Thread by @WormEguy

Oh good the Heartland Institute is testifying in support of Lora's egregiously unconstitutional online censorship bill. #akleg

He's complaining that Facebook is fact checking and shadow banning Heartland Institutes posts.
Facebook can do whatever it wants. Don't like it, don't use it!

James Taylor the president of the Heartland Institute is as wrong about climate change as he is about the first amendment.

Reinbold says she's worked on this bill since 2019 and found it on her desk recently so she decided to submit it. #akleg

Reinbold is now reading the Leg. Legal memo calling the bill unconstitutional. She's trying to cut in between the publisher and the platform. She claims anyone that runs a page is now their own publisher.

Lora is counting off all of the ways she's wrong on this bill.

Kiehl is now up. He's comparing the Juneau Empire not publishing letters to the editor. Would this bill require newspapers to be compelled to publish those editorials now?
James Taylor: Newspapers are different

Kiehl: Can you define "content harmful to minors" and "bully and harassing"?

Reinbold: Bullying and harassing is in statue but maybe leg legal can help me?

Kiehl: If private for profit companies are now public squares, why no protection for anyone under the age of 18? Why can you restrict minors more on this bill than on a public square?

Reinbold: I don't understand

James Taylor: I didn't draft the bill but you need parent consent

James is now upset that Kiehl called this bill a "public take over" of social media, which it is.

Meanwhile Lora is trying to figure out her own bill #akleg

Lora says she didn't intend to limit the rights of minors so it's a bad question.

Myers, wearing flag tie, is asking questions in support of limiting a private companies first amendment rights.
Myers: Does a comment section count as a public square for this bill?
Taylor: I can block people on my page, my post, my page. I block people that are snarky. #akleg

Basically, Taylor and Reinbold want to be able to block anyone they want but prevent any social media company from blocking them.

Lora in summation: You should be able to control any of your posts including blocking constituents if they hurt your feelings #akleg

Myers: You don't want to be responsible for comments that are made on your page and that's what Facebook is turning around and saying about their website. What's the dichotomy? It's okay for you and I to delete comments, but it's not okay for FB to delete posts.

Reinbold trying to explain the difference between platforms and publishers. It's making everyone in the room dumber. #akleg

Lora: What we are trying to do is just deal with the huge platform in and of itself...Just like in a courtroom you have a 100 different rules....But hate speech, harassment, but more of a narrow perspective.

Taylor: It's a platform when they're mean to me, it's a publisher when I'm mean to them. #akleg

Kiehl: The comment section on in the NY Times makes them a platform based on this bill. A social media platform may not fact check but it does not imply when it comes from an inauthentic source. How do you determine an inauthentic source if you can't fact check? #akleg

Mike Shower first wants a clarification before Reinbold fucks this up

Taylor: Inauthentic source is when you impersonate someone else.

Impersonation, satire, parody are all very much protected by the first amendment. This toads are trying to make it so they can't be made fun of

And Taylor is back complaining that the Heartland Institute gets fact checked on climate change too much

Lora back to platform vs user differences but doesn't explain why there is a cut out for parody, satirical, and impersonation accounts

Hughes: Why don't we define fact check better?

I would like to point out this is the second committee this bill has been heard in and members are suggesting ways to make this bill work.

Taylor on wrap up: People are crying out for help.

Lora: I have impersonators on twitter and trolls being mean to me. It's important that you need to be an identifiable person... We have an interest in preventing social media platforms from interfering w/ elections.

*Anonymity, parody, and satire are all protected speech
#akleg

Mike Shower on a hot mic says to Holland he's got a fix for the impersonation issue with this bill in reference to how to fact check with there's a fake account since the bill currently bans all fact checking.