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Question Everything Returns, Raring for a Fight · Question Everything

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Record your message at the tone. Hi, my name is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Brian Reed. This message is for Senator Lindsey Graham. Make
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: no mistake. It's how these companies have gotten big. It's
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: how they've gotten powerful. It's how they've gotten rich. Senator
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Durbin's office. Hi, how are you, ma'am? My name is
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Brian Reed. It's Brian Reed, host of Question Everything. We're
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: back from our summer break starting next week, September 25th.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: We'll be with you on Thursdays from then on. And
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I'm coming back. with a fight I want to pick.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I'd love to set up a meeting with Senator Durbin
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to discuss his bill. Buried deep inside a law from 1996,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: there's a tiny section, 26 words, that give tech companies,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: social media platforms, a special legal immunity, a shield that
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: other industries don't get. People have called it the 26
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: words that created the internet. In the 1990s, at the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: birth of the internet... Congress basically said that the social
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: media corporations couldn't be sued for anything that happened on
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  Speaker 1: their platforms. That was a really bad idea. I think
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: changing this law could make a big difference in combating
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the lies, the division, and the exhaustion that so many
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: of us are living with right now. All of which
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: really so often just comes down to social media. The
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: other ideas I've heard to fix these issues, they all
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: feel like nipping at the edges of a much deeper
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: fundamental problem with how we all communicate. How information moves
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: and affects us on a second-by-second basis online. And the
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: only thing I've come across that actually feels like it
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  Speaker 1: could force a big systemic change here is revisiting this policy.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: And amazingly, there is bipartisan support to change it. It
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: could happen. Democrats and Republicans agree. These companies have been
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: granted a special writ from the king. Critics of the
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: law say that it leaves social media free to ignore lies, hoaxes,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: and slander. Congress said, oh, and nobody can sue you.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: The legal immunity to big tech has been on the
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: books since 1996. We've got to stop this. This is
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: long overdue. So, follow Question Everything. Text the show to
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: your friends. Tell them to follow us. Leave a review.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: which helps us get the word out, as I take
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: on big tech and the havoc they've wrought. Energy and Commerce,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Democratic staff, how can I help you? I'm hoping to
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: set up a meeting to speak with the senator. I'd
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: be happy to come to D.C. or to Tennessee, wherever
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: is most convenient. Question everything. We'll be back on Thursdays,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: starting September 25th. Hi, this is Senator Graham's office, and
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I was just calling to reach back out to Brian Reed.