Marsha Blackburn Secures Another Tech Win, Removes Censorship Loophole from Open App Markets Act

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Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has secured another win for conservatives on tech policy, removing a loophole from a bill designed to regulate the app marketplaces of Apple and Google that would have allowed them to continue to censor in the name of โ€œdigital safety,โ€ according to sources familiar with the matter.

The bill, the Open App Markets Act, protects the ability of app developers to โ€œsideloadโ€ apps onto iPhones and Android devices, bypassing the chokehold of the two tech giants, who control 99 percent of smartphone operating systems worldwide.

An early version of the bill contained a big loophole: Google and Apple would still have been able to boot apps from their marketplaces if they did so in the name of โ€œdigital safetyโ€ โ€” a term wide-open to interpretation, that has often been used by Big Tech as a pretext to censor conservatives. Even for non-political apps, Apple and Googleโ€™s current systems represent aย strangehold on their businesses.

However, a new version of the Open App Markets Act seen by Breitbart News no longer contains the โ€œdigital safetyโ€ language. Sources familiar with the matter say Sen. Blackburn was responsible for this last-minute change. The new version of the bill is likely to be introduced via the โ€œhotlineโ€ procedure in the Senate, meaning it will pass if no Senators object.

Left wing groups such as the Center for American Progressย arguedย that the earlier version of the bill would ensure โ€œhate speechโ€ and โ€œdisinformationโ€ were not protected because the loophole allowed platforms โ€œto take action to protect the safety or security of its users.โ€

The removal of this censorship loophole, which was the number-one point of conservative criticism of the Open App Markets act, would be the second big win for Sen. Blackburn on tech policy this week.

By Allum Bokhari

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