It’s confirmed: Trump is coming for Section 230, the sole remnant of the long-overturned Communications Decency Act which protects internet companies from liability when engaging in content moderation and community management.
The draft order, a summary of which was obtained by CNN, calls for the FCC to develop new regulations clarifying how and when the law protects social media websites when they decide to remove or suppress content on their platforms. Although still in its early stages and subject to change, the Trump administration’s draft order also calls for the Federal Trade Commission to take those new policies into account when it investigates or files lawsuits against misbehaving companies.
As I suggested the other day, when you connect the dots this is the White House moving to protect white nationalist speech on the internet, something essentially underscored by an unnamed “close to the tech industry”.
Some people close to the tech industry expressed frustration that the White House seemed to be trying to have it both ways — excoriating tech companies for allegedly censoring conservative speech, a claim the platforms vigorously dispute, while castigating them for failing to block enough violent or hateful content.
According to CNN, the draft proposal seeks to put the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission in charge of the executive branch’s interpretation of Section 230’s provisions.