{"id":1638950,"date":"2022-09-12T08:18:24","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T12:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1638950"},"modified":"2022-09-12T08:19:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T12:19:04","slug":"cruz-delays-bill-that-would-increase-big-tech-control-of-what-information-americans-can-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cruz-delays-bill-that-would-increase-big-tech-control-of-what-information-americans-can-see\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruz Delays Bill That Would Increase Big Tech Control Of What Information Americans Can See"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcruz-delays-bill-that-would-increase-big-tech-control-of-what-information-americans-can-see%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1638950&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz successfully delayed committee passage of a Senate bill this week that would have offered small- to mid-size media companies exemptions to federal antitrust laws to enable them to collude with big tech to control what users can learn.<\/p>\n<p>The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act proposed by Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar and Louisiana Republican John Kennedy in March would allow media companies with fewer than 1,500 employees to collectively bargain with corporate tech giants for compensation for content shared on Silicon Valley\u2019s massive online platforms. Klobuchar pulled the bill after the Judiciary Committee passed an amendment proposed by Cruz with Kennedy\u2019s support that kept antitrust restrictions in place if negotiations involved content moderation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is preeminent to me is whether this bill is going to increase or decrease censorship,\u201d Cruz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judiciary.senate.gov\/meetings\/09\/08\/2022\/executive-business-meeting\">said<\/a> at the hearing. \u201cIf you\u2019re negotiating, you ought to be negotiating on the ostensible harm this bill is directed at, which is the inability to get revenues from your content \u2026 You should not be negotiating on content moderation and how you are going to censor substantive content.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the debate, Kennedy summed up Cruz\u2019s concerns that provoked the amendment. The Texas senator ultimately earned Kennedy\u2019s support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat you\u2019re saying,\u201d Kennedy said to Cruz as he reviewed the amendment, \u201cis that when you sit down and negotiate, you\u2019re just negotiating over price, over money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight,\u201d Cruz said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf somebody from social media said, \u2018Look, I can give you a better price if you work with me more on changing your content,&#8217;\u201d Kennedy said, then companies would lose their antitrust exemptions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t even have to be connected to price,\u201d Cruz explained. \u201cIf they sit down and say \u2018let\u2019s all agree to come together and silence the following voices.\u2019 Without this amendment, there would be no antitrust liability for that collusion of a cartel. Otherwise, there would arguably be antitrust liability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t have any problem with that,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cThis just makes explicit what I thought was implicit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cruz\u2019s amendment passed along party lines when Republicans had the majority in the absence of Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff, who fell sick with covid-19 on a trip to India. Klobuchar, however, is likely to resubmit the bill upon Ossoff\u2019s return. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe said she fully plans to move the bill forward in a bipartisan way,\u201d Politico <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/09\/08\/content-moderation-blows-up-journalism-antitrust-bill-00055556\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened today was a huge victory for the First Amendment and free speech,\u201d Cruz said in a statement. \u201cSadly, it is also a case study in how much the Democrats love censorship. They would rather pull their bill entirely than advance it with my proposed protections for Americans from unfair online censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cruz\u2019s concerns over broad censorship through government-incentivized collusion came on the heels of reports that social media giants, including Facebook and Twitter, suppressed content at the request of federal authorities. <\/p>\n<p>Independent journalist and former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson was <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/31\/bidens-white-house-colluded-with-big-tech-to-gag-covid-dissenters-like-alex-berenson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">kicked<\/a> off Twitter in August 2021 after a pressure campaign from the White House, according to newly released court documents.<\/p>\n<p>In August, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/26\/confirmed-fbi-colluded-with-big-tech-to-prevent-voters-from-learning-about-hunter-bidens-laptop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">admitted <\/a>on Joe Rogan\u2019s podcast that Facebook significantly suppressed stories surrounding Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop in the fall 2020 election season at the direction of the FBI.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz successfully delayed committee passage of a Senate bill this week that would have offered small- to mid-size media companies exemptions to federal antitrust laws to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1638950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1638950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1638950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1638950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1638950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1638950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}