AIPAC-Funded Reps Seek ‘Crack Down on Anti-Semitism’ With Bill to Censor Social Media

By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation

A bipartisan pair of AIPAC-funded congressmen have introduced a new Anti-Defamation League-backed bill to censor social media sites as a way to “crack down on anti-Semitism.”

Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Don Bacon (R-NE), both of whom have the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as their top donor, on Wednesday introduced the “STOP HATE Act.”

The bill will force social media companies to pay fines up to $5 million a day for failing to comply with their censorship and spying demands.

They’re trying to sell the censorship bill as a measure to fight “terrorists” but it’s clearly aimed at censoring speech critical of Jews and Israel.

From JNS, “Gottheimer, Bacon, ADL announce bill to combat Jew-hatred, terrorism on social media”:

Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.) announced legislation on Wednesday designed to counter Jew-hatred on social media and the use of those platforms by terrorist groups.

Backed by the Anti-Defamation League, the bill would impose a daily $5 million fine on social-media companies that fail to report publicly on violations of their terms of service and how they are addressing those violations.

“We’re announcing a new tool in our online arsenal to protect our nation against terrorist organizations and adversaries that continue to innovate and threaten us in new ways,” Gottheimer stated. “Using social media platforms, state sponsors of terror and their proxies, especially Iran, Hamas and its affiliates, are turning online content into a tool of propaganda and disinformation.”

“There’s no reason why anyone, especially terrorists or anyone online, should access social media platforms to promote radical, hate-filled violence,” he said. “Social-media companies can no longer hide the crimes taking place on their platforms, especially when they pose a threat to America’s national security.”

Bacon argued that antisemitic online content is creating a false permission structure for young people to engage in Jew-hatred.

“We need to work with our social media companies to clean this up, because what is going on is wrong,” the Nebraska Republican said. “We need to hold these companies accountable and work with them to take it off the airwaves.”

[…] The new bill defines a social-media company as any entity regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, an independent U.S. agency, and that has at least 25 million unique monthly users in the United States.

That would likely affect dozens of companies based in the United States or with a U.S. presence.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL, said those requirements would not be onerous for large tech companies like Meta and X.

“It is hard to build a trillion-dollar business. It is hard to build products that reach billions of people every day,” Greenblatt said. “You know what’s easy? To knock off the Nazis. That’s not so hard.”

From Jewish Insider, “Gottheimer, Bacon re-up effort to combat antisemitism on social media”:

Bacon said, “We need to work with our social media companies to clean this up, because what is going on is wrong, and I think it’s further influencing other young people that could be influenced by what they’re seeing.” […]

He also noted that lawmakers had faced antisemitic harassment at the Capitol this week from protesters.

Greenblatt said that antisemitism has “gone viral in large part because of social media,” adding that bigots and extremists “exploit social media to recruit, to radicalize and to incite violence, often in violation of the companies’ own terms of service. It’s not just theoretical. This is a real concern.”

Asked about the Trump administration’s continued delays of the U.S. ban on TikTok, flouting a bipartisan law on the platform, both lawmakers said that President Donald Trump should enforce the law and require TikTok’s owners to sell the site or shut it down.

As I reported previously, the TikTok ban was passed purely to suppress criticism of Israel.

 

Contrary to their claims, TikTok has complied with the ADL’s demands to censor lawful speech in order to try and stave off a ban.

Despite them and other tech companies capitulating to many of their demands, they’re still pushing for even more censorship and mass bannings to silence their critics.

This is a blatant attack on free speech and the First Amendment rights of all Americans but these reps. have shown they’re more than willing to put the interests of Israel over the interests of the American people.

As I reported earlier this month, Rep. Gottheimer also co-sponsored a bill to transfer American B-2 stealth bombers and bunker busters to Israel.

You can watch their full press conference below:

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