FTC’s Slaughter Says CDA Section 230 Liability Should Be Updated

Communications Decency Act Section 230 can be modified to ensure it’s not abused by tech companies seeking to avoid legitimate civil liability, FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said on C-SPAN's The Communicators, to have been televised this weekend. Section 230 is important for a thriving internet, but there are concerns about tech companies using it as a shield against civil liability outside the statute's scope, she said. She said requiring viewpoint neutrality doesn’t have any basis in the law concerning Section 230. It’s difficult to visualize any actions the FTC could take consistent with its legal mandates in response to President Donald Trump’s social media executive order (see 2009220049), she said. The FTC isn’t “political speech police,” the Democratic commissioner added, calling the EO “confounding” from a legal basis. Slaughter supports an FTC study on targeted advertising, which Commissioners Rohit Chopra and Christine Wilson also support. There should be transparency in the “black box” into which platforms funnel data, Slaughter said. Congress needs to look at court cases that limited antitrust enforcement, and the agency needs more antitrust resources, she argued. With large companies, agencies are likely to find anticompetitive activity, which her agency needs to examine, she said. The next administration should reinstate net neutrality rules and return broadband to the FTC’s purview as a Communications Act Title II service, she said.