A new bill to restrict and monitor Americans’ First Amendment rights was sponsored by the Democrat-controlled Senate.
The “Digital Platform Commission Act (DPCA),” proposed by Democratic Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), would label online disinformation and bigotry.
The law establishes a new federal agency whose sole responsibility will be to regulate and punish anyone who disseminates “misinformation,” as defined by the Democrats.
This legislation is unconstitutional in the United States.
Bennet said that the moment had come to regulate the internet platforms that had acquired unprecedented power over the economy, society, and democracy. We need not choose between letting digital platforms write their own rules, having competitors like China and the EU define those rules, or letting politicians in Congress write the rules. Instead, we should follow the established practice in the United States and give a group of experts the authority to regulate and keep tabs on the most important and complex parts of the economy to ensure that the public interest is protected.
If Congress were to create the Federal Digital Platforms Commission, the president would choose five commissioners and the Senate would confirm them. The Commission would be able to issue rules, levy fines, conduct investigations, host public hearings, and fund studies.
However, it is unclear how the bill will be implemented without restricting free speech. Government-appointed “experts” will be the ones to determine if something is “misinformation” or not.
Republicans are sounding the alarm over the Democratic Party’s aim to curtail God-given rights, while Democrats applaud banning speech that doesn’t line up with their progressive goal.
To emphasize the irony of the bill’s Democratic backers, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said, “The largest area of misinformation is coming from the government,” and constitutional lawyer Harmeet Dhillon characterized it as “unconstitutional, evil, and stupid.”