Tell Congress to Calm the DPCA Down, and Leave Elon Musk The -X- Alone
by Breeauna Sagdal Policy Analyst and Journalist for America Mission
Cross Reference with
WASHINGTON D.C- Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO) has come under scrutiny and criticism for being the prime sponsor of the Digital Platform Commission Act (DPCA). According to a thread by AM founder, Dustin Stockton, the bill allows the censorship-industrial-complex judicial powers under the DPCA, giving a new federal law enforcement agency the authority to target Elon Musk.
Shortly thereafter, Musk responded to the thread, adding an additional 116k views to the thread. "The crazy thing is that we are the only ones to open source our algorithm and on X it is the community that does (great) fact-checking, including on advertisers and me!" Musk said.
At issue are four new federal bureaus, 4.5 billion dollars, and unlimited voluntary services—creating loopholes for monopolistic practices.
The Digital Platform Commission, given full jurisdiction over the internet and its own official seal, essentially acts as a court. Unlike any other court, however, the executive branch appointees of the commission will have the ability to accept unlimited "gifts," of voluntary services from experts in machine learning, computer sciences, coding, software engineering, and the Internet of Things.
Given that nothing in the DPCA would prohibit these volunteers from being paid employees of "systemically important platforms," respected researchers have drawn correlations to the 2017 NDAA delegations of power and funding to the Global Engagement Center.
According to Name Redacted*, beginning in 2018 hundreds of former intelligence officers have been hired by the top tech companies.
Since 2018, Meta alone, has acquired 160 employees from the:
CIA-14
FBI-26
NSA-16
DHS-29
State Dept-32
DOD-49
According to the large language A.I Anthronpic (Claude 2), the "gift" language of the DPCA could present problematic loopholes.
Loopholes such as Facebook/Meta, Amazon, Google etc gifting federal intelligence officers to the Digital Platform Commission, who would no longer be bound by an oath of office. Pursuant to section 6 (3)(A)l, these volunteers would be recruited, trained, and have complete autonomy to investigate and build cases against platforms who are not properly enforcing the behavioral and algorithmic laws made by the commission's "code council."
These new laws would be created with research, funded through grants by the commission, to universities like Princeton who lobbied for this Act, and nonprofits.
The bill then outlines a legislative arm called the "code council," who will then use this research to promulgate rules, dictating how users are to behave while online.
Upon the promulgation of these rules, this is where the use of unlimited voluntary services shall be gifted to the commission. Imagine these volunteers are the very same intelligence officers, no longer working for the CIA, or FBI, but recruited to "volunteer" on behalf of their employer (Meta e.g.), to carefully monitor each platform for misinformation, hate speech and other behavioral infractions.
Once these cases are built against a platform, the commission would then try the case, requiring the offender to exhaust all attempts at remedy through the commission itself, prior to being able to appeal to a constitutional court.
Given the massive pushback to Musk's purchase of Twitter from the media, academia, and CEI worshiping corporate elites like Ben and Jerry's, concerns are mounting that a coordinated political effort exists to "take X from Elon Musk."
Should the Digital Platform Commission Act pass, the future of free speech and freedom of the press is at stake, especially without safeguards first being implemented like a Digital Bill of Rights.
Join Breeauna Sagdal and America Mission
on Thursday, August 17th, 2pm EDT!
Twitter Space: Congress Calm The DPCA Down, & Leave Elon The “X” Alone
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“Passionate about local control, Sagdal has cultivated a readership based upon trusted reporting of state and local policies. With a firm belief that the "inside baseball," helps to empower informed voters, Sagdal launched The Dakota Leader in January of 2022 to cover each bill of South Dakota's 97th Legislative Session. Since then, The Dakota Leader has laid the foundation for transparency in government with original source reporting, while giving a voice to those who have been silenced by today's media apparatus.
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