A proposal in the US Senate titled the Sunset Section 230 Act seeks to dismantle one of the core protections that has shaped the modern internet.
Put forward by Senator Lindsey Graham with bipartisan backing from Senators Dick Durbin, Josh Hawley, Amy Klobuchar, and Richard Blumenthal, the bill would repeal Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, a provision that has, for nearly thirty years, shielded online platforms from liability for the actions of their users.
We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.
Under the plan, Section 230 would be fully repealed two years after the bill’s passage.
This short transition period would force websites, social platforms, and hosting services to rethink how they handle public interaction.
The current statute stops courts from holding online platforms legally responsible as the publishers of material shared by their users.
Its protection has been instrumental in allowing everything from local discussion boards to global platforms such as YouTube and Wikipedia to operate without being sued over every user comment or upload.
The legislation’s text removes Section 230 entirely and makes “conforming amendments” across multiple federal laws.
“I am extremely pleased that there is such wide and deep bipartisan support for repealing Section 230, which protects social media companies from being sued by the people whose lives they destroy.
Giant social media platforms are unregulated, immune from lawsuits, and are making billions of dollars in advertising revenue off some of the most unsavory content and criminal activity imaginable,” said Senator Graham.
“It is past time to allow those who have been harmed by these behemoths to have their day in court.”
Hellbound and Down 