November 10, 2021

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives have once again crossed party lines to introduce a bill that would oblige internet platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Alphabet’s Google to allow users to view content not selected by algorithms.

The bill, backed by Representatives Ken Buck, a Republican, and David Cicilline, a Democrat, and others, would force large technology companies to show consumers information that is not transmitted to them by algorithms and push them out of what lawmakers called a “filter bubble.”

Cicilline is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel while Buck is the leading Republican on the same panel, and last year the panel released a landmark report sharply criticizing big technology companies like Amazon and Apple.

The House bill is a complement to a similar proposal that passed the Senate last June and was also bipartisan.

“Consumers should have the option to engage with internet platforms without being manipulated by secret algorithms driven by user-specific data,” Buck said about their proposed legislation.

More antitrust rules are expected to be introduced to rein in on big tech companies.

For more information read the original story in Reuters.