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Barr Raises Questions Over Whether Online Platforms Should Be Liable for User Content
The Epoch Times ^ | February 20, 2020 Updated: February 20, 2020 | Bowen Xiao

Posted on 02/20/2020 6:07:39 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

Attorney General William Barr recently raised questions about whether major technology companies should remain largely immune from litigation regarding its user-generated content, adding that the technological landscape has changed much in recent decades.

Barr stated his concerns during a Feb. 19 Justice Department workshop on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The act, which was passed in 1996, states that “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.”

Online companies such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter are protected by Section 230 as it largely exempts them from liability involving content posted by users of their platforms, although they can be held liable for content that violates criminal or intellectual property law.

“No longer are tech companies the underdog upstarts; they have become titans of U.S. industry,” Barr said. “Given this changing technological landscape, valid questions have been raised on whether Section 230’s broad immunity is still necessary, at least in its current form.”

Some of Barr’s concerns relate to the apparent stretching of the statute’s original purpose. He said the statute’s immunity has since been extended to conduct such as “selling illegal or faulty products to connecting terrorists to facilitating child exploitation.”

“Online services also have invoked immunity even where they solicited or encouraged unlawful conduct, shared in illegal proceeds, or helped perpetrators hide from law enforcement,” Barr said.

(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ag; barr; doj; internet
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To: Bommer

Dangerously Intolerant Liberals Destroying Our Society = DILDOS


21 posted on 02/20/2020 7:47:11 PM PST by 2harddrive (Go to www.CodeIsFreeSpeech.com for 10 FREE 3D-printer gun blueprints!)
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To: ConservativeMind
No, it isn't. The left is absolutely furious that Facebook won't censor political stories, and they've been pushing them to do it with threats of legislation, etc.. So far, Facebook has held out.

But if we repeal the CDA, they'll do it yesterday.

22 posted on 02/20/2020 8:36:25 PM PST by Bruce Campbells Chin
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To: DoughtyOne

I was thinking the full "Rhodes Scholar" for watchdog efforts on the DUmocrats vs. the helper pointing out anyone resembling a Republican.

23 posted on 02/20/2020 8:41:16 PM PST by RasterMaster ("Towering genius disdains a beaten path." - Abraham Lincoln)
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To: TLI
Providing they do not censor, ban, edit, delete or comment on the content from individual or group provider.

Tell that to Jim.

Or do you assume FR will be immune for some reason?

24 posted on 02/20/2020 8:44:46 PM PST by semimojo
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To: ConservativeMind
This would open up these companies to law suits from conservatives for lies liberals are allowed to keep on these services.

How many lawsuits from liberals for the things we say about them before Jim just throws in the towel?

25 posted on 02/20/2020 8:47:42 PM PST by semimojo
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To: semimojo

It would only apply to public companies.


26 posted on 02/20/2020 9:10:40 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: Wayne07

Public companies are under that law—not private.


27 posted on 02/20/2020 9:11:26 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind
There is no distinction in the law between business types. It covers public companies, private, or individuals.

The term “information content provider” means any person or entity that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development of information provided through the Internet or any other interactive computer service.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230

28 posted on 02/20/2020 9:47:25 PM PST by Wayne07
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To: Deaf Smith

The liberal media has the muzzies back so ......


29 posted on 02/21/2020 5:02:40 AM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: Bruce Campbells Chin

“ The biggest hammer to ensure political censorship doesn’t occur is the threat of withdrawing CDA protection.”

That’s not a hammer, it’s a noodle.

It’s really more akin to our intelligence agreements: we’ll do your dirty work and you’ll do ours.

It would be patently illegal for the government to censor speech; however, it’s perfectly legal for any “private” agency. The sheer scale of these companies makes their influence virtually incalculable. Safe in our tiny FR cocoon, most of us have no idea how few people in the nation have any notion of the truth.

Sure, we complain about being targeted or silenced in social media, but how many even bother to engage? What is the recourse for those who have lost their livelihoods, reputations, and even lives due to a million maggots feeding on their very souls?

The stakes are real, but the arena is not quicksand, but quicksilver. Saint George may have slain the dragon, but who can slay the quadrillions of bytes now arrayed against freedom and liberty?


