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A bill has been introduced in the Senate that would create a federal agency tasked with policing the American people’s speech to crack down on “misinformation” and “hate speech.”
Democrat Senator Michael Bennett (Colo.) introduced the Digital Platform Commission Act (DPCA) last week which would form a de facto “Ministry of Truth” called the Federal Digital Platform Commission.
Bennett claimed his proposed bill would “create an expert federal body empowered to provide comprehensive, sector-specific regulation of digital platforms to protect consumers, promote competition, and defend the public interest.”
A new bill wants to empower a new federal agency to create a council that establishes “enforceable behavioral codes” on social media platforms and AI. The council will include “disinformation” experts. pic.twitter.com/m9MdSl9kda
— Reclaim The Net (@ReclaimTheNetHQ) May 18, 2023
The bill says the agency would have five commissioners appointed by Joe Biden and confirmed by the Democrat-controlled Senate.
In the following statement, Bennett said the new Ministry of Truth would be imbued with the power to impose civil penalties on anyone who deviates from Democrat-prescribed narratives.
The new Federal Digital Platform Commission would have the mandate, jurisdiction, and broad set of tools to develop and enforce thoughtful guardrails for a sector that has been left for too long to write its own rules, with serious consequences for everything from teen mental health to disinformation to anti-competitve practices that have hurt small businesses.
It’s past time for a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to regulating digital platforms that have amassed extraordinary power over our economy, society, and democracy.
We should follow the long precedent in American history of empowering an expert body to protect the public interest through common sense rules and oversight for complex and powerful sectors of the economy.
The Commission would have the authority to promulgate rules, impose civil penalties, hold hearings, conduct investigations, and support research.
It could also designate ‘systemically important digital platforms’ subject to additional oversight, regulation, and merger review.”
Civil rights attorney Harmeet Dillon noted the bill would be a blatant violation of the First Amendment: “Unconstitutional, also evil and stupid,” she tweeted Friday.
This is unconstitutional, also evil and stupid. https://t.co/zmaEvMLbvL
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) May 19, 2023
The DCPA’s introduction comes after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced the creation of a new censorship office called the Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC), which would focus on “foreign malign influence” aimed at U.S. elections but also “public opinion within the United States.”
DNI Director Avril Haines said the FMIC would also work with the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) to fulfill its information dominance mission, which the Twitter Files revealed works as a malicious censorship arm of the federal government.
This also comes a year after the Department of Homeland Security shut down its “Disinformation Governance Board” (DGB) following massive public backlash.
Internal government documents revealed the DGB was tasked with targeting and speech considered to be “serious homeland security risks,” such as “conspiracy theories” about election security, the COVID vaccines, and “the efficacy of masks.”
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