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Topic: Section 230
We have risen to the challenge, explaining the fundamentals — and the fundamental importance — of Section 230 to the public, and the policymakers considering action. By engaging with serious proposals for changing the law, we help shape and encourage targeted changes that would meaningfully address societal concerns while staving off broad, ill-considered efforts that would damage the Internet ecosystem and have myriad unintended consequences.
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Latest Articles
Letter
Section 230 and the American Innovation and Choice Online Act
We write to address Rep. Cicilline’s June 15, 2022, response to your letter of June 14, in whichyou expressed well-founded concerns that the American Innovation and Choice Online Act(AICOA)—specifically Section 3(a)(3)—would be used to subvert or attack contentmoderation. While none of Rep. Cicilline’s arguments adequately address these concerns, wewould like to specifically highlight the inadequacy of his assertion that Section 230 wouldprotect against such abuses.Rep. Cicilline argues that ...
Ari Cohn and Berin Szóka
September 23, 2022
Letter
National Emergencies Act reform in the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act
Recent revelations make clear that advisors to former President Trump fixated on emergency powers in their quest to overturn the results of the 2020 election. As specious as many of those arguments were, they highlight the dangerous overbreadth of the laws in the United States governing national emergencies. Under the post-Watergate National Emergencies Act, a president has unfettered discretion to declare a national emergency, which then unlocks more than 120 statutory powers dispersed throughout ...
Berin Szóka
June 15, 2022
Opinion Piece
What Is Section 230 and How Is It Different Than the First Amendment?
Although they overlap, Section 230 ultimately protects more online speech than the First Amendment. The ongoing negotiation by Elon Musk to purchase Twitter has reignited the debate around free speech on the Internet. In the US, the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Act are central to this discourse. People often conflate the two laws. As TechDirt’s Mike Masnik observes, “much of the time when people are complaining about Section 230 of the Communications ...
Andy Jung
May 27, 2022
Appearance
Section 230 and Elon Musk
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Andy Jung
May 15, 2022
Letter
Letter Responding to Commissioner Carr on First Amendment and Section 230
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Berin Szóka and Ari Cohn
April 8, 2022
Opinion Piece
Justice Thomas’s Misguided Concurrence on Platform Regulation
After months of delay, on April 5 the Supreme Court finally granted certiorari and ruled in Biden v. Knight—the case, renamed after President Biden took office, concerning whether the First Amendment prevented then-President Trump from blocking his critics on Twitter. The justices vacated the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and instructed the lower court to dismiss the case as moot. That could have been that. But Justice Clarence Thomas issued a concurrence in the ...
Berin Szóka and Corbin K. Barthold
April 14, 2021
Opinion Piece
Why we need Section 230 more than ever
The Republican platform, recycled from 2016, promises “free-market approaches to free speech unregulated by government.” Yet now many Republicans want the government to “do something” about “political censorship” by private tech companies. Trumpists have this whole “free speech” thing exactly backwards: The First Amendment protects Twitter’s right to ban Trump just as protects newspapers’ right to reject op-eds, letters to the editor or ads. Nor will the First Amendment allow ...
Berin Szóka
January 15, 2021
White Paper
Section 230: An Introduction for Antitrust & Consumer Protection Practitioners
Introduction Almost every site and service you use on the Internet involves content created by someone other than the operator. Most obviously, social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube rely on their users to create content. But so do Wikipedia and reviews sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor. The vast majority of news and commentary websites allow users to post comments on each article. Email, messaging services, and video chat all empower users to communicate with each other. ...