Free Speech For People Chairman and Senior Legal Advisor Ben Clements has authored an article for the Western New England Law Review, outlining our proposed Big Tech Accountability Act. The newly-published piece, entitled “The Big Tech Accountability Act: Reforming How the Biggest Corporations Control and Exploit Online Communications,” addresses many of the unfounded claims used to preserve immunity for Big Tech corporations and elaborates on how such legislation would protect both personal privacy and our democracy.

As Clements argues:

They have mastered the corporate playbook of using a combination of big-money lobbying, massive campaign spending, and heavily funded propaganda campaigns to deter and prevent any meaningful government regulation; to facilitate unprecedented monopolistic growth; and to ensure that they continue to enjoy immunity from legal accountability that has never been available to other communications companies, whether print or broadcast. And they have built a multi-billion-dollar business model that profits from exploiting and selling the personal information of virtually every American and facilitating and promoting disinformation and violence that undermine our democracy, our healthcare, our civil rights, and our capacity for rational self-government.

The Big Tech Accountability Act is designed to hold social media companies accountable for engaging in targeted amplification of disinformation and threats of violence on their online platforms for the sake of profit. The Act would also protect online personal privacy and freedom against commercial exploitation. You can learn more about the Big Tech Accountability Act and sign our petition in support of the legislation on our website.

Read the full piece here.