Fact Checkers Beware, This Lawmaker is Coming for You

fact

In the highly contentious State of Michigan, a state where the hammer of Democrat’s efforts to manipulate the outcome of the 2020 Election fell the hardest a State Representative is taking a stand to disrupt the left’s stranglehold on the mainstream and social media and what they define as “fact”.

According to VICE,

“State Rep. Matt Maddock filed the “Fact Checker Registration Act” in the Michigan House of Representatives Tuesday, targeting people and organizations who publish in Michigan and are paid by fact-checking organizations registered with Poynter’s International Fact Check Network.”

“Social media companies deplatform people, politicians, and businesses on the basis of ‘fact-checkers’ who relish their roles punishing those whom they deem ‘false,’” Maddock wrote May 6. “My legislation will put fact-checkers on notice: Don’t be wrong, don’t be sloppy, and you better be right.”

Fascinatingly, the leftist mainstream media and Democrats in the Michigan legislature have attempted to argue against Rep. Maddock’s proposed bill on the basis of the First Amendment’s Freedom of Speech, something that obviously biased groups have usurped online. Maddock clearly found some amusement in it based upon his twitter. However, the doublethink necessary to believe that one is defending the second-amendment by upholding cancel-culture is disturbing to contemplate.

The “Fact Checker Registration Act”

The bill presented by Representative Maddock has the left howling in rage and was eagerly co-sponsored by eight of his colleagues after he floated the concept of “licensing” checkers about five months ago. The bill defines a checker as a person or organization that publishes in Michigan via print or online, is paid by a fact-checking organization and is a member of the International Fact-Checking Network. What’s more, the bill requires that these organizations ‘put some skin in the game’ and face some serious consequences for malicious actions

The Detroit News reports,

“The bill requires qualifying fact checkers to file proof of a $1 million fidelity bond with the Secretary of State’s office, which will be tasked with developing the “form and manner of registration and filing.”

An “affected person” could bring a civil action in any county district court to claim the bond for “any wrongful conduct that is a violation of the laws of this state.” The bond could be forfeited at the discretion of the judge for “demonstrable harm” stemming from something a fact checker wrote, Maddock wrote.

Fact checkers found to be in violation of the registry requirements could be fined $1,000 per day of violation. “

In a recent Facebook post, Maddock wrote “”Social media companies deplatform people, politicians, and businesses on the basis of ‘fact checkers’ who relish their roles punishing those whom they deem ‘false,'”

“Many believe this enormous economic and social power is being abused,” Maddock wrote. “…My legislation will put fact checkers on notice: Don’t be wrong, don’t be sloppy, and you better be right.”

The new initiative by nine Michigan Republicans could be the first step in tipping the balance back toward some semblance of freedom of expression in the new townsquare of the internet.

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