Tenn. House Panel Clears Social Media Bill

Two Tennessee Republicans raised concerns with a social media bill, as most others in their party supported it at a Tuesday hearing. Voting by voice, the House Commerce Committee cleared HB-2369 to require the Tennessee Public Utility Commission to regulate social media as common carriers (see 2203170025). "It's a bit of a stretch ... to see the commonality between a common carrier as we normally define it and what we're talking about here,” said Rep. Patsy Hazlewood (R). Facebook and Google might be publicly traded companies, “but they are still private companies, and if my memory serves me right, we have said many times before that we can’t be telling private companies what they can do and what they can’t do,” said Rep. Eddie Mannis (R). HB-2369 goes next to the Finance Committee. Also at the hearing, House Commerce members supported the proposed confirmation of Clay Good to the Tennessee PUC. The Senate supported Good and another PUC nominee, Michael Ellis, on 30-0 votes Monday after that chamber’s Commerce panel cleared them last week (see 2203150073).