Speech

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