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SCOTUS to Decide Scope of Liability for Third-Party Online Content

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has been a hot topic among media/tech lawyers for more than a decade, but garnered increased attention during the Trump administration. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to address its constitutionality. And the ramifications are tremendous.

From Time magazine:

The future of the federal law that protects online platforms from liability for content uploaded on their site is up in the air as the Supreme Court is set to hear two cases that could change the internet this week.

. . . .

Section 230, which passed in 1996, is a part of the Communications Decency Act. 

The law explicitly states, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider,” meaning online platforms are not responsible for the content a user may post. 

The law allows tech companies to moderate or remove content that is considered egregious. Section 230, however, does not protect sites that violate federal criminal law, or intellectual property law. It also does not protect platforms that create illegal or harmful content. 

Because popular sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube rely on user-generated content, many people have credited Section 230 for the creation of the internet we now know and love.

Read more from Time.com.
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