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FIRST ON FOX: A conservative nonprofit is launching a new ad campaign targeting Big Tech over online censorship.
Common Sense Leadership Fund (CSLF), a conservative nonprofit, launched the new seven-figure ad buy on Monday, railing against two pieces of legislation making their way through Congress.
CSLF president Kevin McLaughlin told Fox News Digital the “last thing we need is the federal government codifying into law Big Tech’s ability to silence anyone they happen to disagree with politically.”
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Two bills targeted in the ad campaign are the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and Open App Markets Act.
( istock)
The ad, first obtained by Fox News Digital and titled “Big Brother,” focuses on the loopholes in two bills, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and Open App Markets Act, that loosely uses the word “safety.”
One provision in the American Innovation and Choice Online Act creates a legal defense for tech companies’ potential censorship if the measure they implement is to “protect safety, user privacy, the security of non-public data, or the security of the covered platform.”
A similar “digital safety” provision also exists in the Open App Markets Act.
“Don’t have the right opinion? Censored!” the ad says. “Are your facts an inconvenient truth? Banned!”
“No, it’s not big brother. It’s Twitter. Facebook. YouTube. Apple,” the voice-over continues. “They do it behind closed doors and answer to no one.”
CSLF’s ad warns that the two bills “would enshrine their censorship power in federal law” and that “Big Tech needs tough regulation – not more rules that allow them to control your online speech.”
“Tell Congress to reject Senate Bill 2922 and 2710 or you might be next,” the ad concludes.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to the media after a Democratic policy luncheon, Oct. 19, 2021, on Capitol Hill.
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Conservative commentators warn that the bills would harm U.S. businesses by radically altering antitrust laws and changing ecommerce itself.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he wants to bring the American Innovation and Choice Online Act up by early summer.
Schumer’s move to bring the measure up for a vote comes the week after President Biden’s disinformation board bit the dust.
