber claimed Facebook kept him from posting links to www.Biblehub.com because it went against community standards.

In a statement to Newsweek, a Facebook spokesperson said the platform does not censor Bible passages and later said the system was flagging www.Biblehub.com links, but it was in error and was corrected.

Mathematician Bobby Piton, who testified in Arizona there’s statistical evidence of voter fraud, had his Twitter account suspended. USA Today reported he made a new account, which is still active.

Billington said he is confident the bill will pass, but if it doesn’t this session, he will try again.

“I will not give up and will continue to defend our precious First Amendment rights,” he said. “I have been in business most of my life and I respect the rights of businesses. But when you are a monopoly, as the U.S. government and 48 states have contended Facebook is, you are historically held to a different standard. I’m extremely troubled to see how social media has cut off the free speech rights of many of my constituents and members of the press.”