Just a day after being banished from Facebook, Australian MP Craig Kelly swiftly acted to propose a new bill to curb the power of big tech companies like Facebook.
Hughes’ independent members are drafting a bill under a similar law passed overnight in Florida. The law penalizes social media companies for removing political candidates from the platform. This is also known as platform release.
According to Florida law, major tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter will be fined about $ 100,000 a day if state-wide candidates are banned from the platform, and $ 10,000 for other candidates. You will be fined.
“The market power of foreign-dominated engineers and their ability to censor political speech is an imminent and direct threat to our democracy,” Kelly told The Epoch Times.
“In Australia, we’ve seen Facebook acting as a media thug and bully. They believe they’re transcendental and true arbitrators. Governor DeSantis acted to seek clarification from these social media giants. “
Kelly posted content on Monday on a study proposing an alternative treatment for COVID-19, a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which was unplatformized by Facebook.
A Facebook spokeswoman said, “Everyone, including elected civil servants, has false information about COVID-19, which could lead to imminent physical harm, and the COVID-19 vaccine, which was revealed by public health experts. We do not allow you to share. “
However, Kelly denied sharing “misinformation”, stating that his post contained actual research by medical professionals and professionals.
“I cite doctors and medical professionals who have different opinions than other doctors and medical professionals. It does not mislead it, it makes it a different opinion. “He said.
“A society where someone who has a different opinion to you is disseminating (blaming) false information is a fascist, totalitarian society.”
Kelly wants to get help from another member of parliament so that the bill can be officially introduced to the floor at the next seat.
In March, Senator Alex Antic motioned in the Senate to establish a committee to comprehensively investigate the market power of Australian high-tech giants. Voting stalled at 32-32.
Google and Facebook have faced close scrutiny in recent months following a fierce debate over Australian law.
In February, Facebook controversially banned news content and news media companies from its platform, leading to the passage of the News Media Negotiation Code.
However, the ban caused great turmoil and public turmoil when the Facebook pages of non-media organizations such as trade unions, charities, meteorological agencies, and government health services were mysteriously shut down.
However, after 11 hours of negotiations between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg, and communications minister Paul Fletcher, the ban was lifted and tech giant amendments secured. It was.
Daniel Khmelev contributed to this report.