Trump Rolled on Provision in New NAFTA

Timothy Birdnow

Trump got played on the New NAFTA deal, and Big Tech can continue to censor conservative content as a result.

• From the Federalist:

"Less than two weeks ago, President Trump signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement intended to be the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has attacked for decades. The White House says the agreement will "better serve the interests of American workers and businesses” and "includes the strongest digital trade … provisions of any United States trade agreement.”

Unfortunately, an obscure article in one provision of the agreement only serves the interests of the largest tech monopolies by granting them special privilege to censor conservatives. Congress should demand the removal or amendment of this article before giving consent to confirm section 230.

How did this happen? Big Tech lobbyists orchestrated the quiet insertion of a seemingly innocuous provision (Article 19.17) into the deal that is based on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230, much beloved by big tech, and an essential building block of their monopolistic dominance, holds that platforms like Facebook cannot be held liable as a "publisher or speaker” of their users’ content."

[...]

"Section 230 also grants immunity for removing content a platform finds to be "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable.”"

[...]

"However, the agreement changes the law to let tech companies remove whatever they find "harmful or objectionable.” According to Candeub, these changes will "likely lead courts to interpret it to mean whatever the platforms object to — which has thus far included the word ‘illegal alien,’ pro-life advertisements, videos defending ‘Israel’s Legal Founding,’ and President Trump’s own immigration advertisements.”

This means courts would likely throw out any action to stop censorship under state law or an executive order, which Trump reportedly wants to issue. He has also spoken out against Twitter’s shadow-banning of conservatives and Google’s political manipulation of its search results. However, as is too often the case, establishment elements in the administration have thwarted Trump’s agenda, and it is unclear how much focus this issue has in the White House.""

End excerpts.

Congress can still remove this language from the treaty, but it requires the courage to do so. Does anyone believe Bob Goodlatte will stand up to Google or Facebook?

The Great Negotiator seems to have gotten rolled here.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 06:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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