Legislation To Prohibit Social Media Platforms From Censoring Tennesseans Delayed To 2024

Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

Representative Dennis Powers’ legislation to help stymie social media’s censorship of Tennessee elections while preserving the first amendment rights of all Tennesseans in today’s online public square was deferred yesterday in the House Business & Utilities Subcommittee to their first calendar meeting of 2024.

Without explanation, Chairman Clark Boyd (R-Lebanon-District 46 ) announced at the beginning of the meeting that House Bill 0682 (HB0682) had been rolled until next year along with a slew of other bills.

Seeking clarification, The Tennessee Conservative reached out to Representative Powers (R-Jacksboro-District 35) who told us, “We needed to add a few amendments and I just ran out of time.  Some of the bills we pass have unintended consequences and affect some companies and industries that were not the target of our bill.  I thought we had addressed all of them with the bill last time, but there are other companies that say our bill will affect their day to day operations.”

Powers said that he asked Chairman Boyd to roll the bill if, “I could not get the amendments added by the deadline and that is what happened.”

“Hopefully, Congress and the Supreme Court case will solve this problem by the time we return in January, but if not, I will be back with the bill next year.  I also will work on trying to get it funded next year because we were going to encounter the same problem we had last year with a fiscal note of $100,000 and it is not in the budget for this fiscal year,” Powers concluded.

The Senate version of the bill (SB0111), sponsored by Senator Bo Watson (R-Hixson-District 11 ) is on the calendar for the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee for March 22nd, but regardless of what happens there, the bill cannot progress this session now that it has been deferred in the House.

Regarding his legislation, Rep Powers told the Tennessee Conservative, “Conservatives have long been censored by Big Tech and now more evidence has become apparent when companies have admitted working in conjunction with government organizations to censor information that may hurt political candidates in elections.  This is a problem that Congress needs to solve because it has interstate commerce implications, but although they talk about revising Section 230, nothing has been done, so the states have to address the issue.  Our solution will not prevent the issue, but it will give the victims cause for action and will hopefully, make Big Tech think twice before censoring Conservatives and also show Congress that it needs to step in and fight for our First Amendment Rights.”

Powers said of his legislation during the 2022’s session, “We wish the federal government would have dealt with this years ago, and they should have but because they have not, it’s gone back to the States.  The States created the Federal Government, so we really have that obligation – if the Federal Government is not doing their job, we need to step in.  This is going to be model legislation for other states.  The Common Carrier Law is one that we feel has Constitutional muster, it’s the one that U.S. Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas said would work.”

In 2022, Powers’ bill managed to pass in the House Business and Utilities Subcommittee, and the Commerce Committee but was then “placed behind the budget” in the House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee on March 30th and eventually taken off notice on April 26th of last year.

Had the legislation not been deferred during this year’s session to 2024, it probably would have suffered a similar fate as a slew of bills that have fiscal notes have already been placed behind the budget.

Of note, Powers said of his legislation last year that if made law, it would likely generate enough revenue through fees that it would pay for itself.

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com