{"id":2003359,"date":"2023-08-17T05:30:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T09:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/up-for-debate-where-trump-desantis-and-rest-of-republican-2024-field-stand-on-big-tech\/"},"modified":"2023-08-17T05:35:24","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T09:35:24","slug":"up-for-debate-where-trump-desantis-and-rest-of-republican-2024-field-stand-on-big-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/up-for-debate-where-trump-desantis-and-rest-of-republican-2024-field-stand-on-big-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Debating the stance of Trump, DeSantis, and other Republicans on Big Tech in 2024."},"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\">28<\/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%2Fup-for-debate-where-trump-desantis-and-rest-of-republican-2024-field-stand-on-big-tech%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=2003359&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--><h2>The First \u2063Republican \u200dPresidential Debate: Examining Big Tech<\/h2>\n<p>The first Republican presidential debate is fast\u2063 approaching on Aug. 23, where \u2062candidates hope\u2063 to close the gap on former President Donald Trump and separate from\u2063 the\u2062 rest of the pack. In this\u200b series, Up For Debate,\u2064 the Washington Examiner will look at a key \u200cissue\u200c or policy every day up \u2062until debate day and where\u200d key \u2063candidates stand. Today&#8217;s story will examine Big\u2063 Tech.<\/p>\n<p>Large\u200c technology \u2062companies like Google, Amazon, X, formerly known as Twitter, and Meta maintain tight\u200d control of\u2062 the digital\u2063 marketplace, allowing\u2063 them to control\u200b both what is said\u200d and whose \u200dviewpoints \u200care the most prominent. While the\u200d platforms claim that they are\u2062 fair and \u2062will host a variety of views, the prominence of these companies in\u2062 the \u200ddigital marketplace remains.<\/p>\n<p>Some Republicans have alleged \u200bthat \u200cthese companies\u200c have discriminated against\u2062 conservatives \u200band \u2062that Congress needs\u2063 to\u2063 remove\u200b Section 230, a crucial part \u200dof communications law that protects websites from being held \u2063accountable for what users \u200bpost to them. This became \u2063a \u2063larger rallying cry \u2064in\u2064 2021 after former President Donald Trump was barred from Twitter, a move that drew criticism from pro-Trump Republicans.<\/p>\n<h3>Up \u2062For Debate: Where Trump, DeSantis,\u200d and Rest of Republican 2024 Field Stand on Key Issues<\/h3>\n<p>The \u200ccandidates appear in agreement \u200dabout the outsize \u200crole Big Tech\u200c plays in everyday life,\u200b as well\u200c as the fear of conservative censorship. Some \u200dare more vocal about acting on the fear, such as Trump and\u200d his \u2063previous pushes \u200dto force legal\u2062 reform around online speech.\u200b Others have \u2062taken\u2063 legislative action, \u200cstriving to limit the\u2063 Big Tech platform&#8217;s influence \u200bas a whole.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s where the leading presidential candidates stand\u200c concerning\u200c Big Tech and conservative censorship:<\/p>\n<h3>Donald Trump<\/h3>\n<p>Trump has been a critic of Section 230 for several \u200dyears, claiming\u2063 that it protected Big \u200dTech unnecessarily. He \u200ccalled for the law to\u2062 be repealed and signed an\u2063 executive order during his first term in May 2020 to revoke\u200c some\u200d of the \u2062protections from the law, only for the law to be challenged in court. \u200dHe vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act in 2020 because it \u200bdid\u2063 not revoke Section 230.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Your\u2063 failure to terminate\u200d the very dangerous \u2062national\u200c security\u200c risk of Section 230 will make\u200d our \u2064intelligence\u2062 virtually\u200d impossible \u200cto conduct\u200c without everyone knowing what we \u2063are doing at every\u200b step,&#8221; Trump said in a statement following the veto.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has also advocated \u2063for the United States \u200cto hold \u2062Big Tech\u2063 companies responsible for their conduct rather than Europe, \u200dwhich maintains a\u200d far stricter set of user data and \u200cprivacy laws. These laws are\u2062 often used to\u200c fine Big Tech companies\u2063 hundreds\u2062 of\u200b millions\u200d of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u200d issued an executive order in May 2020 that threatened penalties against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ga-poll-watcher-it-expert-non-trump-supporter-affidavit-sudden-surge-of-20000-mail-in-votes-for-biden-in-early-hours-on-nov\/\" title=\"GA Poll Watcher, IT Expert, Non-Trump Supporter Affidavit: Sudden Surge of 20,000 Mail-In-Votes For Biden In Early Hours On Nov\">social media companies<\/a> if \u200cthey were found\u200d banning or limiting\u2064 speech based on political \u200cviews. The former president also said \u200bin July\u200d 2020 \u200bthat he would &#8220;bring fairness&#8221; to Big Tech through \u2063an executive order if Congress did not take\u2063 action to deal with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mexico-president-condemns-censorship-of-president-trump\/\" title=\"Mexico President condemns censorship of President Trump\">social media censorship<\/a> and Section 230. Neither Trump nor his team \u200bfollowed\u200b up on the orders during\u200b his term.<\/p>\n<h3>Ron DeSantis<\/h3>\n<p>DeSantis&#8217;s career has been marked by a push for culture\u200d war \u200cconflicts. One\u2062 of his most notable decisions was the passage of S.B. \u200d7072. This bill would\u2064 allow \u200bFlorida residents to sue a tech company for \u2064up to \u2062$250,000 a\u2062 day for removing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-level-republicans-push-back-on-big-tech\/\" title=\"State-Level Republicans Push Back on Big Tech\">statewide political candidate<\/a> from its \u200dplatform for more than two weeks, or notably less for \u200bcounty or local positions. The law passed in the state House and Senate and\u200c was signed into \u200claw\u2062 on May 24, 2021. \u2062DeSantis presented it as a\u200c challenge to Big Tech companies\u2062 like Facebook and Twitter. \u2062The law was quickly challenged in court over allegations\u2063 of\u2062 it breaching a \u2064user&#8217;s right to\u2063 free speech \u200dand is still in court\u200b as of this week.