A production-ready version of a foreign censorship shield law I freedrafted right here on my blog in October, 104 days ago, the GRANITE Act, was introduced in Wyoming today.
This is easily the most important legal work I have ever done, and will likely ever do.
The Wyoming GRANITE Act is the first foreign censorship shield law introduced in American history. It stands a good chance of passage. It is a rule which is intended to be structural and foundational, much like Section 230, except tailored to address the specific problem of foreign rules becoming operative on American soil and American servers. If enacted, it will change the fundamental structure of the Internet and could rewrite the global rules of speech regulation for the next fifty years, if not longer.
It is also designed to render the UK Online Safety Act and EU Digital Services Act, and any other foreign enactment which purports to have authority over Americans in a manner inconsistent with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, dead letters, at least where U.S. persons are concerned. As the law’s definition of “U.S. persons” includes U.S. entities, and U.S. entities can be established by noncitizens and even nonresidents of the United States, and U.S. entities in any state can spin up a server in Wyoming to benefit from the shield, this law, if enacted, has the potential to liberate much of the world from Internet censorship.
A federal shield law, which I have provided input on but have not yet seen, is in the works. It remains to be seen if the federal version follows the Wyoming GRANITE team’s approach – a liability shield paired with a private right of action – and whether they call their version GRANITE too. Watch this space!
You can read the bill, as introduced, here.
The drafting team consisted of Wyoming Deputy Secretary of State Colin Crossman (acting in a personal rather than official capacity), Representative Daniel Singh, and me. The bill was introduced by Representative Singh, co-sponsored by Representatives Guggenmos, Heiner and Wharff. It is not anticipated that there will be any difficulty finding Senate cosponsors but this will occur at a later date.
