Tech’s liability shield under fire: 26 words and what’s at stake

The Internet Association said that Section 230 strikes a ‘careful balance’ between protecting companies from lawsuits and encouraging them to proactively remove hate and extremist speech online. Removing the protections would create a disincentive for companies to moderate any content for fear of being sued, the group says. — AFP

US Democrats and Republicans in Congress are taking aim at a controversial law that shields Internet platforms including Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc from lawsuits over content posted by users.

The measure – just 26 words known as Section 230 – now faces its biggest reckoning since it was included in the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Calls to revise it grew in the months before the November US election and intensified after the deadly attack on Congress by then-President Donald Trump’s loyalists.