Washington’s Knives Are Out for Big Tech’s Social Media Shield
Both Republicans and Democrats seek changes to section 230, a statute dating to 1996, that may limit immunity for companies on the internet.
President Donald Trump, angered after social media companies blocked a misleading video posted by his campaign, said on a radio show on Aug. 6 that “of course” he’s being censored, as are conservative Republicans in general. And he’s proposing to do something about it: Trump is trying to expose the likes of Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. to legal liability for what their users put online, as well as for their own decisions to block accounts and comments.
Section 230, a clause in the 1996 Communications Decency Act, is the legal bedrock of social media, originally intended to protect the bulletin boards that were a prominent feature of a very young internet. The language lets companies moderate—or decline to moderate—online discussions without risking lawsuits.