On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox News @ Night,” Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) stated that Twitter’s handling of the Hunter Biden story is them “behaving, not as an open platform here, but more as an editor, more as a publisher, and they ought not be entitled to that kind of immunity, if, in fact, they are deciding what they publish, rather than providing an open platform for such things.”
Lee said that while it is possible that tech companies could be held accountable by having suppressing stories be considered campaign contributions, “I don’t even think that’s the lowest-hanging fruit here. The lowest-hanging fruit here might well have to do with their Section 230 immunity, their immunity under Section 230 of the [Communications] Decency Act. They’re acting and they’re behaving, not as an open platform here, but more as an editor, more as a publisher, and they ought not be entitled to that kind of immunity, if, in fact, they are deciding what they publish, rather than providing an open platform for such things.”
He added that while platforms have the prerogative to do what they want on their sites, “it’s also our prerogative to decide whether or not they’re publishers, or whether they are, alternatively, an open platform entitled to 230 immunity.”
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