Posted on 10/28/2025 12:12:14 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Among political conservatives, there is no hotter potato at the moment than the civil liability protections afforded by Section 230 to online operators. Unless Republicans learn to love it again and reject the censorship lawfare complex favored by Democrats, they risk dooming our tech leaders and everyone who uses their products to the sharks circling our legal system.
The twenty-six words tucked into the Communications Decency Act of 1996 shielded publishers from liability so they could host and moderate content and still allow a wide range of speech without fear of lawsuits. Since then, Section 230 has evolved to be one of the most powerful legal shields in the nation against civil litigation in U.S. courts. This gave the early digital economy the guardrails it needed to thrive by incentivizing creatives and disruptors to bring their big ideas to life.
Nothing ices a good idea like the fear of a lawsuit.
Yet, to be a rising star in the Republican Party today conveys some kind of fealty to the idea that Section 230 is antiquated – a relic of the early Internet that has outlasted its usefulness.
Last month, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called on his colleagues to “fully repeal Section 230” to cut the knees of AI companies and thwart their LLM training models. “Open the courtroom doors. Allow people to sue who have their rights taken from them, including suing companies and actors and individuals who use AI,” said Hawley.
He’s joined in these efforts by fellow Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Marsha Blackburn, not to mention Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Amy Klobuchar.
According to the Section 230 Legislation Tracker maintained by Lawfare and the Center on Technology Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill, there have already been 41 separate bills aimed at curbing some aspects of the law by both...
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
If this law is repealed will states be liable for murderers/terrorists/criminals using their roads in the commission of their crimes?
I’ve advocated this for years. If social media Moderates its political content, it’s a publisher, not a utility. So repeal it for Facebook, YouTube, which have banned conservative speech.
Once these companies censored conservative voices, they were no longer content carriers but content providers and guilty of heinous amounts of illegal political contributions-in-kind.
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