A leaked memo from Democratic Sen Mark Warner of Virginia outlines a plan for Democrats to take over and regulate the internet. If successful, no Conservative site or blogger will be safe from censorship, which according to the memo is the whole point of their secret plan.
The memo contains a whole litany of possible regulations and requirements laid out to give liberals the online advantage. Nearly a monopoly is probably more like it. If it were a legitimate improvement for the internet, they would have tried to get Republicans on board, but my guess is that they are hoping to take control of Congress to try to pass this bill.
Proposals include:
Mandatory location verification. The paper suggests forcing social media platforms to authenticate and disclose the geographic origin of all user accounts or posts.
Mandatory identity verification: The paper suggests forcing social media and tech platforms to authenticate user identities and only allow “authentic” accounts (“inauthentic accounts not only pose threats to our democratic process…but undermine the integrity of digital markets”), with “failure to appropriately address inauthentic account activity” punishable as “a violation of both SEC disclosure rules and/or Section 5 of the [Federal Trade Commission] Act.”
Bot labeling: Warner’s paper suggests forcing companies to somehow label bots or be penalized (no word from Warner on how this is remotely feasible)
Define popular tech as “essential facilities.” These would be subject to all sorts of heightened rules and controls, says the paper, offering Google Maps as an example of the kinds of apps or platforms that might count. “The law would not mandate that a dominant provider offer the service for free,” writes Warner. “Rather, it would be required to offer it on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms” provided by the government.
Other proposals include more disclosure requirements for online political speech, more spending to counter supposed cybersecurity threats, more funding for the Federal Trade Commission, a requirement that companies’ algorithms can be audited by the feds (and this data shared with universities and others), and a requirement of “interoperability between dominant platforms.”
It will be interesting to see how they try to spin this. Even more interesting is that for the first time I know of, someone is leaking from the Democratic machine. This is unheard of and it probably has the Democrats in panic mode, wondering what other secrets could be revealed before the November elections.