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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the to-censor-or-not-to-censor,-that-is-the-question dept.

The DOJ is proposing scaling back protections for large social media companies outlined in The 1996 Communications Decency Act. In section 230 of the act it states

no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

This has protected the platforms from liability over user-generated content through the years and enabled the incredible growth of social media. An executive order signed last month directed the FCC to review whether social media companies "actions to remove, edit or supplement users' content" invalidated the protections they enjoyed from liability. It seems we have an answer:

In a press release, the Justice Department said that the past 25 years of technological change "left online platforms unaccountable for a variety of harms flowing from content on their platforms and with virtually unfettered discretion to censor third-party content with little transparency or accountability."

The new rules will be aimed at "incentivizing platforms to address the growing amount of illicit content online," the department said; the revisions will also "promote free and open discourse online," "increase the ability of the government to protect citizens from unlawful conduct," and promote competition among Internet companies.

In announcing the [requested] changes to the 26-year-old rules on Wednesday, Attorney General William Barr said: "When it comes to issues of public safety, the government is the one who must act on behalf of society at large."

"Law enforcement cannot delegate our obligations to protect the safety of the American people purely to the judgment of profit-seeking private firms. We must shape the incentives for companies to create a safer environment, which is what Section 230 was originally intended to do," he said.

The full review of section 230 by the DOJ is available here. Key Takeaways and Recommendations are here.

Also at: Justice Department proposes major overhaul of Sec. 230 protections


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  • (Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:54PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:54PM (#1009657)

    Anyone with enough Benjamins can sue Soylent News.

    Biden is one of the most public of figures, so he would find it difficult to win. Also, the post is true.

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  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 18 2020, @07:28PM (2 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday June 18 2020, @07:28PM (#1009673) Journal

    Not for comments posted by users they can't.

    Unless 230 is repealed, of course...

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @07:49PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @07:49PM (#1009684)

      They can, it's just unlikely to be successful.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:55PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:55PM (#1009726)

        What AC is pointing out is a fact of life. Consider: what do you have to do when you drive up to a stop sign?

        Nothing -- you can floor it and blow right on through. No laser turret is going to deploy and vaporize you and 99.99% of the time you won't even get a ticket or an accident. You are supposed to stop, but it isn't some law of nature that causes you to stop. The same thing is true with lawsuits -- anyone can sue anyone over anything. Sometimes (very rarely) there are consequences for illegitimate lawsuits. Sometimes there are laws that will make the lawsuit less costly, like S 230, because lawyers can get the case dismissed. But there is no immutable rule of nature that will prevent the lawsuit in the first place.