Reclaim the Net covered the resolutions filed in each of the House and Senate last week:
Does this preface further federal action, namely a shield bill like the GRANITE Act?
If had to guess, probably; Senator Eric Schmitt has vowed to file a censorship shield bill, and the anticipated filing has been greeted with enthusiasm by officials in the Executive Branch.
Of course, I have no idea what Senator Schmitt is going to file or what the House is going to do. Moreover, whether what is filed, if something is indeed filed, manages to pass both Houses of Congress and reach the President’s desk is of course a high-uncertainty matter.
What I am certain of is that if that legislation has the same bones as the Wyoming GRANITE Act, and there’s even a reasonable chance of enactment, the old rulebook about how to deal with foreign speech regulators needs to be thrown away.
If they file what I hope they’re going to file, U.S. tech platforms could get defensive capabilities that have been simply unimaginable to date. The name of the game will be deterrence rather than compliance. It’d be a whole new ball game for an entirely new global regulatory environment, one where a good offense is more important than a cowering and highly deferential defense.