30 posted on 02/21/2020 5:42:24 AM PST by antidisestablishment
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To: ConservativeMind
It would only apply to public companies.

So all Jack Dorsey has to do is get some investors and take Twitter private and he's beyond the law?

Conversely, if Jim decides to sell stock in FR to the public he can no longer zot people?

Sorry, but this doesn't make any sense.

31 posted on 02/21/2020 7:04:35 AM PST by semimojo
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To: semimojo

There are plenty of occasions in which regulations do not apply to private companies when they do apply to public companies.

SOX, anything SEC, etc.


32 posted on 02/21/2020 8:36:10 AM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: semimojo
Or do you assume FR will be immune for some reason?

FR does not discriminate based on the opinion of a poster, the other members will explain / advise and handle the issue.

See humblegunner.

If someone breaks the very simple rules it will not matter if they are conservative or prog, the admin mods will handle the issue.

That is NOT No hiding behind "community guidelines" or "hate/harmful speech."

Posters here at FR post strong and sometimes harsh opinions all day long and exactly zero is said about it by the admin mods or Jim.

The back and forth leading up to the 2016 election was a slug-fest and the admin mods and Jim only enforced the rules.

They did not take sides and ban the Cruz supporters over the Trump supporters or the Ben Carson supporters over the Mike Huckabee supporters, etc.

That is what fakebook and twit do, hiding behind "community guidelines" and the disparity between FR is obvious due to the propensity of it’s occurrence.

To take a single sentence of my post out of context and compare it to to the flagrant abuse of Section 230 by fakebook/twit is disingenuous.

.

33 posted on 02/21/2020 10:48:51 AM PST by TLI ( ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA)
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To: ConservativeMind
SOX, anything SEC, etc.

Sure, regulations regarding the sale of the companies' securities, but name a difference related to the companies' business.

34 posted on 02/21/2020 1:08:44 PM PST by semimojo
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To: semimojo

Really? Companies with more than 50 employees, for one.

Not many public companies have 50 or fewer employees. All sorts of law changes start over that amount.

Does Jim have 50 employees?


35 posted on 02/21/2020 1:10:52 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: TLI
If someone breaks the very simple rules it will not matter if they are conservative or prog, the admin mods will handle the issue.

The point is, FR is Jim's private property and he can make the rules as convoluted and arbitrary as he likes.

Are there instances where you think the federal government should keep him from banning someone or removing a post?

36 posted on 02/21/2020 1:17:08 PM PST by semimojo
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To: ConservativeMind
Not many public companies have 50 or fewer employees. All sorts of law changes start over that amount.

But they don't change because they're public companies. The regulations are the same for public and private companies.

Again, if Jack takes Twitter private can he ban whomever he wants?

37 posted on 02/21/2020 1:21:48 PM PST by semimojo
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To: semimojo

An example from the article:

“In December 2019, the 9th Circuit held that the statute doesn’t protect a firm from antitrust liability if its decisions about “blocking and filtering” content “are driven by anticompetitive animus,” according to Barnett. He said in the future, he expects the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division to support rulings similar to the one made by the 9th Circuit, in light of Barr’s comments.”

These are issues with public companies.


38 posted on 02/21/2020 1:27:59 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: NurdlyPeon

Them wanting it both ways is as hypocritical as media producers who are always claiming you don’t own your copy of the music or even the media, you just bought a license to play it, so not like buying a book for example. Except when someone sues them because the media (tape, probably?) wears out and they sue the label to send them a new copy of the tape, because after all, they own the license and not the tape, THEN the labels actually argued in court that the buyer owns the media and has the liability if it wears out. D’oh!

Or people willing to do work on a hourly/T&M basis or on a fixed price basis, and the customer says they want to do T&M, but with a fixed price cap! (So they get the benefit if the costs end up low, but the seller assumes the risk if it goes high)


39 posted on 02/21/2020 1:29:58 PM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: ConservativeMind
These are issues with public companies.

The anti-trust laws apply equally to public and private companies.

Koch Industries isn't immune.

40 posted on 02/21/2020 1:45:03 PM PST by semimojo
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