A summary of the bill said that under current legal precedent, plaintiffs must prove that duress caused the content to be removed or changed. The bill would allow plaintiffs to “sue and seek monetary damages against any government agency or employee that engages in social media, artificial intelligence or broadcasting companies. regardless jawbone or not succeeds.”
The bill specifically authorizes monetary damages because under current law, plaintiffs can only obtain injunctions that prevent future or ongoing violations, the brief said. Public officials who engage in illegal censorship with financial damages may be prosecuted even after leaving office. The bill effectively limits financial awards, but allows for compensatory damages, not punitive damages.
Convenient “choke points” for censorship
The bill also “requires agencies to submit certain communications with social media companies, AI companies and broadcasters to a portal with detailed public summaries and full access to Congress, helping prevent jaw-dropping from happening in secret.”
The proposed portal will help individuals prove that their rights have been violated, the summary said. Without this measure, “plaintiffs may struggle to prove jaw-dropping because the government has secret communications with private companies it compels. Americans don’t even know they’re being censored by their government,” the brief said.
The text of the bill states that broadcasters, online services and “speech-enabling artificial intelligence systems are essential to access to information and individual expression and have the right to independent editorial judgment. Such entities can also act as targets for the government to censor objectionable speech and information.”
The bill defines broadcasters to include FCC-licensed stations and national television networks that provide programming to affiliate stations. This means that forcing local stations and national networks would violate the law.
The bill says that the term “coercion” means to act, suggest the possibility of such action, or threaten such action in a harmful, hostile or unfavorable manner.”
