Palmetto State News

Although social media companies are exempt from liabilities under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, South Carolina state Rep. Mike Burns (R-Columbia) found a loophole that opens the door to their pocketbooks by allowing states to sue giants such as Facebook and Twitter in state court under breach-of-contract statutes.

As a result, Burns took action to file House Bill (HB) 3450 to stop social-media censorship.

“We want to protect South Carolina citizens from having their religious freedom and their First Amendment rights violated,” Burns told Palmetto State News. “They've got a contract with these companies but what's happening is, if their views are not in keeping with the views of these platforms, they're getting knocked off. We want citizens of South Carolina to have a free, open and fair exchange of ideas.”

If approved, HB 3450 will ban social media companies from censoring comments, posts, and shares unless an individual is calling for violence, posting obscene material, bullying minors or urging criminal conduct.

“The guts of this bill provide for the contract of this new digital medium to be adjudicated in state courts here in South Carolina and any other state that chooses to,” Burns said in an interview.

Twenty-four other states have undertaken the same avenue to hold social media sites accountable and use Burns’ HB 3450 as a template, according to Burns.

“We filed our bill first before any other state ever dealt with any of this in December 2019,” he said.

A Georgia House panel is currently deliberating how to promote free speech on social media sites. Rather than ignoring the issue or imposing extensive regulations on sites like Facebook and Twitter, Georgia Republicans are adopting a more nuanced approach that balances the First Amendment and the rights of private businesses, according to media reports.

“This is just something that one has to look at and be very careful that there’s not an overstep and be very careful that we don’t express our subjectivity over the top of another set of subjectivity,” said Georgia Rep. Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta) “Because by doing that, we’re not making it any better, and we could actually be making it worse.”

One poll suggests 73% of Americans believe it is very (37%) or somewhat (36%) likely that social media tech companies are intentionally censoring opinions they disagree with. Only 25% of Americans believe this is not likely and 90% of Republicans believe it likely that social media sites censor viewpoints, according to a Pew Research Center study.

“South Carolina is a pretty red state,” Burns said. “It’s a good bet that more conservatives are hurt by this in our state than liberals because  there are more conservatives here.”

For elected officials,  Burns said social media censorship is more impactful.

“One of our county councilmen in our area was advertising and putting out normal things for his campaign and a week to 10 days before election time, and they just pulled all his stuff off the platform and it wasn't anything out of bounds,” Burns said. “He's been an attorney for 20 something years. He’s just a normal average guy willing to stand up, run for office and do the best for the people in Greenville County and they just decided to take this stuff down for no reason and gave no reason.”

What’s triggering censorship by social media companies isn’t clear although much of the debate stems from former President Donald Trump's bogus claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election. Twitter and Facebook banned Trump soon after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters

“It's all over the place and it seems like it's an ever-changing evolution of things,” Burns said. “If somebody is calling on everybody to go storm the Capitol, I get that but what I don't get is pulling a normal idea that disagrees with the political correctness of the moment.”

The Pew Research Center study further found that 56% of Americans believe major technology companies should be more heavily regulated than they currently are, compared to 47% of Americans in 2020 and 51% in 2018. Another 68% believe that major technology companies have more power and influence than they should.

“I remember when I was in college in 1970 and we talked about books like George Orwell's '1984,'” Burns said. “Looking in the rearview mirror, we are on steroids with that now. I've got people just everyday citizens in town that have been put into the timeout box for so many days or so many weeks just because of something they put on social media that triggered a certain algorithm. It’s not right. It’s not fair.”