The goal is to produce a draft bill this year to update the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, said Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Tuesday. “I have low expectations we can get it done in this Congress. But I think we can get a generally accepted baseline and continue to work with the House to move it on a bicameral basis,” he told us before Tuesday’s hearing on DMCA. “It hasn’t been touched since Chumbawamba was topping the charts” in 1998.
Section 230
Section 230-related draft legislation from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., (see 1912190079) threatens free expression and privacy, the Center for Democracy & Technology wrote Friday. It could prevent platforms from providing end-to-end encryption, and would “give the Attorney General significant and unaccountable power to regulate speech, control online services, and undermine our privacy and security,” CDT said. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields platforms from liability for user content.
The tech industry’s content liability shield should be tightened because its protections have expanded well beyond the original intent, House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., told us Thursday. Congressional scrutiny of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is growing.
DOJ scheduled a Feb. 19 workshop on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (see 1912190079). Proponents say 230 allowed the internet to flourish; others fear associated immunity is interpreted too broadly, Justice said Thursday: It “intends to examine these issues and identify and discuss potential solutions.”
The office of Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., is exploring Section 230-related legislation dealing with election misinformation, she said Tuesday at the State of the Net internet policy conference. “It’s very, very early right now, but I absolutely want to do something, even if it’s narrow on 230” of the Communications Decency Act, Schakowsky told reporters. “If we can craft something, there will definitely be some more hearings, no question about that.” Throughout her talk, she cited blatant lies hosted by Facebook.
Facebook’s unwillingness to ban or fact-check political commercials (see 2001090029) is grossly irresponsible and undermines democracy, said Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, in interviews earlier this month. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., argued the company is right. He trusts Americas to “do their own fact-checking.”
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.
Three Massachusetts-based sex-abuse survivor groups are drafting a letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., criticizing her bill directing a federal study of 2018 anti-sex-trafficking legislation (see 1912170041). Warren introduced the bill with Reps. Ro Khanna and Barbara Lee, both California Democrats, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. It would direct a study of the small percentage of consensual sex workers who claim a 2018 anti-sex trafficking law made their lives less safe and their trade more difficult, Living in Freedom Together (LIFT) CEO Nikki Bell told us. Some 200 survivors signed the draft letter, she said. The House version of the bill is HR-5448.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, welcomed Facebook’s announcement it will remove misleading platform content about the U.S. census (see 1912190059). Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said more needs to be done.
Draft legislation from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., would require tech companies to earn liability protection against civil lawsuits involving child sex abuse material, said a committee aide. Graham and Blumenthal have been negotiating legislation that would force companies to follow best business practices to earn certain liability protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (see 1910210067). As drafted, the bill could open up violators to civil lawsuits from victims of child sex abuse material hosted on platforms. Asked Thursday if a website that hosts child pornography should be subject to civil action, Graham told us, “That’s what 230 is all about. The thrust of the bill is that to get liability protections, you’ve got to earn them, you’ve got to do best business practices.” Blumenthal declined comment on bill specifics.