In an unprecedented legislative attempt to censor what people say, under a broad, vague test based on what the government thinks the public should or shouldn’t be discussing, New York Assembly is currently in the process of birthing Bill 5323. Bill 5323 introduced by Assemblyman David I. Weprin and (in the State Senate, as Senate Bill 4561 introduced by state Sen. Tony Avella), aims at securing what Europeans called the “right to be forgotten”. It states that
- within 30 days of a ”request from an individual,”
- “all search engines and online speakers] shall remove … content about such individual, and links or indexes to any of the same, that is ‘inaccurate’, ‘irrelevant’, ‘inadequate’ or ‘excessive,’ ”
- “and without replacing such removed … content with any disclaimer [or] takedown notice.”
What is seriously misguided is that “inaccurate, irrelevant, inadequate, or excessive” shall mean content
- “which after a significant lapse in time from its first publication,”
- “is no longer material to current public debate or discourse,”
- “especially when considered in light of the financial, reputational and/or demonstrable other harm that the information … is causing to the requester’s professional, financial, reputational or other interest,”
- “with the exception of content related to convicted felonies, legal matters relating to violence, or a matter that is of significant current public interest, and as to which the requester’s role with regard to the matter is central and substantial.”
Failure to comply would make the search engines or speakers liable for, at least, statutory damages of $250/day plus attorney fees.
Now, in light of our President’s lack of historicity, his collaborators may view his statements as “no longer material to current debate” as soon as he goes to nap, which forces us to say the same thing every morning. The repetition will prove taxing as there is no exception for political figures, prominent business people and the Trump posse.
Certainly, we still have pictures to substitute for words. For instance, when Trump accused Obama of wiretapping his phones during the 2016 election, on Twitter in an illiterate message, it turned out Trump did not mean what an ordinary English speaking person over the age of 4 would mean by using those words:
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
In fact, according to Kellyanne Conway, who understands Trumpisms best, Trump meant nothing more than microwaves. So, we may need to keep the public aware of illiterate transgressions. TPV volunteers.
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By DANA NEACSU: Scary News: Incessantly Calling Trump a Big Fat Liar
