Louisiana Republican Plans Bill Requiring Real Identities on Social Media

John Kennedy, R-La., plans legislation that could require social media users use legal identities, he told us Thursday. He and several other senators had differing reactions to Facebook’s oversight board, which released its first content moderation decisions Thursday, overturning four of five Facebook post removals.

Requiring legal identities would “cause a lot of people” to “think about their words,” said Kennedy. He’s confident the proposal would be constitutional and could gain Democratic support. He noted many newspapers have comment sections that require users identify themselves.

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, doesn’t trust Facebook to abide by the board’s decisions, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg committed to doing. “I don’t know that they’re necessarily independent,” Schatz said of the board. “I’m afraid they’re going to continue to make special dispensations for someone who drives traffic.” The board is deliberating Facebook’s decision to indefinitely ban former President Donald Trump (see 2101270073).

The board’s decisions “are binding ... and we will restore or remove content based on their determination,” wrote company Vice President-Content Policy Monika Bickert. “The board’s policy recommendations are advisory, and we will look to them for guidance in modifying and developing our policies.” The board said the platform has seven days to restore content and 30 days to publicly respond to board policy recommendations.

The board reversed Facebook’s decision to remove a post concerning Uighur Muslims in China, saying it might be considered offensive but isn’t hate speech. The panel also reversed Facebook’s decisions to remove an Instagram post containing nudity, saying the post is allowed under an exception for breast cancer awareness; a post with an alleged Nazi quote, finding the platform’s rules weren’t “made sufficiently clear to users”; and a post criticizing a lack of health strategy in France and claiming there’s a cure for COVID-19, saying the platform’s misinformation and imminent harm rule is “inappropriately vague.” The body upheld “Facebook’s decision to remove a post containing a demeaning slur,” which concerned race relations in Russia.

This committee might be a helpful model, but it depends on its members, their independence and how fast they work, said Kennedy. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was skeptical about Facebook’s moderation practices, particularly for Trump. “How do they decide who gets banned and which posts count and not?” Rubio asked. “We should all be concerned that there’s five companies in America that can get together and basically erase anyone, including the president of the United States, without any sort of understanding as to what criteria they’re using.”

“There’s serious consequences to free speech and to democracy as to what social media platforms are doing or attempting to do,” said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan. He will push for support for his Consumer Data Privacy and Security Act (see 2003120047), a data privacy bill to require companies to adhere to public-facing policies or risk deception violations under the FTC Act.

Privacy discussions between Senate Commerce Committee leaders haven’t begun this session, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us. Ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., “and I haven’t had a chance to have a conversation about it yet,” she said. She said she doesn’t know if she will reintroduce her Democratic privacy bill yet (see 2009230057), though she “probably” will. She said she will have to work with Wicker to see what progress can be made first. Asked if he plans to reintroduce his Republican privacy bill, Wicker said, “We absolutely have to address the issue, and I want to make another run at it, yes. It certainly will need to be bipartisan. We’ve always made that effort.”

Facebook correctly decided to “permanently stop recommending political groups to its users,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., after writing the company Tuesday about the issue (see 2101260020). “I am pleased to see that Facebook is heeding my calls,” he said. “Frankly, though, Facebook has a record of broken promises, and I’ll be watching closely to see whether it keeps this commitment.”