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis\u200c also pushed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/up-for-debate-where-trump-desantis-and-rest-of-republican-2024-field-stand-on-big-tech\/\" title=\"Debating the stance of Trump, DeSantis, and other Republicans on Big Tech in 2024.\">fairly wide-ranging tech agenda<\/a>\u2064 for his state in March when he signed into law a\u2062 &#8220;Digital\u200d Bill of Rights.&#8221; The bill adds biometric and\u200d geolocation data to \u200bthe\u2064 state&#8217;s definition of personal data, and it requires Google and other search engines to\u2063 disclose\u2063 if search results are prioritized based\u200c on political \u2062or monetary incentives. The \u200dDigital Bill of\u2063 Rights also barred government employees from coordinating with Big Tech companies on regulating speech.<\/p>\n<h3>Tim Scott<\/h3>\n<p>Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) has denounced Big\u2062 Tech censorship\u2062 like many of his \u200bRepublicans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Big Tech needs to be \u2062reined in,&#8221; Scott posted on Jan. 1, 2021, &#8220;and I will \u2064vote with the\u200d President when Section 230 reform\u2063 is on\u2062 the Senate floor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Scott was\u200b a co-sponsor of the\u200c Political BIAS Emails Act,\u200b legislation that would hold Big Tech \u200dsites \u200baccountable \u200bwhen they allegedly use algorithms to \u2063hide political emails. The bill arose \u2063in response to allegations\u2063 that Gmail \u200bplaced Republican\u2064 fundraising emails into\u200b spam folders more than Democrats. Google had initially implemented a \u2064program to\u200b limit the placement of political emails into spam folders but\u2063 discontinued it \u2064in January after\u200d the Federal Election Commission dismissed Republican claims of bias.<\/p>\n<h3>Nikki Haley<\/h3>\n<p>Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley\u2062 spoke out in June 2020 \u200babout the censorship of conservatives on Big Tech, claiming that it\u2062 &#8220;violates the spirit of the law\u200d &#038; the 1st Amendment.&#8221;\u200d She also \u2064argued that &#8220;more regulation would go too far in the other \u2064direction, putting bureaucrats\u200c &#038; lawyers in control of what gets said \u200bonline. Either way, free speech loses.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Haley also opposed the\u2062 censoring of Trump after Twitter \u2064removed him from the platform after\u200c the Jan. 6 riots. &#8220;Silencing people, not to mention the President of \u2064the\u200c U.S., is what happens in \u200cChina, not our country,&#8221; she posted \u200don Jan.\u2063 8.<\/p>\n<h3>Vivek Ramaswamy<\/h3>\n<p>The technology CEO has regularly slammed\u2062 Big Tech companies, claiming that they&#8217;re woke and a threat to \u2064the United States. He argued that \u200dit was &#8220;time\u200d to amend \u200cSection 230&#8221; \u2062and\u200c that Big Tech companies could either &#8220;operate like a normal company without the federal\u2062 blanket of immunity,&#8221; or they could &#8220;agree to\u2062 abide\u2063 by\u200b the\u2062 First Amendment in\u2062 return for that immunity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ramaswamy spoke \u200dout in 2021 after Twitter \u200bremoved Trump from \u2064its platform\u200b and \u2062Apple \u2064and Google removed \u200bthe\u2062 conservative \u200csocial network \u2062Parler \u2062from the app stores over allegations that they \u200dhosted Jan. 6 organizers. He \u200cargued in an opinion \u2062piece co-authored with constitutional scholar Jed\u2062 Rubenfeld that \u2063people should \u200csue Big \u2062Tech companies \u200dfor \u200dviolating their First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaswamy \u200dwas also vocally critical\u2063 of\u200b how antitrust law works today. He has requested that lawmakers take action against Big Tech but claims &#8220;standard antitrust laws won&#8217;t stop Big Tech&#8217;s monopoly\u2064 on ideas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The tech entrepreneur argues that Facebook\u200b and Google should be treated as\u200b &#8220;state actors&#8221; due to their acting in the interests of the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>Others<\/p>\n<p>Former Vice President Mike Pence previously\u200c slammed the censorship of conservatives on social media. He also supported previously proposed plans from former Attorney General Bill Barr \u2062to reform \u200cSection\u200b 230.<\/p>\n<p>Conservative commentator Larry\u2062 Elder slammed Meta and Twitter in\u2063 a January 2022 \u2063opinion piece, calling former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Meta CEO Mark \u200bZuckerberg &#8220;thugs&#8221; \u2062for censoring Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>Former Texas Rep. Will \u2062Hurd seemed skeptical of conservative claims \u200bof\u200b censorship\u200c on social \u200bmedia. \u201cI think \u200bthe data, when you look at some of the conservative\u200c outlets on Facebook at least, they have way more following than\u200c a \u200dlot of the \u2064mainstream media, even \u200cwhen\u2063 you combine them \u2026 I\u2063 don\u2019t think the facts \u2064\u2026 \u200dplay out that way,&#8221; Hurd \u200btold the\u2063 Washington Post.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">CLICK HERE \u200bTO READ MORE FROM \u200bTHE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The upcoming Republican presidential debate on Aug. 23 is crucial for candidates aiming to catch up with ex-President Donald Trump and stand out from the competition. Leading up to the debate, the Washington Examiner&#8217;s series, Up For Debate, will analyze a significant issue or policy each day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2003360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2003359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003359","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2003359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2003360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2003359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2003359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2003359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}