i don't want to take attention away from the need to support repro justice groups in Texas, but after a quick read of SB8 I am struck that the only thing preventing this law from effectively forcing social media platforms to censor speech about abortion access is Section 230
I've spoken with a number of reproductive justice advocates in the past who are extremely concerned that weakening Sec 230 would lead to a flood of lawsuits from anti-abortion assholes who would love nothing more than to see info about abortion access scrubbed from social media
The Texas law is clearly designed to have a massive chilling effect on speech. It potentially opens up INDIVIDUALS who post information about abortion and reproductive health to lawsuits. But without Section 230, platforms would just pre-emptively take that stuff down or get sued
I hope this serves as a wake-up call for progressives and Democratic lawmakers. You may want more "bad speech" scrubbed from the Internet. But taking aim at Section 230 will ALWAYS backfire on the most marginalized. And this Texas law is a perfect example of how that could happen
This is exactly why dozens of human rights, LGBTQ+, civil liberties, harm reduction, and civil rights groups have called on lawmakers to oppose gutting 230.
Without 230, you'd have states like Texas governing what can and can't be said online. Bad idea.
fightforthefuture.org/news/2021-01-2…
Without 230, you'd have states like Texas governing what can and can't be said online. Bad idea.
fightforthefuture.org/news/2021-01-2…
A careful observer might point out that it's not just Section 230 that protects platforms who host speech about abortion access, it's the First Amendment that protects the underlying speech. But without 230, platforms would have to fend off a barrage of expensive lawsuits, and...
... if you think that Facebook cares more about reproductive justice and free speech than it cares about making money and avoiding expensive lawsuits, I ... well, i would say that you are very wrong and should think harder about this. 🤷♀️
Anyhow, go here to make a donation that will be split between 8 different Texas-based abortion funds / reproductive justice organizations: secure.actblue.com/donate/txfunds
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