Tag: section 230
Trump’s new lawsuits against social media companies are going nowhere fast
Trump’s spicy trio of lawsuits against the social media platforms that he believes wrongfully banned him have succeeded in showering the former president with a flurry of media attention, but that’s likely where the story ends. Like Trump’s quixotic and ultimately empty quest to gut Section 230 of the Communications…
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Florida’s ban on bans will test First Amendment rights of social media companies
Florida governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a restriction on social media companies’ ability to ban candidates for state offices and news outlets, and in doing so offered a direct challenge to those companies’ perceived free speech rights. The law is almost certain to be challenged in court as…
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At social media hearing, lawmakers circle algorithm-focused Section 230 reform
Rather than a CEO-slamming sound bite free-for-all, Tuesday’s big tech hearing on algorithms aimed for more of a listening session vibe — and in that sense it mostly succeeded. The hearing centered on testimony from the policy leads at Facebook, YouTube and Twitter rather than the chief executives of those…
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Clarence Thomas plays a poor devil’s advocate in floating First Amendment limits for tech companies
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas flaunted a dangerous ignorance regarding matters digital in an opinion published today. In attempting to explain the legal difficulties of social media platforms, particularly those arising from Twitter’s ban of Trump, he makes an ill-informed, bordering on bizarre, argument as to why such companies may…
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The SAFE TECH Act offers Section 230 reform, but the law’s defenders warn of major side effects
The first major Section 230 reform proposal of the Biden era is out. In a new bill, Senate Democrats Mark Warner (D-VA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) propose changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that would fundamentally change the 1996 law widely credited with cultivating…
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I’m a free speech champion. I don’t even know what that means anymore
The president of the United States is supposedly the most powerful man in the world. He also can’t post to Twitter. Or Facebook. Or a bunch of other social networks as we discovered over the course of the past week (He still has access to the nuclear launch codes though,…
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