30 Iowa Republican senators propose penalizing social media companies that censor speech

(The Center Square) – Thirty Republican senators have proposed a bill that would sic the state’s attorney general’s office on any “massive social networking website” that censored constitutionally protected speech.

Under the bill, SF 402, companies could still censor criminal, obscene, or “excessively violent” speech.

State contracts or tax incentives with these companies would also be prohibited. Beginning in the 2022 fiscal year, if any city, county, school district or township violated these measures, they would receive 10% less of any appropriation from the state. The attorney general’s office would enforce the bill, providing a system for citizens to report potential violations of the bill and reporting complaints and investigations.

Legislators, associations’ representatives, education officials and members of the attorney general’s office discussed the bill in a subcommittee on Wednesday.

In opening remarks, Sen. Jake Chapman, R-Adel, said, “These big tech companies – hopefully some are on today and we can hear from them – they’ll have an opportunity, a choice to make, ‘You can choose to respect the voice of Iowans, or Iowans will no longer foot the bill for your censorship.’”

Several attendees noted economic contributions from social media giants or raised concerns, including whether companies would hesitate to enforce content policies and potential loss of business opportunities.

“Iowa should encourage these companies to have content policies as they govern the removal of content showing the exploitation of children, bullying, harassment, gore, pornography and spam,” TechNet Midwest Executive Director Tyler Diers said. “Instead, this bill perversely creates an incentive for companies to not prohibit and remove any objectional content in order to keep tax incentives for projects that are providing jobs, such as that in Altoona, and economic development elsewhere in the state.”

City of Altoona Mayor Dean O’Connor praised Facebook for its partnership with the city. Facebook has five data centers in the city, KCCI8 Des Moines reports.

“They are a good partner with the city of Altoona, and they’re very helpful with everything they do for us with jobs and infrastructure and all of those things,” O’Connor said.

Iowa resident Mark French, however, who said he retired after a career predominantly in information technology, spoke in favor of the bill.

“Some would hold that the First Amendment is inapplicable to private tech companies, that they aren’t government. I agree with that,” French said. “However, civil rights are applicable. … What if a telephone or cell phone company had the right to engage in the same unaccountable profit and practices, including subjectively monitoring actual private conversations and editing, blocking, and banning and declaring communications to be either true or false under the guise of their selectively chosen and unaccountable fact checkers to only allow communications they choose with no sense of any due process or recourse?”

Representatives of Facebook and Google registered their opposition to the bill but did not make remarks at the meeting.

“Those that oppose it are going to oppose it from the standpoint of what the economic impact is,” Senator Jake Chapman, R-Adel, told The Center Square in a phone interview after the meeting. “The reality is, what is the dollar value on your constitutional rights? What are you willing to sell them for, simply for economic gain? I think that’s really what it comes down to.”

The bill passed out of subcommittee with a 2-1 vote. Chapman and Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, who are both sponsors of the bill, voted in favor and Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Hiawatha, voted against it.

A similar bill, HF 633, is in the Judiciary Committee in the House.

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