Hillary Clinton warns that allowing free speech on social media means ‘we lose control’

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday that social media companies must moderate content on their platforms or “we lose total control.”

Clinton told CNN host Michael Smerconish that while some steps have been taken at the state level to regulate social media, she wants the federal government to do more to moderate content.

“We can look at the state of California, the state of New York, I think a few other states have taken action as well,” Clinton said.

“But we need national action, and unfortunately, our Congress has been dysfunctional when it comes to addressing these threats to our children,” she added.

Clinton said she believes the issue should be “at the top of every legislative political agenda” and called for the repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Act, which protects online platforms from being held liable for third-party content such as of users on social media. This immunity applies to the content itself and the removal of content under certain circumstances.

“In my opinion, we should repeal something called Section 230, which gave, you know, immunity to online platforms because they were thought to be just passages, that shouldn’t be judged for the content that’s posted. “, Clinton said.

“But we now know that this was too simplistic a picture, that if the platforms, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don’t moderate and monitor the content, we lose total control,” she continued. “And it’s not just the social and psychological impacts, it’s real life.”

Clinton said that social media companies should be stripped of their immunity so that “handrails” can be applied.

She said cell phones should be restricted in schools, an effort that has been adopted by several states in the US, including Florida and California. Individual school districts in various states across the country have also adopted policies banning or restricting cell phone use during school hours.

“Take phones out of schools,” she said. “I’m very happy to see schools starting to do this, where kids turn their phones over when they walk in the door.”

“And guess what? Kids are paying better attention in the classroom,” Clinton added. “They’re talking to each other in the lunchroom, things that used to be part of your daily routine when you were a kid in school.”

Last month, Clinton suggested during an appearance on MSNBC that Americans accused of meddling in the US election by spreading “propaganda” promoting former President Trump should face civil or even criminal charges, after she mentioned the 2016 election in which she lost to Trump.