Wyoming’s GRANITE Act

Quick note: This article was written on February 2nd. This bill didn’t pass, but got very close. It wasn’t really voted down. My understanding is that it just didn’t pass before the session was over….

Introduced into the Wyoming legislature this week is a revolutionary bill which protects free speech on Wyoming soil, and gives the right to those who have servers in Wyoming….to sue an foreign or international entity which attempts to curtail the Constitutional rights of Americans. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports:

The GRANITE Act creates a private right of action, allowing Wyoming residents and business entities to sue foreign states and international organizations that threaten or attempt to enforce censorship orders against them. According to the bill’s text, such foreign censorship laws are those that restrict or penalize expression based on content or viewpoint in ways that would be presumptively unconstitutional under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.…

…This also creates a risk for state employees. Under the act, any person who “knowingly” provides assistance in enforcing a foreign censorship judgment is liable for a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation. The legislation prohibits the state from indemnifying or reimbursing employees for these penalties.

https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/wyoming-bill-seeks-to-stop-foreign-censorship/article_dc411bf8-d78c-440e-b885-0ec6b81cd039.html

How this impacts education will be interesting. I think it does protect families and students from being prosecuted in foreign countries should their content break the laws of the United Kingdom for example. There is growing concern that social media content by a US citizen could run into conflict w/ British law should the “offending” person travel overseas into that country OR should the person create that content(on American social media platform) while in that country.

Any student, staff member, or family needs to become closely acquainted with increasingly restrictive free speech laws of overseas countries EVEN IF they are just passing through the airport on a layover.

Kudos to Wyoming for being two steps ahead with this bill. Hopefully, Tennessee will soon follow suit.

(This article was written Feb 9th.)