Washington, D.C. – Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX) joined Saturday Report with Joe Pinion to discuss the upcoming Energy and Commerce hearing on “Disinformation Nation: Social Media’s Role in promoting extremism and misinformation.”

Highlights here: 

“Later this week the Energy and Commerce Committee will be hosting CEOs of the big tech firms Facebook, Google, and Twitter for a hearing. The primary purpose of the hearing is to figure out to stop the flow of disinformation. This issue will come us around the so-called Section 230 issues will also come up.”

“Well first off if Section 230 never existed or would go away, tech companies would quickly argue that they have first amendment rights, free speech rights. Well of course they do. So do conservatives. The application of that fundamental first item of the Bill of Rights should be applied to citizens regardless of political affiliation, and tech companies would argue it would apply to them as well.”

“We do have to be careful of the smaller companies that have come into development. The last thing in the world you want to do is worsen the problem with anti-trust by interfering with newer entrepreneurs that are trying to establish themselves. There is a protective aspect to Section 230. You have to be careful when you begin to change it.”