Biden Says Revoke Section 230 ‘Immediately’

Revoke Communications Decency Act Section 230 “immediately” for Facebook and other platforms, said former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 Democratic candidate for president. Facebook “is not merely an internet company,” Biden told The New York Times in a Q&A Friday. “It is propagating falsehoods they know to be false, and we should be setting standards not unlike the Europeans are doing relative to privacy.” Singling out Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Biden said he should be “submitted to civil liability and his company to civil liability.” Congress is considering whether to change immunity laws for big tech companies (see 1912270037). Removing Section 230 would mean internet platforms would “either become the most rigorous speech police ever created” or would step back and “allow an unfiltered stream of the kinds of ruinous libel, hate speech and falsehoods that the former vice president is understandably concerned about,” said Free Press Action Senior Policy Counsel Gaurav Laroia. He said changes should be “undertaken carefully and cautiously with an eye to protecting marginalized and vulnerable communities and with an understanding that it’s the First Amendment, not Section 230, that allows individuals to engage in the speech of their choosing, for good and for ill.” Facebook and the Internet Association didn’t comment Friday.