House Republicans are recently pushing legislation that would ban sanctioned foreign leaders from using U.S. social media platforms. The legislation, co-sponsored by more than 40 members of the House Republican Study Committee, is called the “Ban the Use of Social Media Accounts by Terrorists or State Sponsors of Terrorism Act of 2021.
According to Fox News on Tuesday, March 2, Rep. Andy Barr (R-Texas) said, “U.S. law gives big tech companies a free pass to provide a platform for terrorist groups and dictators.”
The legislation “requires the president to impose regulation that treats social media platforms like banks and insurance companies, so they cannot provide services to sanctioned individuals or entities.”
Under current U.S. sanction laws, specifically the Berman Amendment, the President of the United States has no authority to regulate any conduct related to the free flow of information services. And Republicans argue that the Berman Amendment was passed before modern social media existed, and that these amendments have been used by big tech companies to confirm: they can provide services to terrorists.
The new legislation gives the president the power to sanction social media platforms if they “provide services” to foreign individuals or entities sanctioned for supporting terrorism. These social media outlets include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Lawmakers also insisted on the importance of the free flow of information. The legislation specifies that the Treasury Department “should encourage the free flow of information in Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, and other countries with authoritarian regimes to counter the repression of their people by those regimes.
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