Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) caved to Democrats’ new bill that would allow media organizations to form cartels that would work closely with Big Tech agencies.
QUICK FACTS:
- Republican Senator Ted Cruz has reportedly struck a deal with Democrats on ‘The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act,’ which would allow most media outlets to negotiate with big tech platforms for compensation, Breitbart reported.
- “Platforms like Facebook and Google are counting on Republicans and Democrats being unable to put aside their differences to agree on meaningful legislation in the tech sector. This is our moment to prove them wrong,” Democrat Amy Klobuchar said at Thursday’s vote.
- Cruz staffers refused to answer whether or not he sided with Klobuchar, and a spokesperson of the senator would only provide a brief statement.
- “Sen. Cruz is a fierce defender of the First Amendment and free speech and he will always fight to prevent Americans from being censored or silenced,” the spokesperson said.
REPUBLICAN SEN. JOHN KENNEDY ALSO SIDED WITH DEMOCRATS:
“We have reached an agreement that clarifies what the bill was designed to do: give local news outlets a real seat at the negotiating table and bar the tech firms from throttling, filtering, suppressing or curating content. The only reason I can see for parties to oppose this bill is that they have a problem either with healthy market competition or free speech,” Kennedy’s office said.
BACKGROUND:
- According to American Action Forum, the legislation “would essentially provide a carveout to allow certain publications and broadcasters to engage in price fixing, an anti-competitive practice that would otherwise violate antitrust laws; the bill would also threaten established laws and practices related to content moderation and copyright protection online.”
- Cruz later proposed an amendment to prohibit the two from using the collective bargaining tool to join together on efforts to censor content.
- Klobuchar argued that the amendment divided Congress, and Democrats would no longer be able to support the bill with the amendment in place.
- “What happened today was a huge victory for the First Amendment and free speech,” Cruz said at the time. “Sadly, 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.”
