US Senator Moves To File Section 230 Repeal: What Is The Law? How Will A Ban Affect Your Free Speech On The Internet?

(MENAFN- Live Mint) US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Friday said that he was moving to file a bipartisan bill to repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Section 230, passed in 1996 as part of the Telecommunications Act, has become the centre of a intense political debate in the recent years.

“At long last, we are proceeding to file a bipartisan Section 23 repeal. We've been working on that for a long time and I think it's time now to make the decision. People in this committee who want to join the bipartisan bill can join and people who don't want to, they don't have to,” the Democrat Senator said.

“But waiting any longer, I don't think serves any useful purpose. So I thank Senator Graham for proceeding that way,” he added.

What is Section 230?

Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, enacted as part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, provides limited federal immunity to providers and users of interactive computer service, according to the US Congress website.

It generally provides immunity for online computer services with respect to third-party content generated by their users.

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The key provision of the law, (c)(1), states that“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 provides immunity to platforms like Facebook, TikTok, X, ad Instagram from content posted by its users, essentially making free speech online.

The law has been applied to protect social media companies from lawsuits based on their decisions to transmit or take down user-generated content.

Who is against Section 230?

Few Democrat lawmakers, including Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, have rallied behind repealing Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act.

Lawmakers including Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have also supported its repeal to spur a renegotiation of its provisions.

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During his first presidency, US President Donald Trump called to repeal the law and signed an executive order attempting to curb some of its protections, though it was challenged in court.

Subsequently, former President Joe Biden also voiced his opinion against the law.

Why do people not want to repeal Section 230?

While many politicians want Section 230 to be repealed, experts and analysts have warned against the effects of such a move.

Section 230, often touted as“the 26 words that created the internet,” does not provide blanket immunity to internet service providers, and still hold them accountable for instances like sex trafficking and hate speech.

However, a repeal in total could mean increased censorship, a flurry of litigation and a negative effect on innovation and free expression.

In an article by The Conversation, MIT management professor Sinan Aral warned,“If you repeal Section 230, one of two things will happen. Either platforms will decide they don't want to moderate anything, or platforms will moderate everything.”

Without the immunity from Section 230, platforms could be held responsible for content that its users post, leading to possible removal of content that they deem may result into a litigation against the company.

Experts argue that a repeal of Section 230 could kill free speech on the internet.

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