Thread by @ClimateAudit

I agree with frustration over Twitter bias but there may be better way of dealing with issue than trying to bargain with Twitter using s230 as potential cudgel, as Twitter will just wait this out. Note that s230 is in subchapter on Common Carriers. Let's look at other sections

2/ the next subchapter of 47 USC contains an interesting looking section: 254. Universal service. I wonder if it contains anything relevant 😀

law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47…

3/ section 254(b) says that regulators shall have policies for "preservation and advancement of universal service" including a requiement that providers of telecommunications services shall make "equitable and nondiscriminatory contribution"

4/ while Twitter did not exist at the time of the legislation, the law observed that services were "involving" and set out criteria for requiring universal service, into which modern social media readily fit

5/ on its face, s254 and associated sections seem to offer a direct regulatory instrument to deal with outrageous Twitter conduct and algorithms, rather than ineffective and prob counterproductive negotiations about s230. (Caveat: this is brainstorming; I'm not a lawyer.)

6/ in a 2005 Policy Statement entitled Appropriate Framework for Broadband Access to the Internet
FCC stated that it [Commission] had jurisdiction to ensure providers of IP-enabled services are "operated in a neutral manner".
docs.fcc.gov/public/attachm…

7/ rather than Senator Hawley blathering on Fox News about a s230 do-over that House will never agree to, like an apprentice Lindsay Graham do-nothing, why not ask FCC about their failure to ensure Twitter, FB operate "in neutral manner" under existing legislation and regs?

8/ so why isn't FCC invisible on political abuse by Twitter and Facebook? One need look no further than the membership of the Commission - five permanent swamp denizens. fcc.gov/about/leadersh…

9/ equally blameworthy are the Senators who haven't pressed the FCC to exercise available regulatory authority, while promoting section 230 pipedream which will neither get Dem support nor cure the problem anyway.